Center Directors - ARCHIVED: CCIDS — 25 Years of Community Inclusion & Innovation

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

Center Directors (1992 – present)

Alan B. Cobo-Lewis, Ph.D., was named director of the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies in 2015, becoming the Maine UCEDD’s second director in 25 years, succeeding founding director, Lucille Zeph Ed.D., who retired in June 2015.

Bios for Dr. Cobo-Lewis and Dr. Zeph appear below.

Alan Cobo-Lewis, 2015 – Present

Alan Cobo-Lewis In September 2015, Alan B. Cobo-Lewis, Ph.D., was named as director of the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). He becomes the Center’s second director in 23 years, succeeding founding director, Lucille Zeph, Ed.D., who retired in June 2015.

Cobo-Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1988 from the University of Miami and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1992 from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow. In 1998, he joined the faculty at UMaine, where he is currently associate professor of psychology.

Cobo-Lewis has served as principal investigator on several federal and state grants and contracts, including research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Jewish Guild for the Blind.

Under a current contract with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Cobo-Lewis’s team manages the website and database for Maine’s child care quality rating and improvement system, as well as Child Care Choices, Maine’s online search tool to help parents find high quality child care. He also serves as the local evaluator for Educare Central Maine, a member of a nationwide network of 20 high quality preschools serving at-risk children birth to age 5.

His work has appeared in a number of journals including Developmental Psychology, Vision Research, and Maine Policy Review. Cobo-Lewis’s current research interests include how to use computers to assess development of communication in infants and toddlers and how to measure the quality of child care. He has a longstanding interest in promoting evidence-based approaches to education and policy, especially regarding persons with disabilities.

Cobo-Lewis’s involvement with University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) began nearly 30 years ago: while an undergraduate, he participated in a research project at the University of Miami Mailman Center for Child Development; and as a graduate student, he worked with the University of Wisconsin Waisman Center for Human Development. Cobo-Lewis returned to the Mailman Center in 1993 to complete his postdoctoral work in the department of pediatrics. In recent years, he has led a number of community-engaged research projects involving faculty and staff from the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies.

As a parent of two children, one of whom has a disability, Cobo-Lewis has been an active member of the disability community in Maine for several years. He has served as a long-time member and leader of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council, has earned the respect of legislators and advocates for his work in Maine disability policy, and has been honored with a number of awards for his advocacy, including the University of Maine Presidential Public Service Award in 2008.

Founding Director: Lu Zeph, 1992 – 2015

Lu Zeph Lucille Zeph, Ed.D., joined the faculty of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development in 1979 where she established and coordinated graduate education in the area of severe disabilities until 1992. She received her BS in Education from Boston State College, her Masters in deaf/blind and multiple disabilities from Boston College and her doctorate in educational leadership from Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. From 1992 to 2015, Lu served as the founding Director of the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD).

Lu is an internationally recognized expert in the field of developmental disabilities. She served as Principal Investigator on numerous federal and state grants and contracts, published in the areas of inclusive education and inclusive communities, and presented numerous papers at national and international conferences. She received the University of Maine President’s Award for Public Service (1992); lifetime achievement awards from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (2009) and TASH New England (2010); and was recognized for her state and national leadership in the area of disability policy by the Maine Legislature. Under her leadership, the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies was honored in 2013 by the University of Maine and the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) for two decades of exemplary work in community engagement.

As a Kennedy Public Policy Fellow in 1999, Lu served as an advisor to the late James M. Jeffords, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. From 2000-2001, she served as Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation while on leave from the University of Maine. She also served on a wide range of federal and state committees, panels, and study groups related to disability issues and policy, and served in leadership positions for several national, regional and state disability organizations. Dr. Zeph retired on June 30, 2015 after 35 years of service to the University of Maine.