Nancy Fitzsimons joined the Social Work faculty in 2001. She has a Ph.D. and MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Jane Addams College of Social Work. Her area of concentration in the MSW program was practice with children and families. Nancy's emphasis of study in the Ph.D. program was developmental disability, with an emphasis on disability policy and services. Her dissertation focused on the role of federally funded Centers for Excellence in the education of social workers for practice in the field of developmental disabilities. Nancy received her BSW from Minnesota State University Mankato.
Nancy has more than 15 years of practice experience working in the field of developmental disabilities. Upon earning her BSW degree, she moved to Chicago where she began her professional career as a social worker. She has worked in a variety of agencies serving people with developmental and other disabilities, including home-based child and family intervention, residential, case coordination and an alternative school.
For the past eight years Nancy has been involved in research and public service initiatives at UIC in the Department of Disability and Human Development. She was the Project Director of a 5-year longitudinal study of the closure of a state-operated developmental center. For the last three years she was Principal Investigator and Project Director of the Abuse and Disability Initiative. Her projects have focused on helping people with disabilities take charge in preventing and stopping abuse. Nancy is currently involved in assisting Protection and Advocacy Japan in implementing the Taking Charge program. She developed the abuse prevention curricula for the Illinois Office of Developmental Disabilities. Her most recent effort was the development of a Disability Awareness curriculum for law enforcement officers and police social workers.
Nancy's research and public service interests are in the area of victimization of people with developmental and other disabilities and in changing service delivery and criminal justice systems to be responsive to the needs of victims with disabilities. She is also interested in the problem of offenders with mental retardation, both prevention and alternatives to incarceration. Nancy plans to incorporate her knowledge and experience in disability issues into all of her courses.
