University of New Orleans education professor Linda Flynn-Wilson will embark on a trip this summer to instruct students at the University of Vienna and develop an intercollegiate conference.
Flynn-Wilson will teach undergraduate and graduate students in special needs and inclusive education as a visiting professor and
serve as a faculty representative from UNO to create the Behinderten
Symposium, a joint effort of UNO and the University of Innsbruck.
With a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Illinois, Flynn-Wilson coordinates an early intervention program at UNO and chairs its special education department. During her graduate work, she initiated regional and federal projects in inclusive education, cross-cultural fluency, teamwork and collaboration, and program and personnel initiatives.
Additionally, she has hands-on experience with young
children, having taught infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. Flynn-Wilson’s
research emphasizes the needs of families with young children who have
disabilities.
The University of New Orleans and Austrian institutions have a tradition of collaboration dating to 1976, when an international summer school for UNO students opened at the University of Innsbruck. Following a formal agreement to support the program in 1983, Center Austria was developed to serve as a hub for continuing research and information exchange.
New Orleans and Innsbruck have also been sister cities since 1995.