Ms.O’Mara is a faculty member in the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy in the VCU School of Education. She currently serves as Project Director for VCU’s Work Incentive Planning and Assistance National Training Center. 

Over the past 25 years, Susan’s work has focused on increasing knowledge and understanding, supporting research, and influencing needed policy reform on the Social Security Disability benefit programs, public health care programs, and other federal and state benefit programs. Ms. O’Mara’s recent work experience includes providing technical support to state and local projects on four Social Security Administration funded initiatives. In her work on these projects, she played a lead role in the design and implementation of national training and technical assistance efforts.

In addition to the delivery of information through training programs, Ms. O’Mara has likewise been involved in the development of high quality training curricula and resource materials. These include the development of a work incentives curriculum for the Virginia Office of Supported Employment in 1989, development of the SSA funded APSE WIN national curriculum in 1990, and the SSA national curriculum currently used in training Community Work Incentives Coordinators in the WIPA initiative. 

Ms. O’Mara was accepted as a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2006.