Faculty member to share research at special White House meeting

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. College of Education faculty member  Liza Conyers  will share her expertise on HIV and workforce development at a special White House meeting on Monday (Jan. Conyers, associate professor of counselor education, rehabilitation and human services, will present information at this meeting with members of the White House Office on National AIDS Policy, board members of the National Working Positive Coalition and administrators from CSAVR to discuss implementation of the new  Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act  (WIOA). Passed on July 22, 2014, WIOA is scheduled to go into effect on July 1. "I recently completed a study that showed that people with HIV who used vocational rehabilitation had better outcomes related to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy,  including increased access to care; reduction of risk behaviors associated with HIV transmission; and higher rates of engagement in supplementary employment services," Conyers said. "My efforts are to try to figure out how we can coordinate services among federal agencies, to ensure that people with HIV/AIDS who need vocational rehabilitation services are getting them. The results of a national survey I completed in 2008 showed that many people with HIV were not familiar with vocational rehabilitation services." The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) System is authorized and funded under what is now the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).