Fred Spooner (UNC Charlotte) has 40 years of IHE experience and 4 years of direct practical experience with learners who have severe disabilities (extensive support needs). He has published over 150 articles, books chapters, and books on teaching individuals with extensive support needs. He has directed more than a $10 million of research and personnel preparation projects in the area of extensive support needs in the last 3 decades. Dr. Spooner was a trailblazer at UNC Charlotte in the creation of distance education coursework and the first faculty member at UNC Charlotte to use this teaching medium in special education. Dr. Spooner has held numerous editorial posts, including Co-editor of TEACHING Exceptional Children, Co-editor Teacher Education and Special Education and currently, is the Co-editor-in-Chief for The Journal of Special Education, and Associate Editor for Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities (RPSD). In 2003, he served as the guest editor for a set of articles in a special exchange series on defining scientifically based research for RPSD, a guest co-editor for a special issue of RPSD on accessing the general education curriculum in 2006, and as guest co-editor for a second special issue on evidence-based practices 2017. During the last 20 years, Dr. Spooner has worked on federally funded research projects by the IES and OSEP.