The Short Version

The professional biography, with considerably less professional biography energy.

I'm an educator, advocate, and program director at Foothill College in California's Silicon Valley. Most of my work focuses on neurodivergent and disabled students, particularly the complicated business of transitioning from K-12 education into college, employment, and adulthood.

I'm also involved in curriculum development, academic leadership, educational research, and the occasional effort to persuade an institution to reconsider something it's been doing for 40 years simply because it's been doing it for 40 years.

My interests are broad, my career path has been decidedly nonlinear, and I tend to approach problems by asking whether we've actually identified the problem before investing enormous amounts of energy in solving it.

The Unnecessarily Scenic Route

I didn't arrive in higher education by anything resembling a straight line.

I've worked in high-end retail, managed a car dealership, taught high school history, and worked in special education. These might seem like unrelated occupations, and in fairness, nobody has ever accused my résumé of having a coherent plot.

But each taught me something useful about people, organizations, expectations, and the often considerable distance between how a system is supposed to work and how it actually works.

Along the way, I discovered that I particularly enjoy helping people navigate transitions, solve problems, and recognize possibilities they might not have considered. I also developed a healthy skepticism toward doing things a certain way simply because that's how they've always been done.

Eventually, those experiences brought me into higher education, where I found an opportunity to put a rather unusual collection of skills to good use.

It turns out the scenic route was pretty useful after all.

What I'm Doing These Days

At Foothill, I direct Tools for Transition & Work, a one-year college and career readiness program for neurodivergent young adults. I teach, develop curriculum, work with families and community partners, and spend a remarkable amount of time figuring out how to help students become increasingly independent without confusing independence with doing everything alone.

I also serve in academic senate and curriculum leadership, working on everything from course development and educational policy to institutional processes that occasionally seem to have evolved without adult supervision.

Outside Foothill, I'm pursuing a Doctor of Education at Johns Hopkins University, with research interests centered on disability, community college student success, and the systems that help or hinder it.

I also present workshops, consult with educational organizations, and collaborate with people who share my interest in making education more accessible, effective, and occasionally sensible.

You can browse my workshops or explore my institutional work through Advocacy & Other Work.

The Alphabet Soup

For those who appreciate formal qualifications, I've collected a few along the way:

Doctor of Education (EdD), in progress | Johns Hopkins University
Master of Special Education (M.Sp.Ed), with distinction | Arizona State University
Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorders | Arizona State University
Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) | University of Southern California
Bachelor of Arts in Art History | University of California, Santa Cruz

I've learned a tremendous amount through formal education, and I'm not inclined to pretend otherwise. I've also learned quite a bit from running businesses, teaching students, building programs, making mistakes, and occasionally discovering that the supposedly less-qualified person in the room has already figured out the answer.

I find the combination rather useful.

Need to Introduce Me?

If you're putting together a conference program, introducing me for a workshop, or need a short biography for something, feel free to use this. I've already done the awkward third-person writing for you:

Ben Kaupp is an educator, disability advocate, and program director at Foothill College, where he leads Tools for Transition & Work, a college and career readiness program for neurodivergent young adults. His work focuses on disability inclusion, student success, curriculum development, and the transition from K-12 education to adulthood. With a background spanning business leadership, secondary education, special education, and community college instruction, he brings an interdisciplinary and practical perspective to educational challenges. Ben holds graduate degrees from USC and Arizona State University and is pursuing his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University.

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