Director of Day and Employment Services at The Fogarty Center; Co-President, RIAPSE APSE; National Board of Directors, ESPCC Liaison
Kiernan “Kie” O’Donnell was raised by a community resource advocate in a family that includes people with disabilities and learned the importance and power of inclusion at an early age. Such life lessons and relationships helped propel his professional career where he began working in a direct support capacity as a job coach, and through nearly 20 years of dedication and teambuilding now heads a number of initiatives at The Fogarty Center as the Director of Community Day, Youth in Transition and Employment Services. Most widely known for his work in the documentary film by Dan Habib “Intelligent Lives”, Kie has strived to make transition towards a more equitable future a reality for those he serves and helped lead a successful closure of one of the largest sheltered workshops in Rhode Island.
Throughout his journey, Kie has provided direct support, leadership, strategic planning, training, consultation and technical assistance nationally in a variety of capacities. Living in the city of Providence for twenty years, values the importance of diversity, which has informed his practice and ethics greatly. A longtime community advocate, Kie helped establish the Rhode Island chapter of the Association of People Supporting Employment First (RIAPSE) where he holds the role of Co-President, and functions as the ESPCC Liaison for the National APSE Board of Directors. As an Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators (ACRE) instructor and consultant through the NEON grants, Kie has influenced a number of emerging professionals in Rhode Island and nationally through his passion and expertise, namely around customized employment strategies and using a business-friendly approach towards creative workforce solutions. Kie also serves on the Team ASTRO board helping inform strategy and resource application for at-risk youth in the greater Pawtucket area.
In his free time Kie pursues his 29 year passion for wordsmithery in the hip hop group The Components. Kie is an avid enthusiast of all-things two wheeled and enjoys spending time with his SDONKERS scooter club brethren and angling for monster trout with his daughter Kieragh.