Tamara (Tami) Shetron is the inaugural program director of Texas State University's Bobcat RISE program; an Inclusive Postsecondary Education Program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). RISE stands for Resilience, Independence, Self-Determination, and Empowerment. Tami became interested in Postsecondary Inclusion during her time as the music, drama, and spiritual instructor for a residential facility for people with cognitive disabilities. In response to her growing awareness of the vulnerability of this population, she began to explore other opportunities that might support their academic, social, and vocational development and promote greater independence.
In 2020, Tami earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Education from Texas State University with research taking a critical perspective on postsecondary inclusion. She has presented at numerous conferences on topics ranging from critical approaches to postsecondary inclusion to the use of tableau theatre to understand embodied learning in literacy classes. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals and published a book chapter in "Radically Dreaming; Illuminating Freirian Praxis in Turbulent Times." (2022, Dios Press).
Tami comes from a creative family and spent the first half of her adult career running a private music studio while raising children. She feels very fortunate when her two passions (arts and inclusion,) converge. She wrote and directed a half-dozen musicals for her students while working at the residential facility and helped form two theatres for people with disabilities in Central Texas. In addition to her work with Bobcat RISE, she is currently participating in research on how community-based arts organizations working with students with IDD adapted their teaching pedagogies, curriculum, and artistic outcomes in the shift to virtual instruction during Covid-19.
