The Lee Mitchener Tolbert Center for Developmental Disabilities

The mission of the Lee Mitchener Tolbert Center [Lee Tolbert Center), at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), is to promote evidence-based services within natural life contexts for people with developmental disabilities and their families through excellence in discovery, integration, application, and teaching.

Lee Tolbert Center faculty and staff incorporate the following ten service principles into all education, service, and research activities. 

• Application of state and federal regulations
• Cultural sensitivity
• Evidence-based practices
• Person and family-centered services
• Functional outcomes
• Inclusion and Participation
• Natural environments and contexts
• People-first language
• Self-determination
• Team-oriented service delivery

 

• ​The Lee Tolbert Center began as a library and resource center, which remains a primary function. The Center’s collection includes paper and digital resources related to people with developmental disabilities from an interprofessional life span perspective. 
• The Oklahoma Autism Network, the State’s Autism Information and Referral, is housed in the Lee Tolbert Center. 
• Resources are available to anyone with interest in people with developmental disabilities.

• The Lee Tolbert Center faculty and clinical staff engage in the OUHSC professional programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy, in the postprofessional doctor of science degree program in rehabilitation sciences, in the interdisciplinary doctor of philosophy program in allied health sciences, and in the interprofessional Oklahoma LEND program. 
• Faculty and staff also provide local, national, and international educational outreach through professional development workshops, seminars, webinars, and conferences for service providers and families of people of all ages with developmental disabilities.

• The Lee Tolbert Center faculty and clinical staff conduct research related to improving services and supports for people at risk for or with developmental disabilities and their families.
• Current research includes the validation of the School Outcomes Measure (SOM),  a minimal data set that measures the outcomes of students with disabilities who receive school-based occupational therapy and/or physical therapy services.

• The Lee Tolbert Center faculty and clinical staff provide service models for students and service providers that meet the service delivery needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families. 
• Services include direct service delivery, technical assistance, professional and family training, advocacy, community capacity and systems change, and community, state, and national professional organization and agency involvement.

The Lee Mitchener Tolbert Center Community of Practice page highlights projects and resources developed by post-professional students in the Lee Tolbert Center’s Post-Professional Doctor of Science (DSc) degree program, focused on supporting children with disabilities throughout the lifespan.