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The Scholar-Practitioner and Professional Stranger
Dr . Jonathan Kauffman
Q & A with Alexandra Nava-Baltimore
Kaufman uses a combination of first hand experience as a person with a disability along with his passion and knowledge to influence the work he does when he “ goes to play .”
Jonathan Kaufman is not only a lifelong learner with a Ph . D . and several master ' s degrees obtained from Columbia University , the University of Chicago , Sarah Lawrence College , and the University of Oxford , but he is a leading force in the disability world through the many hats he wears . Kaufman aims to effect change in this space through his work as an executive coach and consultant at J Kaufman Consulting ; as a writer for his column at Forbes , ‘ Mindset Matters ,’ and as a speaker across the globe . He has spent his life navigating the world as a person with a disability , cerebral palsy , since he was born . Kaufman shared his current work and interests , goals for the future , what he has learned , and the changes and advancements he is working towards within the disability world .
Q : You ' ve had an extensive education , what impact has this had on your career path ? How have your own experiences being a person with a disability influenced your work ?
A : It ' s a combination of things . I think of myself as a scholar-practitioner . I thought I was going to be a full-time academic . The level of advocacy was one thing , but I looked at it and said , okay , how can I shape the
future ? That [ was ] where the most important stuff was . Partly taking from my own experience as a person living with a disability [ cerebral palsy ] was one thing , but I recognized early on that it was only my experience . So , [ I thought ] how do you look at this world without truly understanding it ? There ' s a saying that anthropologists have , we are the professional strangers . That ' s been fun for me ; it ' s never boring ; it ' s always interesting . Now , we ' re on a global stage , the internet has allowed us to be in this global marketplace and global meeting , so there ' s a lot of cross-fertilization of ideas , thoughts , and thinking . I look at understanding