The University of Arkansas program in rehabilitation education and research rose three places on the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools list for 2016 released March 10 and is now tied for No. 13 with the Illinois Institute of Technology. The U of A program in the College of Education and Health Professions has been in the top 20 on the list for more than a decade.

The list includes 87 ranked rehabilitation counseling programs in the United States; two of the 12 programs ranked higher than the U of A are private institutions of higher education.

"This program has a long and distinguished history in our college," said Tom Smith, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "The faculty members' grant production alone in the past two years is nothing short of phenomenal. These grants are helping Arkansas teens with disabilities and funding graduate students who will be future rehabilitation counselors, researchers and university faculty members."

Brent Thomas Williams, associate professor and faculty coordinator of the program, is the principal investigator of a $32.4 million federal grant that is providing paid work experiences to Arkansas teenagers with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income. The research grant awarded in 2013 is believed to be the largest received in the U of A's history.

Last year, the three rehabilitation education and research faculty members – along with a counselor education faculty member – were awarded federal grants totaling $2.75 million over the next five years to fund tuition, fees, stipends and travel expenses for master's students in rehabilitation counseling.

The ranking of a program can be one of several factors a prospective student considers, the faculty said, and its graduates are one piece of evidence a program is doing well.

"To be recognized by your peers as being a top program is quite an honor," said Lynn Koch, U of A professor of rehabilitation education and research. She earned her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, another perennially high ranked program that is tied at No. 2 this year with Michigan State University.

Stephanie Lusk, U of A assistant professor of rehabilitation education and research, also received her doctorate from a top 20 program - the University of Arkansas.

"When I chose to come to school here, that was one of the reasons," Lusk said. "The majority of individuals in my cohort are faculty at universities and this continues to increase the visibility of our program. This shows we produce individuals who are capable of educating others, writing grants and conducting research. We also have graduates who are administrators of national rehabilitation agencies and other state and local organizations. Program graduates are capable of doing amazing work."

Lusk will receive the National Council on Rehabilitation Education's Rehabilitation Educator of the Year award at its annual conference next month. One of her students, Jennifer Krenn, was named graduate student of the year by the national organization. Awards such as these speak volumes about the program, about the quality of students and faculty, and the phenomenal work taking place, Lusk said.

A program does not achieve a high ranking unless it is visible, the faculty said. The three faculty members publish their research in peer-reviewed journals, serve in leadership roles on national boards and committees, attend national conferences and collaborate with colleagues at other top-ranked programs. Their students also conduct research with them and participate at conferences.

U.S. News uses only the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and faculty at accredited programs or schools in each discipline to determine rankings of what it calls specialty graduate programs. That's different from its rankings of undergraduate programs and larger graduate fields such as education, engineering, business and law, where scores are compiled from such factors as student acceptance rate, student to faculty ratio, research grants and GRE scores.

"Although we are not ranked according to those figures, the people voting in the peer survey base their opinions on many of these same factors," Lusk said. "In that way, these numbers do affect our rank."

"Our peers know us from our publications, our work at professional conferences and our grantsmanship," Williams added.

Top-ranked programs have the most productive scholars working in them, Koch said, but these scholars also inspire their students.

"Our graduates leave the program with a lot of passion," she said. "They are strong advocates on a large scale. People with disabilities are the most marginalized populations in the United States, and our graduates have a deep understanding of the discrimination that people with disabilities face every day."

The faculty members believe they help to instill that passion in their students because they also share it. Koch said Williams is fond of saying to students that, if they don't leave the U of A dissatisfied with the status quo and a burning desire to change it, the faculty members have not done their jobs. Guest speakers brought to classes and the people students meet at their internship sites - many of them also graduates of the U of A program - reinforce that passion and dedication, too, Koch said.

"I tell students on the first day of class my job is not to make you happy," Williams said. "If you are content with the way our society treats people with disabilities when you finish our program, we have in some way failed you."

The faculty members complement each other because each has a different primary research focus - Koch's is psychiatric disorders, Lusk's is substance use and disability, and Williams' is universal design as a means of accessibility for people with disabilities. Yet, they said, they often overlap in their work and interests. They develop courses based on their expertise and the needs they see in the field. Koch teaches a psychiatric disabilities course she created, and Lusk will teach the program's first course focusing on substance use and co-occurring disabilities this fall.

Koch is on an off-campus duty assignment through the summer, working on a book about emerging disabilities with a colleague at Kent State University. She and Lusk are also co-guest editors, with a colleague at the University of North Texas, of a special issue of the journal Rehabilitation Research, Policy, and Education. It will address emerging disabilities and evidence-based practices in relationship to psychiatric rehabilitation.

"I think this diversity of interests creates a well-rounded learning experience for our students that they wouldn't get if we all had the same research emphasis," Koch said.

Williams said advanced medical technology affects the number of people with disabilities.

"The number of people with acquired disabilities will continue to increase because more people survive what would have been fatal accidents and injuries in the past," he said.  "A good example of that is disabled veterans. We see more veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with disabilities because advanced health care saved their lives."

Rehabilitation counselors play a vital role in helping people with disabilities live and work on their own, Williams said, but there continues to be a significant gap between the number of people with disabilities who are employed compared to people without disabilities.

"Rehab counselors strive, not only to help people with disabilities find employment, but also to integrate themselves into society as a whole," he said. "They work with people from military veterans to the 18-year-old with cerebral palsy who wants to transition from high school to independent living."

The field attracts many nontraditional students, Williams said, such as people in their 40s who decide their careers are not as fulfilling as they would like.

"A successful rehabilitation counselor has to have empathy and passion for people while simultaneously having an understanding of the pragmatic aspects involved," he said. "Feeling empathy without an understanding of what it takes for a person with disabilities to live independently or begin a career won't facilitate that. Our students have to know physiology, job markets and the way bureaucratic systems work, among other skills and knowledge."

The program has had complete turnover since it first appeared in the U.S. News ranking, and the faculty members are proud to have kept it among the most prestigious programs in the country after the retirement of Richard Roessler in 2010. Roessler co-wrote two leading textbooks in the field and won national awards for his service and research, which focused on employment issues faced by people with severe chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis.

 "Rick Roessler was an icon in the field," Koch said, "and we have been able to continue the tradition of excellence, while also taking the program in different directions."