Partnership earns prestigious VCU-wide designation

Headshot of Parthy Dinora, Ph.D., interim executive director of PPD.
Parthy Dinora, Ph.D.

The Partnership for People with Disabilities, a center affiliated with the VCU School of Education, has earned the designation as a university-wide “VCU Research Institute and Center” (VCU-RIC).

The Partnership is one of only nine institutes or centers across the university to earn this recent designation. Each of the facilities was recognized for not only advancing VCU's overall research funding and enterprise, but for fostering increased collaborative research among various schools and colleges and across VCU’s two campuses and overall impact.

The Partnership is recognized as Virginia's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The center engages in interdisciplinary training, technical assistance, research and evaluation, policy, and dissemination efforts that result in communities where all people live, work and recreate together.

Parthy Dinora, Ph.D., interim executive director of the Partnership, said that the team was very happy to achieve this important recognition.

“We are thrilled with this new designation,” Dinora said. “This has been a goal of the Partnership for many years, and we are excited to expand our research collaboration across VCU.”

The review committee was led by Robert Winn, M.D., director of Massey Cancer Center, and John Ryan, Ph.D., associate vice president for research development in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.

“We are excited to support the newly designed VCU-RICs,” said Ryan. “The newly designated VCU-RICs conduct research in diverse areas including youth development, disability services, health disparities, addiction, drug development, and improving physical and mental rehabilitation, etc.,” areas representing VCU research strengths across multiple disciplines and both campuses.

The review aligns university-level VCU research institutes and centers with the key initiatives of the One VCU Strategic Research Priorities Plan:

  1. Enriching the human experience;
  2. Optimizing health;
  3. Achieving a just and equitable society; and
  4. Supporting sustainable energy and environments.

The full list of newly designated research institutes and centers: