OHIO STATE NAMES NEW ADA COORDINATOR
COLUMBUS -- L. Scott Lissner, director of Academic and Disability Support Services at Longwood College in Farmville, Va., has been named the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) coordinator at The Ohio State University. Pending Board of Trustees approval, Lissner will begin his duties on Jan. 3, 2000.
Lissner will be Ohio State’s first full-time ADA coordinator. One of his roles will be to ensure that the university is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and other federal and state laws and regulations pertaining to persons with disabilities.
He also will be responsible for coordinating university policies and procedures concerning persons with disabilities, tracking university progress relating to those policies as well as state and federal laws regarding persons with disabilities, and providing consultative services to Ohio State employing units and offices. The scope of his responsibility includes faculty, staff and student employment, as well as public and student access to programs and facilities.
“As the university’s first full-time ADA coordinator, Scott Lissner will enable us to move forward more quickly to enhance the environment and opportunities for persons with disabilities,” said Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost. “Scott is someone who will help us to not only comply with the law, but also do what is right.”
As an ADA compliance officer for 11 years at Longwood College, Lissner developed, implemented and maintained campuswide policies and procedures for disabilities access, and arranged appropriate accommodations for students, employees and campus visitors. He hired, trained and supervised more than 50 peer tutors and professional and student staff, and presented workshops and in-service training on disabilities issues.
Lissner worked with Virginia’s Department of Education and Rehabilitative Services to increase availability of adaptive technology and to encourage the state to collect data on students with disabilities as part of a census of college students. Additionally, he has served as a consultant on access and accommodation strategies and instructional issues at more than a dozen schools and agencies.
From 1985 to 1988, Lissner was director of the University Learning Center at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., providing academic support for students and consultative services for faculty. He was a coordinating counselor of freshman studies and learning resources from 1982 to 1985 at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City. He also has held adjunct instructor positions in psychology, education, problem solving, study skills and career development.
“Scott Lissner brings to Ohio State the enthusiasm and expertise of a person who has dedicated his professional life to working on behalf of persons with disabilities,” said Nancy Rogers, vice provost for academic administration. Lissner will report to Rogers.
Lissner expects to complete his Ph.D. in higher education administration at the University of Virginia in 2000. He holds a master’s degree in counseling from Hunter College in New York and a bachelor of arts in psychology and economics from Rutgers University. He conducted doctoral studies in cognitive psychology at Adelphi University.
He succeeds Patrick Hall, director of Student Judicial Affairs at Ohio State, who has served as acting ADA coordinator on a part-time basis for the past year.
“We are grateful for the fine work that Pat Hall has done in an interim capacity in addition to his duties as director of Judicial Affairs,” Ray said.
Contact:
Nancy Rogers, Academic Affairs, (614) 292-5881
L. Scott Lissner, (804) 395-2392