Shea Tanis
Director for Policy and Advocacy, Coleman Institute
Emily Shea Tanis, PhD, is the Director for Policy and Advocacy at the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado. Dr. Tanis has been a member of the Coleman Institute team since 2010 as a Coleman fellow and quickly advancing into the roles of the Associate Director and Acting Executive Director and now Co-Director for the Institute under the new organizational structure. Dr. Tanis is also on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where she has published articles and investigated the definition of intellectual disability, the measurement of adaptive behavior and support need, the construct of self-determination, federally funded supports and services for people with IDD and their families, and self-directed employment strategies. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in applied cognitive technology supports and advancing the rights of people with IDD to technology and information access.