BE SELF-DETERMINED - Key Persons
Dr. David Parker is a 2BSD Associate who wears many professional hats. David earned his Ph.D. in Special Education (Postsecondary Programming) at the University of Connecticut where Sharon served as an external member of his dissertation committee. He has coordinated campus services for college students with LD, ADHD and ASD at UNC-Chapel Hill, UCONN, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is a Postsecondary Disability Specialist and ADD/Life Coach at CRG, a behavioral health practice in Indianapolis, where he provides strategy instruction, career assessments, college search help and life coaching to high school and college students with these disabilities. He is also the research coordinator for the Gregory S. Fehribach Center, which provides paid internships and professional development to college students with physical disabilities to improve their employment outcomes. David is also a writer who has published three books and numerous research articles with the 2BSD team and other colleagues. He loves to teach and has conducted training workshops across the U.S. and in Italy, Austria, Kuwait and Japan.
David drew and painted a lot when he was younger and now enjoys collecting paintings, nature photographs and Craftsman-styled ceramics. He enjoys good independent and foreign films, meandering through the Sunday New York Times all week long, traveling internationally, and eating out at inspiring restaurants and pubs. Most of all, he loves nourishing his soul by sharing what the Irish call "craic" with family and good friends.
Dr. Alan Hoffman is Senior Partner of 2BSD and Wayne State University Professor Emeritus. He was Professor and Founder of the Counseling Psychology program and Director of the Initiative for Self-Determination in the College of Education at Wayne State University. As a psychologist, he has extensive experience working with clients in private practice. With Drs. Sharon Field and Shlomo Sawilowsky, he has written numerous articles and books on self-determination. His expertise in couples and family psychology has had a major influence on the instructional materials and research the team has produced. For more information on Alan's academic background, please click to see his curriculum vitae.
After retirement from 43 years of teaching at Wayne State University, Alan has been exploring new interests that contribute to his self-determination. He is enjoying time with family, playing golf, taking road trips with Sharon, striking out on new adventures, painting with watercolors, woodworking, and is thinking in new ways about self-determination. He is excited to be part of the 2BSD team and see where this new adventure will take him!
The founder of 2BSD is Dr. Sharon Field. Sharon was Professor of Education (research and clinical) at Wayne State University from 1989-2010 and WSU College of Education Interim Associate Dean for Research from 2010-2012. While at WSU, she directed several federally funded self-determination research and demonstration projects. Sharon has experience working in k-12 schools as a special education teacher, job placement specialist and administrator. If you want to learn more about her academic background, click to see a copy of her curriculum vitae.
Sharon retired from WSU in August, 2012 to focus on her passion for self-determination-both exploring and increasing her own self-determination and finding new ways to share information about self-determination with others. Since that time she has taken tap dance and floral design classes, read voraciously, spent great times with friends and family, put thousands of miles on her car on some great road trips, studied meditation and brain-based factors that affect emotions and self-determination, talked about self-determination at conferences, written for academic publications, and consulted with teachers, students and parents in schools about how self-determination can contribute to positive educational outcomes. Sharon has thoroughly enjoyed the freedom she has had to explore self-determination in new ways. She looks forward to expanding her self-determination journey, and meeting new friends, through 2BSD.