Presenter Introduction

Tobey Partch-Davies
Project Director
Institute on Disability
College of Health and Human Services
The University of New Hampshire

Tobey Partch-Davies, Ph.D., M.S., M.A., is currently the Project Director on Poverty and Disability at the UNH-Institute on Disability, and an instructor for UNH-Discovery Program where she teaches The Right to Be Disabled. Her work consists of coordinating research and evaluation projects funded by government agencies, private foundations and private contractors. Her scholarly agenda involves the social determinants of health with a special focus on financial capability and poverty among individuals with disabilities, and more recently the use of an implementation science framework for evaluating evidence based practices. Prior to her work as a researcher, she coordinated employment and community based services in partnership with Vocational Rehabilitation, community rehabilitation providers and developmental services. Since then she has led multiple studies investigating the effects of workforce development, work incentives, financial coaching, and asset accumulation on the socio-economic status of persons with disabilities and minorities. She is currently leading several investigations related to the fidelity of implementation of an evidenced based home visiting practice and its effects on maternal and child health. Dr. Partch-Davies currently serves on the UNH Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, and is Secretary for the National Association of Disability Benefit Specialists, a division of the National Rehabilitation Association. Prior to returning to the UNH-IOD in 2009, Dr. Partch-Davies served for six years as founding Director of the Center for Community Economic Development & Disability at Southern New Hampshire University, where she served as Principal Investigator for a NIDRR funded Asset Accumulation and Tax Policy Project; a three state Asset for Independence Act grant to administer Individual Development Accounts; Living with Independence, Freedom & Equality (LIFE) Project, and the Principal Investigator for several CMS funded sub-studies for New Hampshire’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant.