Alexis Buettgen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the DeGroote School of Business and an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, as well as an adjunct faculty member in the Critical Disability Studies Program at York University. She is also an advisor and consultant to the International Disability Alliance, an international alliance that advocates at the United Nations for more inclusive environments worldwide. Buettgen is co-lead of IDEA’s Measurement and Evaluation Activity Area.

Prior to her postdoctoral work, Buettgen was a Senior Research Officer at the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies (now known as Eviance), a Senior Research Consultant with Citizens With Disabilities Ontario and a Senior Research Associate with the O’Halloran Group (now known as Openly).

Buettgen’s work focuses on advancing research, practice and policy in the areas of social and climate justice, inclusion, poverty reduction, and community capacity and coalition building, with a particular interest in disability studies. Her current research focuses on disability inclusion in the green economy and bridging the gap between academic knowledge, climate action and social justice.

Buettgen is Co-Editor in Chief of Handbook of Disability: Critical Thought and Social Change in a Globalizing World (Springer).

Buettgen has a PhD in critical disability studies from York University and an MA in community psychology from Wilfred Laurier University.

“My interest in advancing employer capacity for inclusive employment stems from a concern about how economic and political environments influence forms of employment available to people with disabilities and the capacities of employers to be inclusive. I am particularly interested in critical analyses of work and employment (broadly defined) as a potential solution to poverty. I am motivated by the needs, interests and priorities of diverse people with disabilities and finding creative ways to bring stakeholders in the public, private and non-profit sectors together to co-design solutions to wicked problems of exclusion.”