Dr. Thuli is the Senior Research Associate assigned to the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition for Youth with Disabilities and is project co-director for the National Alliance for Secondary Education and Transition. She has been involved in creating and expanding school-to-work systems for youth with disabilities for the past seven years. Her area of expertise includes research, outreach, and the design of activities to improve programs and services for youth with disabilities. Before joining TransCen’s staff, Dr. Crane worked for the National School-to-Work Office of the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, where she collaborated with a variety of federal and state government entities to ensure the inclusion of youth with disabilities in various policy initiatives. She also represented the National School to Work Office on the Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities.
Dr. Crane has worked to assist states in strategic planning to improve the secondary education and transition policies and systems that serve youth with disabilities. In addition, she has conducted research and developed several major training and technical assistance strategies for both education and workforce-related programs including community resource mapping, employer engagement, career majors, and self-determination for youth with disabilities. She has been affiliated with the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin where she worked on developing curriculum that integrates contextual learning experiences. In addition, she has held a variety of leadership positions in professional associations representing vocational special needs and transition. Currently, she is the co-editor for the Journal of Vocational Special Needs.