BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

FREDRIC K. SCHROEDER, PH.D.

Fredric K. Schroeder is a research professor with the Interwork Institute at San Diego State University Specializing in the area of leadership and public policy in Vocational Rehabilitation. In 1994, Prior to joining the Interwork faculty, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Schroeder to serve as the ninth commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) within the U.S. Department of Education. As RSA Commissioner, Dr. Schroeder administered a $2.5 billion dollar program that provides services to more than 1 million people with disabilities annually.

On July 6, 2005, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind, but his service to the Federation is not new. Dr. Schroeder previously served on the Board for ten years from 1984 to 1994. In addition to his service on the Board of Directors, Dr. Schroeder serves as the President of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia and has represented the Federation at numerous national and international meetings and conferences.

Dr. Schroeder was born in Lima, Peru and was adopted when only 19 months old. As a young child he had normal sight but became blind after suffering a severe allergic reaction at the age of seven. He attended public school in Albuquerque, New Mexico but received no special education services to teach him to read braille or learn any alternative techniques that would allow him to function competitively.

After graduating from high school, Dr. Schroeder attended the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, California. It was there that he found the Federation and his involvement in the organization has been central to his life and work ever since.

In the early 1980s, while living in New Mexico, Dr. Schroeder helped establish the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. At that time he was the President of the New Mexico affiliate of the Federation and was deeply troubled by the poor quality of rehabilitation services available to blind people in the state. After a bitter legislative fight, in 1996, the Federation was successful and the Commission was established. Dr. Schroeder worked for eight years as the Commission’s first Executive Director, bringing Federation philosophy into the work of the newly founded agency.

Dr. Schroeder earned a Baccalaureate Degree in Psychology in 1977; a Master's Degree in Education in 1978 and completed postgraduate work in Orientation and Mobility in 1980. Dr. Schroeder was the first blind person in the nation to be admitted to a university program in orientation and mobility, although he was denied certification on the basis of blindness. Dr. Schroeder went on to earn a Ph.D. in education administration from the University of New Mexico in May, 1994.