Michael Wehmeyer grew up in Tulsa and received both his B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of Tulsa 
in Communicative Disorders, and although we are very proud to claim him, this was just the beginning. He next completed a M.Sc. in experimental psychology at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK where he was a Rotary International Fellow, and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Communication Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Wehmeyer is currently Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas, with research affiliations at Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, and Beach Center on Disability. From his undergraduate days at TU until the present, Dr. Wehmeyer’s focus has been people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. His brilliant career began as a special education teacher with Tulsa Public Schools, and he is now an international expert in special education with particular focus on self-determination for people with disabilities.
Dr. Wehmeyer is the author of 285 peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters and has been an editor of five journals. He has served as primary investigator for externally funded research grants totaling in excess of 25 million dollars. In addition, he has authored or edited 30 books on disability and education related issues including issues pertaining to self-determination, positive psychology, transition to adulthood, the education and inclusion of students with severe disabilities, and technology use by people with cognitive disabilities. Two intriguing titles of books in press that he has edited are Handbook of Positive Psychology and Disability and An Informal History of Intellectual Disability. He has received numerous awards for teaching, scholarship and research. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and the American Association on Mental Retardation.
Dr. Wehmeyer combines his distinguished academic accomplishments with a dedication to the humanity of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities—a combination of head and heart—that is too rare, but cannot be overestimated in value. His initiation this evening into Phi Beta Kappa recognizes his superb teaching, scholarship and research and his outstanding contributions to the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those who provide services to these individuals in the United States and throughout the world.