ATHENS, Ga. – UGA HomeTom J. Clees, an associate professor in special education at the University of Georgia, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to Ireland. For the next 10 months, Clees will be working at Mary Immaculate College in affiliation with the University of Limerick. He will be conducting descriptive and comparative research regarding variables affecting the successful post-school transition of individuals with special needs, including demographic factors and service delivery models in Ireland. In addition, he will provide a seminar series to disseminate U.S. best-practices in transition-planning and services, as well as the results of his research. “The work is of importance for the demographics alone, and finding solutions to them,” said Clees. “I want to look at urban and rural programs abroad to see if they have a unique approach to post-school preparation and service. For instance, are families more significant in the support of the children post-school?” Clees’ areas of expertise and research include transition, supported living/employment; self-management; operant learning theory; applied behavioral analysis; single-subject and small research designs; and social skills. He advises undergraduate, master and doctoral students. He is coordinator of the special education department’s undergraduate middle school program, a collaborative effort with the middle school program in the department of elementary education. He is chair of the recruitment and retention subcommittee of the College of Education Task Force on Multicultural Education, as well as a member of the University Council. Clees advises students in the areas of behavioral disorders. He is a consulting editor for Career Development for Exceptional Individuals and on the editorial review board of Education and Treatment of Children, the latter for which he is also a guest associate editor. Clees has also served on the editorial boards of Exceptionality and the Journal of Behavioral Education. Clees received his doctorate in behavioral disabilities/special education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987. He was then awarded a post doctorate as a research associate at the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development at Wisconsin-Madison prior to joining UGA faculty in1989.
