Keynote Speaker

Cate Weir, M.Ed.

Cate is the program director of the Think College National Coordinating Center or TCNCC, funded by the Office of Postsecondary Education at the US Department of Education. TCNCC is a training and technical assistance center focused on postsecondary education for students with intellectual disabilities at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Cate manages all aspects of the national technical assistance center, including product development and dissemination, national technical assistance provision, and large scale and targeted training.

 TCNCC works in collaboration and partnership with the US Department of Education-funded Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities, or TPSID model demonstration grant projects to collect data on these programs and their students and to develop and disseminate best practices.

As part of the work at Think College, Cate was instrumental in the drafting and validation of Standards for Inclusive Postsecondary Education, a set of standards for practice for institutes of higher education that are providing educational opportunities to students with intellectual disabilities.  She coordinated the focus groups and a Delphi validation process, and assisted in development of an on-line Self-Assessment tool for programs for students with ID to use in determining how their program policies and practices align with the established Standards. 

Cate has coordinated statewide systems change efforts aimed at increasing the postsecondary education options for students with disabilities.  Utilizing a PATH process for systems change and planning, Cate facilitates state teams to establish an overall vision and mission and then establish meaningful, positive and possible goals and objectives toward that end.

Selected Recent Publications

Grigal, M., Hart, D., & Weir, C. (2014). Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. In M. Agran, F. Brown, C. Hughes,  C. Quirk & D. Ryndak (Eds.), Equity and Full Participation for Individuals with Severe Disabilities (pp. 275 -298). Baltimore: Brookes Publishing

Grigal,M. Hart,D. and Weir, C. (2013) Postsecondary Education for People With Intellectual Disability: Current Issues and Critical Challenges. Inclusion: June 2013, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 50-63.

Weir, C., Grigal, M. , Hart, D. and Boyle, M. (2013) Profiles and Promising Practices in Higher Education for Students with Intellectual Disability. Think College. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Boston, Institute for Community Inclusion.

Grigal, M., Hart, D. and Weir, C. (2012), A Survey of Postsecondary Education Programs for Students With Intellectual Disabilities in the United States. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 9: 223–233. doi: 10.1111/jppi.12012

Hart, D., Grigal, M., & Weir, C., 2010. Expanding the Paradigm: Postsecondary Education Options for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 25, 134-150