Abstract
College students attend higher education institutions with varying disabilities. One set of students who require unique support are college students with brain injuries. While institutions have staff who work in disability services offices who may be familiar with other types of disabilities such as learning disability, ADHD, or other cognitive impairments, they may not be familiar with ways to address the unique needs of students with a brain injury. This dissertation describes the development of a two-part program called Open Doors-Open Minds developed to address the academic and social challenges of college students with a brain injury. Open Doors-Open Minds was guided by Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure (1993), which argues that students who are academically and socially integrated to campus are more likely to persist in college and earn their degree. To date, there are few programs available for college personnel that detail how they can support students with brain injuries so that they can become socially and academically engaged within their university and persist to graduation. Open Doors-Open Minds is an effort to begin the transformation of college and university campuses in ways that make them more inclusive of students with brain injuries.