John O’Neill, PhD, is director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research at Kessler Foundation. He is considered a national expert in disability employment, with more than 35 years of experience in vocational rehabilitation research. His work has been funded by federal grants and private sources including the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. 

Dr. O'Neill has served as project co-director of three employment-focused NIDILRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers, as well as a co-investigator of the Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury Model System. He is a former principal investigator of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on the Community Integration of People with TBI, and worked for more than eight years on NIDILRR-funded research to improve vocational rehabilitation services for individuals with AIDS. 

Dr. O’Neill has served on the New York State Rehabilitation Council and is a faculty member of Hunter College of the City University of New York, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. He is co-editor of National Trends in Disability Employment, a monthly report supported by NIDILRR that is issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire.