Margaret began her career in vocational rehabilitation as a job placement counselor in 1978. Way too young, she then moved on to a school caseload in the rural counties of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Working on the Pre-ETS project has brought her career full circle. She has been a vocational rehabilitation counselor, supervisor, and director of a resource center and national training projects related to disability and substance abuse disorders.
She received her doctorate in counseling from The George Washington University and her MS from Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a national certification in rehabilitation counseling. She has been in academia since 1996, 24 years at West Virginia University where she is a Full Professor and served as the coordinator of the rehabilitation counseling program and department chair.
She has 35 years of experience in grant and contract writing, development, and delivery at the federal and state levels - 12 federal; 6 state grants; and two private foundations. This included the Switzer Distinguished Disability and Rehabilitation Research Fellowship by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to conduct an exploratory study of service dog use in the workplace
Her favorite accomplishment during this time? Being given an amazing dog who was trained in the service dog program at WVU and being allowed to be one of the Visiting Therapy Dog partnerships on campus. If you would like to meet Lily, visit this site.