Douglas Fuchs, Ph.D., a nationally known researcher and professor in the field of special education and learning disabilities, is the recipient of the LDA Award– the highest honor given by LDA. The LDA Award is presented annually in recognition of and appreciation for outstanding leadership at the national level in the learning disabilities field.
President Patricia Lillie made the presentation during the conference at the LDA RTI Symposium where Dr. Fuchs was the keynote speaker.
Dr. Fuchs is Professor and Nicholas Hobbs Chair in Special Education and Human Development, Department of Special Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University; Professor of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Senior Investigator, Vanderbilt-Kennedy Center; Visiting Fellow, American Institutes of Research.
Doug earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Department of Psychoeducational Studies in Educational Psychology with a major in Educational Psychology; an M.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University.
Before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1985, Fuchs was an assistant first-grade teacher in a private school in Baltimore for children with severe behavior problems; a fourth-grade classroom teacher in a public school outside Philadelphia; and a school psychologist in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
At Vanderbilt, he has been principal investigator of 50 federally-sponsored research grants. They have facilitated development of models of service delivery (e.g., pre-referral intervention, responsiveness-to-intervention, reintegrating students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms); assessments (e.g., formative measures of student and teacher evaluation, dynamic assessment); and instructional approaches (e.g., peer-mediated learning strategies). He is currently exploring the importance of “hybrid” cognitively-focused and skills-based academic interventions for most difficult-to-teach children.
His research area includes Instruction of students at risk for school failure because of disability or poverty; peer-mediated learning; classroom assessment; school improvement and school reform; and urban education; special education policy.
Fuchs is the author or co-author of more than 300 articles in peer-review journals and 60 book chapters. Doug’s numerous awards for research, papers, and teaching related to learning disabilities and education of children and youth with disabilities include the Albert J. Harris Research Award from International Literacy Association, Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association, the Kauffman-Hallahan Distinguished Research Award presented by the Division of Research of The Council for Exceptional Children and Routledge Press, identified by Thomson Reuters as among the most frequently cited researchers in the social sciences, and named one of 14 “revolutionary educators” by Forbes Magazine.
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