Deborah Ziegler, Ed.D.

Consultant | CEC

Deborah A. Ziegler is the Director for Policy and Advocacy and Professional Standards at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), one of the world’s premier education organizations.

She has broad public policy experience at the international, national, state, and local levels. Dr. Ziegler works to further the overall goals of CEC through improving policies affecting exceptional children and youth and the professionals who work with them, at all levels of government. In her position, she is responsible for providing leadership and direction for the association’s public policy agenda, including policy development, implementation, and analysis; information collection and dissemination; and maintaining a grassroots network of Children and Youth Action Network (CAN ) Coordinators. She works closely with the White House, the United States Congress, and the Federal Agencies including the U.S. Department of Education to advocate for policies that guarantee a free appropriate public education for children and youth with disabilities and gifts and talents.

Dr. Ziegler serves on the board of and works with several international disability organizations, whose focus is the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She is the recent editor of Inclusion for ALL: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a publication of the IDEA program of the Open Society Institute. Dr. Ziegler has worked since 1994 in providing technical assistance and training on behalf of the Open Society Institute and other nongovernmental/governmental organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East to assist programs in implementing policies and practices in early childhood education and inclusive education for children with disabilities.

Dr. Ziegler has worked as a special education teacher, special education administrator and faculty at the university level. She has consulted widely and written extensively in the policy arena.