Nellie Aspel

Dr. Nellie Aspel is the principal of North Shelby School in North Carolina. She is also the Transition Director for Cleveland County Schools. Dr. Aspel has served as on-site coordinator for a federal dissemination grant through UNC-Charlotte to replicate TASSEL (Teaching All Students Skills for Employment and Life - Cleveland Countys transition program) in Mississippi, South Carolina, Ohio, Alabama and Tennessee. In March of 2002, Dr. Aspel conducted a televised session on Achieving a Comprehensive Transition Service System for the 2001 2002 NASDSE Satellite Conference Series. She has served as a member of the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability through the US Department of Labor and has been a member on five North Carolina teams participating in National Leadership summits. She is also a member of the National Advisory Task Force on Alternate Assessment. Dr. Aspel is an adjunct professor at UNC-Charlotte teaching courses in the special education department and serves on several advisory panels at the college including ones associated with the special education doctorate program and various federal grants. She is the author of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Transition Manual and conducts several NCDPI teacher institutes each year in addition to doing numerous presentations and consulting with school systems on transition issues. Dr. Aspel facilitated the development of several courses for the new North Carolina Occupational Course of Study. Dr. Aspel serves on several agency boards related to the field of developmental disabilities and a number of Project Advisory committees through UNC-Charlotte. In collaboration with Dr. Dave Test and Dr. Jane Everson she co-authored a textbook on Transition through Prentice Hall/Merrill Publishing Company which was released in July of 2005. In 2008 she developed 7 training modules on Comprehensive Transition Planning that are being used for statewide training of teachers. She has also been published in several special education related journals and newsletters. Dr. Aspel is actively involved at the local level in a variety of special education related activities serving on the Special Olympics Management Board for Cleveland County and the Hearts and Hooves Therapeutic Riding Program Board of Directors. She has been recognized twice (1997 and 2000) by NC-DPI for distinguished service, was the Wachovia Southwest Region Principal of the year in 1998 and the Cleveland County Distinguished Women in 2007.