Meera Adya

Meera AdyaAffiliated Researcher, Former BBI Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, Ph.D., J.D.

madya@syr.edu
Curriculum Vita (PDF)

Meera Adya, Ph.D., J.D., is the BBI Senior Director of Research and Evaluation and Affiliated Faculty in Psychology at Syracuse University and the Consortium for Culture and Medicine involving SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse University, and Le Moyne College. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on identifying and remediating social problems through empirical exploration of the factors that affect decision-making and testing of efficacious remedies that fit within an existing legal framework. Dr. Adya earned her law degree and doctorate in social psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which is among the foremost interdisciplinary programs in psychology and law. Using the literature of disability discrimination in employment, her research laid the foundation for a new direction in employment and disability discrimination research; findings suggest potential for discrimination based on perceived disability due to a positive family history or a positive genetic test for a disorder. Dr. Adya’s recent work at the intersection of property and psychology involved a collaboration with others to examine U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence related to 4th Amendment search and seizure caselaw and conceptions of privacy.  While jurisprudence seems to consider privacy a unidimensional construct, our empirical research using multidimensional scaling techniques suggests privacy is more complex than that.

At BBI, Dr. Adya has continued to examine factors that impact the inclusion of people with disabilities in employment settings, particularly through the use of technology-based and other accommodations and a corporate culture of inclusion broadly.  In addition, she has examined factors, such as accessibility, that have impacted people with disabilities’ community and political participation. As Director of Research at BBI, Dr. Adya directs the research agenda and oversees BBI research activities across all offices. She works with researchers across projects to develop and implement data collection protocols, conduct data analyses, and prepare timely reports that disseminate project data and findings. Key projects include: (1) conducting a survey to examine voting patterns and political participation of people with disabilities in the 2012 elections (Principal Investigator), (2) a field-based experimental study investigating implicit attitudes evident in employer hiring decisions for the NIDRR-funded Demand-Side Employment Placement Models project (Principal Investigator); (3) a project examining workplace accommodations’ effectiveness and cost-benefit over the long-term, a sub-contract of the Workplace Accommodations RERC (Co-Principal Investigator) that involves a survey of over 2,000 employees and supervisors – over 1,200 of which were persons with disabilities; (4) the Department of Labor, ODEP-funded Disability Case Study Research Consortium on Employer Best Practices in Employing Persons with Disabilities, a project which established a paradigm for conducting business-focused case studies of the return-on-investment that accrues from the employment of persons with disability and which involved conducting several case studies (Project Director); (5) a project examining service delivery models of assistive technology, including accommodations in the workplace and their costs and benefits, to facilitate improved employment outcomes for persons with disabilities; (6) a project examining workplace policies, practices, and accommodations that support the reintegration and retention of Veterans, National Guard and Reserve members; (7) conducting employer roundtables to discuss inclusion and accommodation in the workplace for persons with disabilities through the New York Medicaid Infrastructure Grant; (8) a project examining the accessibility of America’s Job Centers (formerly One-Stops) nationwide, (9) a project examining laws, policies, and practices that support the creation and use of accessible technologies in the workplace, (10) the Disability Program Navigator – Hurricane Initiative, a project examining the role of One-Stops and their personnel in assisting citizens with disabilities to identify accessible community and workplace solutions after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and (11) the Community Access and Participation project examining the physical and programmatic accessibility and accommodations offered at civic sites across eight south-eastern states and their impact on community participation.

Publications

2017

2015

2009

2008

  • Meera Adya, Peter Blanck. (2008). Judges’ Nonverbal Behavior. Brian L. Cutler, ed., Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law, SAGE Publications, 388-390.

2007