The Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (KTER) Center (https://kter.org) at American Institutes for Research (AIR) is funded to test a knowledge broker model in vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency settings. Knowledge brokers are individuals positioned to bridge the worlds of research and practice (Long, Cunningham, & Braithwaite, 2013). As part of the interventions it develops to test for its research, the KTER Center trains staff from VR agencies how to act in a knowledge broker role. For example, existing trainings in the KTER Center's ongoing studies of knowledge brokering in VR contexts include online modules about (1) adult learning, (2) research on the employment of adults with autism, and (3) research on preemployment transition services. VR supervisors are involved in those studies. Data are collected from participants to learn impacts on knowledge gains and attitudinal changes among study participants and the staff they supervise, as well as on client employment outcomes.

Another set of VR staff with whom the KTER Center is working is the National Employment Team (the NET) headed by Kathy West-Evans of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR), the KTER Center's partner. The NET, an initiative made up of VR business consultants who operate as single points of contact for the businesses with which they work, exists to improve working relationships and marketing effectiveness with businesses (Haines et al., 2018). NET members function as business consultants in support of the dual-customer approach to VR, where VR agencies consider businesses as customers, similar to how people with disabilities are treated as customers (Haines et al., 2018). In this marketing and corporate relations role, NET members have the opportunity to work with a variety of companies across industries, including large-scale businesses and industry leaders within the retail, health, and technology sectors. The knowledge broker training the KTER Center will offer to NET members will support this dual-customer approach by bridging the gap of research to practice in a meaningful way that helps the NET enhance business relations.