U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that Joanne M. Wilson has been formally sworn in as commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Since 1985 Wilson has been director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, which she founded as the state's first adult orientation and adjustment training facility and independent living center for the blind. She has also served as a consultant to the Connecticut Board of Education and Services for the Blind, the New Jersey Orientation and Adjustment Center for the Blind, and the New York Commission for the Blind.

Wilson has a master's degree in guidance and counseling and administration from Iowa State University. She was an elementary school teacher in Ames, Iowa, where she taught both blind and sighted children, and a continuing education instructor at Louisiana Tech University.

President Bush nominated Wilson on June 21 and she was confirmed by the Senate on July 19.

"Joanne Wilson has a record of achievement that matches her boundless determination and dedication," Paige said, "and as someone who has actually used grants from RSA, she understands how its program can help individuals with disabilities to participate more fully in work and in their communities. I'm very pleased that she has agreed to join us."

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