Members

dr. Jacqueline van Swet has worked as a special education expert, clinical psychologist and mediator in various establishments among other roles. Since 2003, she has been involved in practice-oriented research and in international and domestic collaboration programmes at Fontys.

Marianne den Otter

drs Marianne den Otter is a special education expert and psychologist. She works as teacher educator in the Master EN and as process facilitator with educational partners. She has worked in REC2 (children with hearing and communication difficulties) and for a school advisory service.

Ans Boosten

drs Ans Boosten is a developmental psychologist and has a background in the school advisory services. She works as teacher educator in the Master EN and is coordinator of the school advisory component of the curriculum at Fontys OSO.

Karin Diemel

drs Karin Diemel is a special education expert. She works as teacher educator in the Master EN and is coordinator of the teaching and learning component of the curriculum at Fontys OSO. She is involved in the RAAK research project ‘The educational professional in the spotlight’ where she does her doctorate research on ‘pedagogical sensitivity’.

Frans Smulders

drs Frans Smulders is an expert in language acquisition, career guidance and intercultural communication. He works as teacher educator in the Master EN and is as senior educational consultant involved in various international projects. Background: coordinator of migrant reception, chairman of NT2 Living Languages, project leader for educational opportunities in secondary schools in Eindhoven and for staff duties at the regional training centre in Tilburg.

Mariette Haasen

drs Mariette Haasen is a special education expert and psychologist who specialises in the health sector. She is project leader at the Knowledge Centre for Behaviour, works as teacher educator in the Master EN and in postgraduate education and is active in the educational field.

Anja van Zon

drs Anja van Zon is special educational expert and has a background in Special Education and the school advisory services. She is a teacher educator in the Master EN and is a member of the domain group on internationalisation, research and student counselling where she has been working to improve the quality of master's education, including the quality of practice-based research.

Harrie van den Brand

His professional field has been for fifteen years management in a school for Practical Education and coordinating, organising and guiding work experience for students with special needs in a school for Practical Education. He was secretary of the National Agency of Practical Education from 1995 – 2010. Since 1999 he coordinates programmes for teachers in Practical Education and in schools for Secondary Vocational Education in departments of learning support for Fontys University of Applied Sciences. In 2000 he was a member of the task-force for the European Social Fund Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education Culture and Science of the Netherlands; he represented, as member of the board, the National Agency of Practical Education. He was chairman of the group (UCG) which carried out and coordinated the ESF-project 2000-2006 for Practical Education (PrO) and Schools for Special Secondary Education, (VSO) and participates as adviser in the new programmes 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. He was project manager of an Equal project “Transition from school to employment” and he was an organiser and participator for the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. On national level he was the project manager of Work@Work, a project with 100 schools to improve the process of guiding work placement practice. He also introduced competence based education on different levels . Since 2003 he works together with the EASPD as an expert. Since this year he is assessor of the NVS (The Dutch association for Supported Employment) Commissioned by the Ministry of Education. He wrote an implementation plan Practical Education for the BES-islands (NA). He is involved in introducing Practical Education in Bella Russia. He did study visits in Nuremberg, Berlin, Fürstenwald, Erfurt, Warsaw, Oslo, London, Madrid, New-York, Lisboa, Cadiz, Innsbruck, Brussels, Varna, BES-islands (NA) and Helsinki.

Elle van Meurs

Elle van Meurs MA works as teacher educator in the Master SEN. She gives the minor in special care in secondary education on the teacher training course and advises schools on school development, including school-wide positive behavioural interventions and supports (SWPBS).
She has lectured on secondary education in Rotterdam, where she inspired many educational innovations.

dr. Linda Keuvelaar – van den Bergh

is special education expert and did a research master Behavioural Science. Linda has worked as a teacher and remedial teacher. She has worked at the Teacher Training Centre for primary school teachers and has been the coordinator of the Academic Training School. She finished her doctorate in June 2013 at the Eindhoven School of Education (TU/e). In January 2014 she started to work as teacher educator at Fontys OSO.

Ellen den Arend

Ellen den Arend works as a strategist poverty and education at the department 'social' in the municipality of Tilburg . After studying law at Tilburg University, she has worked for five years in the city of The Hague as a social counselor. She helped citizens search for solutions to their social and legal problems ( such as problems with benefits, allowances, problems with the landlord or their insurance company) . Then she moved to the role of policy maker poverty / debt where she was one of the initiators of a special project for young people in debt . After more than nine years ‘The Hague’, she went to work at the municipality of Tilburg . The first three years she led a project ‘social security’ and later she started in the policy department where she is responsible for the domains poverty and education. In education she is involved in the development of Integrated Family Centres, the development of community schools and in strengthening the language level for children aged 0 -12 years. In short, maybe not a lot of experience with education , but definitely interested and well informed about management processes within the municipality.

Naorah Lockhart, M.S. is a doctoral candidate in Community and Public Affairs at Binghamton University – SUNY, in the United States. She studies collaboration in school mental health, and frames her research through the lens of social capital and social network theories. She has worked as a mental health counselor in college counseling centers and as a program evaluator for a university-public school partnership.

Dr. Chris Pols recently obtained his Educational Doctorate on the University of Roehampton in London. His research had a focus on the views of learners with learning difficulties on their transition from school to work. He has worked as deputy head in different special schools in the Netherlands and was responsible for the professional development in the school and chairperson of the individual needs committee. He has worked in different special education projects in Namibia, Zambia and Australia.