About Roger Ideishi
Job title: Professor
Degrees: JD, BOT ’84
Career stage: Late-career
State of practice: Washington, DC
Current practice settings: Research – academic, Education / training (full-time teaching)
Lived career experiences/transitions:
- Changing specialty
- Non-clinical careers
- Expanding health into the arts industry
Graduation year from the UW School of Medicine: 1984
Specialty/subspecialty: Children and Youth, Arts Accessibility, Arts for Health
Teaching roles: Community based practices, OT Theory
Research or other professional interests: Arts accessibility and inclusion, community engagement
Roger’s Bio: Roger Ideishi (he/him/Japanese American) is the Program Director of Occupational Therapy and Professor of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. He is a co-founder of Philadelphia Chinatown Disability Advocacy Project supporting disabled immigrants navigate culturally and linguistically inaccessible health, education, and social systems. His work has been funded by the US Dept of Education, PA Dept of Education, NIDILRR, Canadian Institute for Health Research, PCORI, and AHRQ. Most recently, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and Ideishi received a $10M US Department of Education Disability Innovation Award to improve, increase, and sustain employment opportunities in the arts for disabled individuals. His work intersects practice, research, and policy. He served on disability policy presidential campaign committees in 2016 and 2020 and has advised over 125 national and international arts and cultural institutions including Japan, Russia, Romania, and Ireland. In 2017, he received the Philadelphia Art-Reach Cultural Access Impact Award. In 2019, he received the Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Award by the Kennedy Center for his leadership in educating and advancing accessibility. In 2022, for his multi-system approach to accessibility and inclusion, the Kennedy Center recognized him on their Next 50 honoree list for significant impacts on society through the arts.