Dan Samosh is an Assistant Professor, Employment Relations Studies at Queen’s University and an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health. He co-leads IDEA’s Hub 3, Transitions to Work and Career Development

Prior to his posting at Queen’s, Samosh was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute for Work & Health and at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto.

Samosh’s current research looks at the work experiences of persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on the leadership emergence of persons with disabilities, disability stigma and social identity, and workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Samosh earned his PhD in organizational behaviour and MSc in management at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.

“I came to this work through a mixture of research and practice interest, as well as for personal reasons. During my graduate studies, it became apparent that conversations around disability, career advancement and leadership tend to focus on either career advancement barriers or leading people with disabilities, while overlooking career advancement facilitators and experiences of leaders with disabilities. Through my work on career advancement facilitators and leadership, I came to recognize the importance of taking a systems perspective, wherein individuals, social networks, employers, other actors and society more broadly are all important components of career success. Employers are an important piece of this puzzle. If we can build employer capacity to be proactive and flexible, we can start to break down many barriers to career success.”