KU News Release

Pioneering KU disabilities researchers named Beach Distinguished Professors

Ann Turnbull

Rud Turnbull

LAWRENCE — Ann and Rud Turnbull have been named the first Marianna and Ross Beach Distinguished Professors at the University of Kansas.

The professorships were established by Marianna and Ross Beach of Lawrence to assure permanent support of the leadership at the Beach Center on Disability. It is the first distinguished professorship for the Beach Center and the first for a faculty member in the Department of Special Education in the School of Education. The Beach Center is affiliated with the Department of Special Education and the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies.

Rick Ginsberg, dean of the School of Education, said the Turnbulls are two of the leading researchers in the world on issues affecting individuals with disabilities and their families.

“They truly are national treasures, and we are honored to be able to recognize them this way,” said Ginsberg. “Throughout their careers they have worked tirelessly to help enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families by working directly with them as well as with practicing professionals, graduate students and policy leaders.”

Ann and Rud Turnbull co-founded the Beach Center and have been co-directors since 1988. The center facilitates national and international collaboration among families, disability advocates, practitioners and researchers and offers graduate training to doctoral students in special education. The center has generated more than $32 million in external funding over the years. The Turnbulls oversaw $22 million of that funding.

“This distinguished professorship is apt recognition of the Turnbulls’ lifetime of work that no doubt will continue to evolve in the years ahead,” said Ginsberg.

Steve Warren, director of the Life Span Institute, described the professorships as “long-deserved recognition of the extraordinary impact that Rud and Ann Turnbull have had through their scholarship and advocacy on the quality of life of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.”

In 1999, the Turnbulls were selected by a national consortium of seven organizations within the intellectual and developmental disabilities field as two of 36 individuals who changed the course of history in the 20th century for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The center is named in honor of the Beaches in recognition of their long-standing efforts on behalf of families who are affected by disability.

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