Olaya Landa-Vialard

Coordinator, Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments Program Assistant Professor

Olaya Landa-Vialard, received her Ph.D. in Special Education with an emphasis on Visual Impairments/Blindness from Texas Tech University. Olaya was a Fellow in the National Leadership Consortium in Sensory Disabilities. She has worked as a Bilingual Elementary School Teacher, Bilingual Educational Diagnostician for Students with Visual Impairments/Blindness Birth to 21, Bilingual TVI/Early Interventionist, and Bilingual In-Home Trainer for Students with Autism and Visual Impairments. Olaya is the President of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AERBVI) and is a consultant to educational agencies for assessments of students who are blind/visually impaired. Advocacy is something that is close to her heart. She has participated in many advocacy events in Washington, D.C. She has organized advocacy events locally to help bring awareness to the issues in the field of Visual Impairments/Blindness. She has also co-authored position papers in the field of visual impairments/blindness. She is a peer-reviewed published author with publications in the Journal of Visual Impairments and Blindness and the International Journal of Orientation and Mobility. She has also been a Co-Principal Investigator for a 1.25 million Department of Education Grant training Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments to become Early Interventionists.