BBI is part of the University’s historical and extensive efforts to advance the meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. We partner with schools, colleges and units across campus to promote disability rights through research, education, outreach and policy innovation.

Improving disability employment policy and outcomes for people with disabilities begins with BBI’s partnership with the disability community at the University and elsewhere. BBI seeks to contribute evidence-based research on disability employment policies that expand inclusive opportunities for all.

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Employment Policy is the only one of its kind in the U.S. Through the center, we are identifying ways to strengthen disability employment policy by considering the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, self-employment and changing labor laws, among other innovations.

We are seeking to inform disability employment policies that are directly relevant and useful to people with disabilities to prepare for, obtain and maintain meaningful employment across all sectors of the economy.

One major opportunity in disability employment policy is supporting effective and meaningful employment and vocational resources and training to meet the real-world needs of people with disabilities. We hope to further this objective by using in-person and virtual training and resource models.

We plan to develop relevant and useful “toolkits” for vocational counselors to distribute to their clients, helping them explore self-employment opportunities with the advancement of AI and the gig workforce. These innovations aim to provide individuals with the knowledge and confidence to build skills that support their career and life goals.

Foremost, our efforts must and do involve people with disabilities as equal partners. This commitment lies at the heart of BBI and ensures that our work is directly relevant and useful to the broader disability community.

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Employment Policy will translate rigorous research into plain language and accessible formats—such as fact sheets, policy briefs, practitioner guides and webinars—for policymakers, educators, employers, community advocates and individuals with disabilities. All our activities focus on real-world and timely relevance to the disability community.

Younger Americans have grown up never knowing a world without the and the , among other disability policy initiatives.

These landmark efforts continue to positively influence workplaces, educational settings and public and private institutions. Almost every day, advances in technology, artificial intelligence and universally designed assistive devices create new possibilities to strengthen independence, inclusion and self-determination for all Americans with and without disabilities.

My approach is to continue to involve the community, student choice and voice and staff, being collaborative and bringing people to the table with shared decision-making.

We are in the process of setting up meetings in the community with Superintendent Davis as we do our hand-off, so the community can get to know me and the things I want to focus on. We’re going into churches, boy’s and girl’s clubs and libraries. I want to have the community involved in all the things that are going well and in those we can improve upon.

My emphasis continues to be on the district’s strategic plan, on an equitable voice for the students, in finding the right staff and retaining them, on literacy and numeracy and on creating pathways that enable students to go to college or into workforce.

We are making a big push about chronic absenteeism, focusing on educating parents. We want to educate them that if a child misses one or two days a week, those can add up. We want them to understand instructional loss and what that looks like in the classroom.

So, as part of our Chronic Absentee Plan 2.0, we are doing home visits and coming up with individualized plans to help get children into school, helping families where we can. Parents and guardians have been supportive. We’ve done a lot to educate them about what the ramifications are when a child misses school.

Syracuse was wonderful in that it prepared me for educational administration through doing hands-on scenarios.

Professor Diane Canino-Rispoli was a mentor and a friend, and as a former teacher, she knew what was happening in urban education. She would have us do group scenarios and collaborate with our classmates—about parent situations or operational situations such as a fire alarm going off. You had to work side-by-side with your group to come up with a plan.

That work prepared you by putting you in a leadership role and asking how your decisions impact students and staff, how you would answer to your superintendent and so on. These were real-life, hands-on experiences to make sure you were prepped and prepared.

It was not just one experience but multiple experiences about the kinds of things you need to know. This way, I was prepped how to work with a team to find solutions and to make sure that we were ready to go and that we did not panic. I still utilize these strategies to this day.

Professor has been wonderful, as was Leela George, who replaced Diane and who has just retired herself.

I worked with George and Leela as an assistant and then deputy superintendent. I applaud the work they are doing and their push for diversity, equity and belonging in education. It’s nice to watch. Members of our district team are working with them now, and that keeps me involved in some capacity.

Metacognitive AI allows AI systems to consider their own potential mistakes and correct them, similar to how someone might catch themself making an error and fix it. In humans, metacognition controls mental resources like memory and effort. Our vision at the Leibniz Lab is to create metacognitive structures that give users insights into potential mistakes and allow AI frameworks to regulate their use of energy and computing power.

Deep learning has provided significant advances but has a fundamental limitation: It finds statistical patterns and produces “average” answers based on the data it has seen before. That approach becomes problematic when a system encounters situations it hasn’t previously faced. This is why AI can sometimes generate “hallucinations”—responses that are statistically likely but that don’t conform to our mental models of the world.

Machine learning is great at learning patterns in data, but it isn’t capable of precise reasoning. Rule-based systems can follow logical steps or mathematical rules perfectly, but it’s often challenging to obtain rules from data. These approaches are clearly complementary and by combining them, we can get AI that both learns from data and reasons precisely.

Generative AI technology greatly expands the “attack surface” in systems—the number of ways an adversary can attempt to launch an attack. Traditional software has limited ways users can interact with it (specific buttons and menus that are easier to secure). But AI chatbots accept any text input. That can create countless opportunities for attackers to craft malicious prompts to try to manipulate the system. Security teams can’t anticipate every possible attack. With metacognitive AI, instead of trying to block attacks upfront, the AI can monitor itself, determine when its behavior is outside the norm and flag suspicious activity.

Turkeys typically come frozen, so make sure you give it enough time to thaw. You’re looking at probably about 72 hours inside of your refrigerator. Very, very important. You don’t want to get to the morning of Thanksgiving and you have a frozen turkey.

It’s important to have a good working thermometer, so you can always make sure you’ve prepared all of your dishes, including the turkey, to the proper temperature. Anytime you’re roasting a turkey, even if it’s a turkey breast, you’re going to want to make sure that you get that poultry to 165 degrees internally. A good probe thermometer is great for that. It’s just a great tool for your kitchen, beyond Thanksgiving.

When I host, a lot of my side dishes are made and prepared the day before. So really, all I’m doing the day-of is cooking them and the turkey.

A lot of times when you buy the turkey, it comes with a little pop-up thermometer. If you have a probe thermometer, you can tear that little pop-up thermometer right out, because those are always going to be problematic.

Then there is a technique called spatchcock. Basically, what that means is you’re going to remove the backbone of the turkey and then lay it so it’s insides are flat. That will roast the turkey so much faster, which will then provide a much juicier finished turkey. It will cut your roasting time almost in half.

The biggest part is maybe not being so focused on the food and more focused on the party. You obviously want to be a great host, but if you’re hosting and cooking, a lot of people are relying on you for a great Thanksgiving dinner. So I think it’s important to still keep your eye on that.

Be OK with rolling with the punches. Make sure you’ve got a good amount of gravy on hand if your turkey is dry. Make sure you have enough so if you end up with one dish burnt, that’s fine. It’s one of multiple. Being able to move and adjust quickly is always a good way to have your mindset.

I’m really big into barbecue. So when I host, I always smoke a turkey and roast a turkey, so we have two different flavors. People fall back on your traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but I think it’s cool if you put a little bit of your own spin into it. That could be a good way to showcase one of your strengths as well.

Apple. I’m a big apple pie guy.

For me, it’s a time I only see certain parts of my family. It’s that connection time. Spending time with family and friends. I have young kids, so it’s making memories with them. And at the end of the day, the meal is a great part, but it’s all the pre-meal stuff and then after, being with your family and friends and just having that time together.