UMaine Graduate Student Wins National Award
Contact: BJ Kitchin, 581-1375; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Robert “BJ” Kitchin, a UMaine Ph.D student and disability studies teaching assistant, recently was named this year’s recipient of the American Public Health Association’s DisAbility Forum Student Member Award.
The award is presented each year to one college student in the United States who has contributed promising work to advance the health and quality of life of people with disabilities. The American Public Health Association is one of the nation’s largest public health associations.
“BJ is a role model and ambassador who puts disability studies in the forefront of student’s minds,” says Elizabeth DePoy, coordinator of interdisciplinary disability studies at the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies.
Kitchin began his scholarship in disability studies as an undergraduate at UMaine in 1992. He earned a master’s in social work in 2007 and continues as a graduate teaching assistant in interdisciplinary disabilities studies.
Kitchin also worked for 12 years with Community Care in Bangor in administrative, supervisory and clinical capacities in its treatment foster care program. As a research assistant with the UMaine Center on Aging, he was instrumental in helping the statewide Relatives as Parents Project win legislation giving grandparents greater legal standing as guardians of grandchildren.
His current interests involve examining the role of the digital environment in society and how it is made accessible or inaccessible through conventions of visual, auditory, cognitive, physical and social design.
“Besides his multiple talents, devotion to scholarly excellence, and his unending commitment to advancing access as a major human right, BJ has contributed to social change advancing full participation and access on our university campus and throughout the state of Maine,” adds Stephen Gilson, professor of interdisciplinary disability studies.
Kitchin is a first-generation college graduate, and a native and resident of Bangor. He was nominated for the award by DePoy.