Erin Riehle, MSN, RN is a recognized authority and national leader in promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. She is a founder and Senior Director of Project SEARCH, an employment and transition program that has received national recognition for innovative practices pioneered under Ms. Riehle’s guidance. She is regularly invited to present at national and regional conferences, and has co-authored numerous publications and book chapters. She is an active member of the Association for Persons in Supported Employment, and has served on many national committees, such as the Virginia Commonwealth University Business Leadership Roundtable and the Youth to Work Coalition. She is a board member for the United States Business Leadership Network and the Northern Kentucky University Research Foundation. She has gained over $1,500,000 in foundation and agency support for Project SEARCH programs, and has won numerous awards for her work. Notably, Project SEARCH received the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2004 New Freedom Initiative Award, and in 2005 Ms. Riehle was named “Dorine Seaquist Outstanding Woman of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center”.
Erin Riehle began her career at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center as a staff nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit and rapidly advanced to clinical director of the emergency department. Her interest in employment for people with disabilities grew from her frustration with high turnover rates among workers performing critical tasks such as re-stocking emergency room supply shelves. Riehle found that placing individuals with developmental disabilities in these positions was both an effective solution to her staffing problems and an improvement in quality of life for the workers she employed. This positive experience ultimately led to a systematic, hospital-wide effort, led by Ms. Riehle, to explore job possibilities for people with disabilities.
Today, Riehle, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, is director of the Division of Disability Services at the Convalescent Hospital for Children, an affiliate of Cincinnati Children’s. She launched Project SEARCH in 1995 as a partnership between the Division of Disability Services and Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development. The initial mission of Project SEARCH was to provide employment opportunities in a healthcare setting for individuals with disabilities. The initiative has since extended to other industry sectors, and now includes services for individuals with other barriers to employment such as economic disadvantage. Project SEARCH now encompasses five programs, including the High School Transition Program, Adult Employment Program, Health Professions Academy, Transition Clinic, and Education and Outreach focused on program replication and dissemination.