Speakers
Richard K. Scotch is Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. His teaching includes courses on medical sociology, public health, social stratification, and social and health policy, while his research focuses on a variety of social policy topics related to disability, health, and education.
Dr. Scotch received his B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago in 1973 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from Harvard University in 1975 and 1982 respectively. Prior to joining the UTD faculty in 1983, Dr. Scotch worked on the evaluation staff of the Virginia Division for Children and as an analyst with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1982-1983, Dr. Scotch served as a Congressional Science Fellow, sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science; his fellowship involving working in the office of Representative Paul Simon (D-Ill) and with the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education.
Dr. Scotch is the author of several books and numerous articles and monographs on social policy reform and social movements in disability, health care, education, and human services. In 2011, he published an edited volume (with Allison Carey), Disability and Community, in the series Research in Social Science and Disability. His 1984 book on federal disability policy, From Good Will to Civil Rights, has been translated into Japanese and published in Japan, and was republished in the U.S. in a 2001 edition. Dr. Scotch is working on a coauthored book, tentatively titled Allies and Obstacles, with Allison Carey and Pamela Block on social movements of parents of disabled children that is under contract with Temple University Press. His current research interests also include a study of American elected officials with disabilities and research on likely future trends in employment for people with disabilities.
Dr. Scotch is the past Chair of the Section on Disability and Society of the American Sociological Association, past president of the Society for Disability Studies, and was a member of an Expert Panel for Systematic Review of Research on the Americans with Disabilities Act funded by the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Dr. Scotch was a member of the NIDILRR (then NIDRR) Task Force on Disability Studies in the Twenty-First Century. In 2000, Dr. Scotch was named a Mary Switzer Scholar by the National Rehabilitation Association, in 2013 was awarded the Senior Scholar Award of the Society of Disability Studies, and in 2014 received the inaugural Distinguished Contribution Award of the ASA Section on Disability and Society. He serves as a reviewer for numerous professional journals, university presses, private foundations, and government agencies.
Dr. Scotch has been active in the local health and human service community in Dallas for over three decades, working with a variety of local government and nonprofit agencies, including the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority, Collin County, Dallas County, the Dallas Healthy Start Initiative, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Educational First Steps, and Mental Health America. He currently is conducting a community needs assessment of the LGBTQ population in Texas with Dr. Kara Sutton for the Texas Pride Impact Funds, a new foundation.