Dr. Rebecca Sheffield is a teacher, professor, researcher, advocate, and subject-matter expert in the field of blindness and visual impairment. She works for the U.S. Department of Education as an Education Program Specialist in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). This website and its contents relate to Rebecca’s private and independent work and are in no way associated with the Department of Education or Rebecca’s work at the Department.
Prior to beginning her work at OSEP, Rebecca served as the teacher of students with visual impairments for the St. Thomas-St. John school district in the U.S. Virgin Islands. From 2013-2018, Rebecca was the Senior Policy Researcher at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). She holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from Texas Tech University and was a fellow in the National Leadership Consortium in Sensory Disabilities. Rebecca represented the American Foundation for the Blind in leadership roles within the World Blind Union and the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment and is the District 6 Representative on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. Her research interests center on the national and international implications of listening to people with visual impairments of all ages in order to study the extent to which policies, programs, and services actually improve quality of life.
