Phillip Rumrill

Affiliated Faculty

Phillip Rumrill, Ph.D., CRC, is a Professor and Coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling Program and Director of the Center for Disability Studies at Kent State University. He is also the Founding Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Employment Assistance Service, which provides vocational services and supports to people with multiple sclerosis across the United States. A nationally Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Dr. Rumrill received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Keene State College in New Hampshire and his doctorate from the University of Arkansas. He has authored or co-authored more than 173 professional journal articles; 31 book chapters, monographs, measurement instruments, and training manuals; and 11 books. He has also guest-edited 17 special issues of professional and academic journals in the fields of education and rehabilitation. Dr. Rumrill is a highly sought speaker at national and international conferences in health care, social sciences, rehabilitation, and education. He has delivered 311 addresses to consumer, professional, academic, and policymaking audiences over the past two decades. Dr. Rumrill's direct service experience includes substance abuse counseling, academic advising, and accommodation planning with postsecondary students with disabilities, vocational guidance and career counseling with a variety of disability populations, and vocational expert services in civil litigation. He has extensive experience writing and administering funded projects; he has had management roles on 28 Federal and private foundation grants whose total budgets exceed $16 million. From 2006-2011, he served as Co-Principal Investigator and Research Director of the Coordination, Outreach, and Research Center for the Americans with Disabilities Act National Network, funded by the National Institute and Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). Among Dr. Rumrill's current grants are a NIDRR-funded Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project that examines the use of Cognitive Support Technology among postsecondary students with traumatic brain injuries and a National Multiple Sclerosis Society-funded project examining the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the employment concerns of people with multiple sclerosis. His research interests include issues facing students with disabilities in higher education, assistive technology and reasonable accommodations, chronic illness, the career development implications of disability, workplace discrimination, program evaluation, research design and methodology, and self-advocacy strategies for people with disabilities.