Awards

The Jon Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award honors an individual who reflects the spirit and legacy of the late Jon Peterson — a selfless leader, a natural connector, and a champion of collaboration. Peterson was known for turning ideas into action and for helping others bring meaningful solutions to life.

Elected in 1998, Representative Peterson served five terms in the Ohio House of Representatives and later as Delaware County Treasurer. Among his many accomplishments, he played a pivotal role in sponsoring the legislation that established OCALI. This effort grew directly from the testimonies of hundreds of Ohio families who shared their personal experiences with the Ohio Autism Task Force.

Representative Peterson went on to serve for several years as chair of OCALI’s governing board and received OCALI’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Following his passing in 2019, the award was renamed the Jon Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his enduring impact.

Paul Wehman
Director of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, Virginia Commonwealth University

Paul Wehman, Ph.D., has been a tenured faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1976. He is Director of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (Director 1983-2023; Director 2024-present). Dr. Wehman's career at VCU spans over five decades, making him one of the longest-tenured and most cited faculty members in the university's history regarding disability policy and vocational rehabilitation.

Originally affiliated with the VCU School of Education, he later held a joint appointment with the School of Education and the School of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, where he served as Vice-Chairman for Research. His work has focused on supported employment and services for individuals with autism, intellectual disabilities, brain injury, spinal cord injury, and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

He has written extensively on issues related to the transition from school to adulthood and special education as they relate to young adulthood and employment, and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has received numerous awards and served as Principal Investigator on more than $100 million in federal and state grants since joining VCU.

His areas of interest include employment of people with disabilities, autism, special education, and educational policy for at-risk youth, disability policy, assistive technology, supported employment, and related fields.