Rooshey Hasnain
Clinical Assistant Professor, Disability and Human Development
Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor, Rehabilitation Sciences
Focus Areas
- Cultural Competency
- Community-Based Participatory Research
- Disability Arts and Culture
- Disability
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- Aging
- Participation Among People with Disabilities
- Rehabilitation
- Rights and Advocacy
- Disability Policy
- Children, Youth and Families
- Social Justice
- Qualitative Research
- Entrepreneurship and Employment
- Interprofessional Education
Office Phone
Office
1640 W. Roosevelt Rd., 546 DHSP
Mail Code
231
Office Hours
By appointment
About
Rooshey Hasnain. Ed.D., M.A. is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Department of Disability and Human Development and the Undergraduate Rehabilitation Sciences Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago(UIC). Her primary professional interest is in understanding the lives, challenges, and strengths of people with disabilities and mental health conditions, especially those from refugee and immigrant backgrounds. She works on finding ways to reduce cultural stigma associated with disability and mental health issues, and ways to promote a human rights perspective on behalf of underserved individuals, their families, and their communities. Most of the projects she has founded attempt to bridge the service and opportunity gaps between U.S. disability service systems and hard-to-reach disabled people and their families. Currently she is the Principal Investigator for a NIDILRR field-initiated project called Partners of Refugees in Illinois Disability Employment (PRIDE), which aims to support Illinois-based job-seeking refugees with disabilities in accessing employment and career opportunities.
Selected Grants
Illinois Department of Human Services, Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-Tank Phase 3, PI
U.S. Department of Education, AANAPISI Students’ Educational Engagement Initiative, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Community Engagement Project
Department of Health and Human Services-ACL-NIDILRR, Partners of Refugees in Illinois Disability Employment (PRIDE), PI
Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, Systemic and Collaborative Approaches to Achieving Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Disability Outreach and Service, Consultant, Diversity Dynamics
Selected Publications
“Do cultural competency interventions work? A systematic review on improving rehabilitation outcomes for ethnically and linguistically diverse individuals with disabilities.”,
“Predicting community- versus facility-based employment for transition-aged, young adults with disabilities: The role of race, ethnicity, and support systems”,
“Unveiling Muslim voices: Aging parents with disabilities and their adult children and family caregivers in the U.S.: A call for research and action”,
Cross-cultural issues in the vocational rehabilitation system for Asian-Pacific Americans with disabilities, Jones & Bartlett Publishers
Service to the Community
She has served as a liaison for local and national grassroots multicultural agencies, advocacy groups, policy makers, arts organizations, filmmakers, theater groups, academic institutions, and funders to advance research agendas and programs that are often underexamined in the field. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and monographs on cross-cultural disability issues
Leadership in the Profession
Midwest AAPI Research Collaboratory,, Member
The Chicago Community Foundation-Asian Giving Circle, Grant-giving committee member and AGC member
Somali Development Center, board member
Notable Honors
2011 - Found Asian Award, City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Asian Affairs
2006 - Paulette Anjorin Community Service Award,, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services-Urban Youth Initiative
1998 - Ansin Intercultural Dissertation Research Award, Boston University
Education
EdD in Special Education (Emphasis on disability studies, rehabilitation counseling, and community psychology), Boston University, 2001
MA in Counseling Psychology, Lewis and Clark College, 1992
BA in Psychology, University of Oregon, 1989