Susan Arwood is honored to be joining the NADSP team as the Director of Certification. Susan calls the mountains of beautiful East Tennessee her home, where she began her career in human services as a DSP in 1981. Helping people with disabilities achieve goals of employment and independence has been a lifetime passion for Susan. Susan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Wisconsin Stout. Her work experience has included a 32-year career with the Tennessee Vocational Rehabilitation program and 14 years in the IDD provider world.

For the past 11 years, Susan has been the Executive Director of Core Services of Northeast Tennessee. Susan and her team lead this small provider agency through a person-centered transformation resulting in achieving CQL Person-Centered Excellence with Distinction accreditation, accreditation as a SHIFT Enabling Technology First Organization and SHIFT Employment First Organization. The agency heavily invested in DSP workforce initiatives and was awarded the Moving Mountains Award in 2022 for innovative workforce initiatives. Susan describes herself as a longstanding fan of the NADSP E-Badge Academy. At the time of her departure, Core Services supported over half of the agency’s 90 Direct Support Professionals to achieve DSP certification through the E-Badge Academy. This achievement strongly correlated with a significant decrease in DSP vacancy rates (3%) and DSP turnover rate (25%).  In her new role Susan looks forward to promoting the professional status of DSPs through certification and serving as a resource for agencies who want to carry out the same success.