Breaking Down Work Barriers for People with Disabilities: Opportunities for Employers

Jody Schimmel Hyde, Ph.D.

Senior Researcher

Jody Schimmel Hyde's primary research interest is in policies to promote independence and self-sufficiency among individuals with disabilities, with a special interest in older adults and the transition to retirement. Her work covers policies related to employment and health care.

Schimmel Hyde has extensive experience conducting quantitative analyses using administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration, as well as using survey data from the Health and Retirement Study. She is currently directing multiple research studies through SSA's Disability Research Consortium (DRC), including an analysis of return-to-work activity among federal disability beneficiaries, income and poverty of disability beneficiaries, and the well-being and employment of older workers with disabling conditions. In addition, she leads Mathematica's training activities under the DRC, including the summer fellowship program in disability policy research. She also directs Mathematica's research activities under the Employment Policy and Measurement Rehabilitation and Research Training Center. In the past, she has conducted studies related to the role of obesity in federal disability determinations, the impact of Affordable Cart Act Medicaid expansions on disability program applications, SSA's Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Planning and Assistance programs, the Medicaid Buy-In, and Medicaid Infrastructure Grants.

Schimmel Hyde holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Purvi Sevak

Senior Researcher

Purvi Sevak's expertise includes quantitative research and using large survey databases to conduct public policy research related to health and disability program participation and employment.

Sevak is currently leading the Survey of Disability and Employment, funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) in the U.S. Department of Education. The survey, fielded to 3,000 recent vocational rehabilitation applicants, is designed to identify barriers and facilitators to employment for people with disabilities. Also for NIDRR, she is leading several research projects examining the role of individual and environmental characteristics in explaining disparities in employment outcomes among people with disabilities. In addition, Sevak is leading an impact analysis of two Health Care Innovation Awards-Primary Care Redesign awardees to assess improvements in the coordination, efficiency, and quality of patient care.

Sevak came to Mathematica in 2013 from Hunter College, where she was a professor in the economics department for more than a decade. Much of her research has been on retirement-related issues, such as labor supply decisions, savings behavior, and long-term care, or on issues related to disability. Her work includes studies of the impacts of recession on Supplemental Security Income participation and on workers with chronic health conditions, and the effects of Medicaid policies on private savings. Sevak holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the American Economic Association.

Alix Gould-Werth

Researcher

Alix Gould-Werth is a sociologist who conducts research on social programs and policies designed to improve the economic circumstances of people with low incomes—Unemployment Insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, disability benefits, and reforms to the criminal justice system. She is a skilled qualitative interviewer in addition to her experience conducting quantitative analyses.

Gould-Werth is the Deputy Project Director for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research. She is also a member of the research team for the DOL-funded, three-year evaluation of the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release Program. In addition, she is part of the team that is doing the implementation analysis for the Job Search Assistance Evaluation, which is funded by the Administration for Children and Families.

Before joining Mathematica, Gould-Werth was member of the program staff at Fountain House, an organization for individuals with serious mental illness. Her work has been published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Monthly Labor Review, Social Service Review, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. She holds a Ph.D. in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan.

Kimberly Phillips, Ph.D.

Project Director

Dr. Phillips joined the IOD in 2010. She conducts primary and secondary data research, as well as evaluation and project management for several grant-funded efforts. Presently, Dr. Phillips serves as Principal Investigator of the CDC-funded New Hampshire Disability & Public Health Project and leads a research project for the NIDILRR-funded Employment Policy and Management RRTC. With Andrew Houtenville, she is co-Principal Investigator of the Kessler Foundation National Employment & Disability Survey: Supervisor Perspectives. Dr. Phillips has co-authored peer-reviewed publications in several journals, including the Disability & Health Journal; Review of General Psychology; Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin; and the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. In addition, she has presented research at numerous national conferences and produced a number of data surveillance reports. She received her doctorate in psychology in 2016 after completing her dissertation on employees’ with disabilities response to attitudinal barriers in the workplace and perceived potential at work.

Alan McClain

Alan McClain has a passion for people with disabilities and is committed to helping provide positive outcomes for the clients of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services. He is actively involved in several organizations focused on children and adults with disabilities and their families. In addition, McClain brings an incredible amount of knowledge of state government, regulatory, and supervisory experience to Career Education. Most recently, McClain worked as the Regional Director of the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute. Prior to the Institute, he worked with the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission for thirteen years and was the CEO of that commission for almost nine years.