Following a year as a visiting Professor, Tim officially joined the University of British Columbia School of Social Work as an Associate Professor in July of 2002 and promoted to Full Professor in 2007. He became Director of the School in 2010. His main interest is in the area of disability with a particular emphasis on intellectual disability. After a number of years in practice in both BC and Ontario, where he was director of policy and programmes for the Ontario Association for Community Living, he moved to Britain where he completed his doctorate looking at the rights of people with developmental disabilities and individualized funding. He has taught at the LSE, McGill, and the University of Wales Swansea, where he was Director Social Work, He has published numerous books and articles on individualized funding, disability rights, history, ethics and theory.

Tim Stainton is active in the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability and a founding member of their Ethics research group.  He is also active in consultation and training on disability related issues internationally. He is a board member of both the BC and Canadian Associations for Community Living. In 2009 he helped to establish the Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship at the School and is currently Director (https://cic.arts.ubc.ca/).  Tim sit on the Editorial Boards of Australian Social WorkThe British Journal on Learning Disabilities, the Journal on Social Inclusion and is a consulting Editor for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and frequent reviewer for a range of Journals in Social Work, Social Policy and Disability.  He is currently guest editor with Isabel Clare of a special Issue of the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research on Human Rights and intellectual disability.

One of Tim’s children has a disability.