NCCU VITP - About Us : Faculty & Staff : Dr. Diane Wormsley : Vita

About Us : Faculty & Staff : Dr. Diane P. Wormsley : Vita

Diane Marie Pomeroy Wormsley
2085 M.H. Michaux Jr. School of Education
North Carolina Central University
712 Cecil Street
Durham, NC 27707
919-530-7693
919-530-5353 (FAX)
dwormsley@nccu.edu

Education Background

Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1979. Education.
Major Area: Special Education of the Visually Impaired.
Minor Areas: Education of the Hearing Impaired, Educational Research, Early Childhood Education for the Multiply Handicapped, and Orientation and Mobility.
Fellowships:Graduate Traineeships from the United States Office of Education/Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.
M. Ed. University of Pittsburgh, 1973. Education. Special Education of the Visually Impaired.
Fellowships:Graduate Traineeship from the United States Office of Education/Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.
B.A. Elmira College, Elmira, NY, 1968.
Major: English Literature; Minor: Philosophy
Honors/Awards:
Dean's List, New York State Regents Scholarship and Scholar Incentive Awards, 1964-1968.

Administrative Experience

2006 - Present North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina
2008 - Project Coordinator, RSA Five Year Grant for Personnel Preparation
2006 - Brenda Brodie Endowed Chair and Professor,
Director of Consortium Efforts for the Vision Impairment Training Program
1997-2006 Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
2006- Director of Grant from Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistant Network
Pilot project for full-time TVI program
2005- Co-Director of OSEP Four-Year Grant for personal preparation TVI/O&M
2004- Project Co-Director, National Center for Leadership in Visual Impairment (NCLVI).
Responsible for fiscal management and overseeing the research/evaluation component of NCLVI, awarded by OSEP.
2000-2005 Co-Director of OSEP Five-Year Grant for personnel preparation.
1997- 2006 Program Director, Professional Preparation Program in Education of Children with Visual and Multiple Disabilities (TVI Program). TITLE II Contact and State Certification Officer in Pennsylvania.
1995 - 1997 Overbrook School for the Blind, Philadelphia, PA.
Education Manager
1989 - 1995 American Foundation for the Blind
Director, AFB National Initiative on Literacy (1993-1995)
Director, AFB Regional Center, San Francisco (1989-1992); Atlanta (1992-1995).
1986 - 1989 University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
Assistant to the Dean, College of Health Sciences
1976 - 1977 Narbethong School for Visually Handicapped Children,
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Administrator of Adult Evening Optacon Program funded by the Technical and Further Education Branch of the Queensland Education Department.

Research/Grantsmanship

2008 United States Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration.
With Brad Walker, received funding for a five year personnel preparation grant ($500,000) to train Orientation and Mobility Specialists and Vision Rehabilitation Therapists.
2006 Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network
Received funding to pilot a full time program for teachers of the visually impaired in Pennsylvania ($45,000 for 18 months)
2005- United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
With Kathleen M. Huebner, received funding for a four-year personnel preparation grant (totally $800.000). The grant provides scholarships and stipends for teachers of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility instructors.
2004- United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
With Kathleen M. Huebner, received funding for a five year unsolicited proposal (totaling 6.3 million dollars), for the National Center for Leadership in Visual Impairment (NCLVI). The grant provides funding for students to complete a doctoral program at one of the 14 universities who are consortium members of NCLVI.
2003- Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers who are Visually Impaired. Received $1,000 for materials and videos for early intervention training.
2002-- present Currently Principal Investigator as of 7/1/07 and Researcher on Alphabetic Braille Contracted Braille (ABC Braille) Project run through Vanderbilt University and funded through American Printing House for the Blind.
2002 Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers who are Visually Impaired. Received $1,000 for materials and videos for early intervention training.
2002-2003 State of Pennsylvania, Instructional Technology for Colleges and Universities,
Link to Learn Program. Lead Project Director for a one-year $250,000 program to provide the infrastructure for the college to begin a distance education program.
2001- Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers who are Visually Impaired. Received $1,000 for materials and videos for early intervention training.
2000-2005 United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
With Kathleen M. Huebner, received a five-year personnel preparation grant (totaling $1.5 million), Specialized Personnel Increases Through Collaborative Efforts. The grant provided scholarships and stipends for teachers of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility instructors.
1999 - 2001 "Back to the Future" - Follow up research with 20 subjects of dissertation research conducted in 1979 - 1980. Research comparing reading rates and comprehension data with subsequent uses of braille as a literacy medium.
1994 - 1995 United States Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Received a three-year training grant (totaling $600,000), Braille Literacy Mentors in Training- the Next Generation, which built upon the previous one-year trainer-of-trainers concept, but expanded the training to include Nemeth Code, Working with Multiply Handicapped Students, Working with English Second Language Students, and Braille Access Technology.
1993 - 1994 United States Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Received a one-year training grant ($125,000) for the Braille Literacy Mentors in Training Project, designed to provide trainer- of-trainer workshops for the establishment of braille teacher/mentors throughout the United States.
1992 - 1995 United States Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Received a three-year research grant totaling $375,000 for the Adult Braille Literacy Empowerment Project. This research project was designed to determine factors of success in adult learning or braille and resulted in published guidelines for adult braille literacy programs.

Selected Publications

2008 (in press) Wormsley, D.P. Literacy instruction for children who are blind or visually impaired. Journal of Balanced Reading Instruction, Special Issue: Reading and Children with Disabilities.
2004 Wormsley, D.P. Braille Literacy: A Functional Approach. New York: AFB Press.
2001 Wormsley, D.P. A literary braille refresher course: Successful Collaboration. RE:view, August 2001.
2001 Duffy, M.A., Huebner, K.M., & Wormsley, D.P. Activities of daily living and individuals with low vision. In M. Scheiman (Ed.) Understanding and Managing Vision Deficits: A Guide for Occupational Therapists. Thorofar, NJ: SLACK Incorporated.
Wormsley, D.P. Braille Literacy Curriculum. Philadelphia: Towers Press.
1997 Wormsley, D.P. and D'Andrea, F.M. Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy. New York: AFB Press.
1996 Wormsley, D.P. Reading Rates of Young Braille Reading Children. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, May-June 1996, pp. 278 - 282.
1995 Rex, E., and Wormsley, D.P. ABLE-G. Guidelines of the Adult Braille Literacy Empowerment Project. Available at HYPERLINK http://www.afb.org www.afb.org.
1994 Rex, E., Koenig, A., Wormsley, D.P. and Baker, R. Foundations of Braille Literacy. New York: AFB Press.
1993 Wormsley, D.P. and Mulholland, M.E. (Co-executive Producers) "Understanding Braille Literacy." (VIDEO) New York: AFB Press. (VIDEO)

Elementary/Secondary/University Teaching Experiance

2006 - North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina
Brenda Brodie Endowed Chair and Professor, Special Education
1997-2006 Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Program Director and Associate Professor, Professional Preparation Program in Education of Children with Visual and Multiple Disabilities.
1982 - 1985 Highland Lutheran International Primary School,
Wapenamanda, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea, Primary School Teacher K-8
1979 - 1981 Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois
Assistant Professor of Special Education
1978 - 1979 University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Senior Teaching Fellow
1975 - 1977 Narbethong School for Visually Handicapped Children, Queensland Department of Education, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
1974 - 1975 Conroy School, Board of Public Education, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1968 - 1971 New York State School for the Blind, Batavia, New York

Awards

2008 Mary Kay Bauman award received at International Conference of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Chicago, July 2008.
2007 Holbrook Humphries Award presented at the Getting in Touch with Literacy Conference in Tampa Bay, Florida, December 2007
2004 AER Division 16 - Itinerant Personal. Outstanding Contributions to Literature for Braille Literacy: A Functional Approach.
2004 AER Division 10 - Curriculum Division - The Curriculum Development Award for Braille Literacy: A Functional Approach..
2000 AER -- C. Warren Bledsoe Award for Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy, a significant publication in the field of blindness and visual impairment.
1999 JVIB Peer Reviewer of the Year- Inaugural Award.
1997 Association of American Publishers, Professional Scholarship Division, Best Title in
1997 in the Category of Nursing/Allied Health for Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy.

Memberships in Professional Organization

Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
Chair of Division 10 - Education Curriculum Division
AER Representative on Braille Authority of North America
California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped
Council for Exceptional Children (Division for the Visually Impaired)
National Braille Association
International Reading Association