Leadership

Alan Muir
Executive Director Alan Muir - Executive Director and Co-Founder of COSD

After joining the University of Tennessee (UT) in 1998, Alan Muir recognized a disconnection between post-secondary offices of disability services, and career services at most universities across the country. With Dr. Bob Greenberg, Director of Career Services at UT, he conducted preliminary research to document this anecdotal gap for the very first time. Subsequently, Mr. Muir co-founded Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD), and with the support of U.S. Department of Labor funding in 2001, became COSD’s first Executive Director. Under his leadership, COSD experienced significant growth, and currently has brought together member entities including universities, employers, and U.S. Government agencies focused on career employment of college graduates with disabilities. Mr. Muir has presented at universities, employers and many conferences across the country. Mr. Muir’s previous employment experience was as Vice-President with Chase Manhattan Bank on Long Island in New York.

Alan’s other involvement in disability and employment issues include current memberships in the Association of Higher Education and Disabilities (AHEAD), Tennessee AHEAD, National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers (SOACE). Community service participation includes acting as a member of the Board of Directors of the Disability Resource Center in Knoxville. He also serves on the Council of Diversity and Interculturalism at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.  Mr. Muir was named as a recipient of the 2004 AAPD / Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, a distinguished and highly competitive national honor.  He and his wife Laura live in Knoxville.

Dr. Robert M. Greenberg
Co-Founder of COSD 

Bob Greenberg retired from over 20 years of service as Career Services Director at The University of Tennessee. For the final five years of that term he was also Assistance Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

Bob earned a Bachelor’s degree at Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota and received a Master’s in College Student Personnel Administration and a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration from Indiana University in Bloomington. During the period in which he earned his graduate degrees Bob spent two years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Iran and 20 months as a USAID Research Associate at Kabul University in Afghanistan.

Bob directed the two-year Indiana College Level Manpower Study, funded by the Lilly Endowment after completion of his doctorate. He then became Associate Director of Business Placement at Indiana University, Director of Career Development at The University of Cincinnati, and arrived at The University of Tennessee in 1984.

Bob was an officer of a number of career services organizations and associations. During his career he appointed and took part in a team that raised funds and developed the first college level resume database system. He won the College Placement Council Chevron Award for producing the first nationwide videoconferences related to career services. He oversaw the development of a series of handouts title “What Can I Do With This Major?” that are now on-line resources at over 400 colleges and universities nationwide.

Bob was involved in working with Alan Muir as co-founders of COSD. He views his experience with this organization as one of the highlights of his career.
Crystal Gilreath
Director of Operations

Crystal Gilreath currently serves as the Director of Operations for COSD and specifically for Career Gateway.  Crystal's career has centered on higher education and spanned the opportunity to work with students, faculty, staff and employers.  Her research interests are self-determination, employment outcomes for college graduates with disabilities and disability as diversity.

Holding bachelor degrees from Gardner-Webb University and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, along with a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Tennessee, Crystal has counseled students with disabilities; advised chapters of a collegiate honor society and mediated student, faculty and / or staff discrimination complaints.  In her career, she has always found her way back to where she began...working with college students with disabilities and addressing the ongoing discrepancy of unemployment for this population.