Research Report: National People with Disabilities 2011

Billy Altom is Executive Director of the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL). He worked at several disability rights organizations before becoming Executive Director at the Delta Resource Center. He is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Arkansas Disability Coalition and NCIL. Tim Sheehan is the Executive Director of the CIL for Western Wisconsin and serves on the Governing Board of NCIL, representing Region V. He is also Chairman of the Wisconsin Coalition of Independent Living Centers and has been appointed by three Governors to the Wisconsin SILC.

Mike Bachhuber is the Executive Director of the Independent Living Council of Wisconsin, the State's SILC. Prior to August 2007, Mike was the Executive Director of Access to Independence, one of the State's eight IL Centers. Mike has been active in several organizations working in the emotional disability field and is currently Chair of the State's Council on Mental Health. He has also served on the Board of Grassroots Empowerment Project, the State's MH Consumer Network. Prior to working at the Center, Mike worked for the State's Protection and Advocacy System. He was engaged in community transition for Nursing Home residents and litigation to fix paratransit issues at the P&A in addition to other projects there. He had also worked as an attorney in private practice for ten years.

Marci Bartley was a mental health director at an AIDS Task Force in the 1990's. Bartley worked in the Virginia Department of Corrections system for three years as mental heath director and then medical director.  Presently Bartley is the executive director of a mental health free clinic, Fredericksburg Counseling Services, Inc., the third stand alone mental heath free clinic in the state of Virginia.  Bartley has held this position since 2001 and took Fredericksburg Counseling Services through the process to gain the designation as a free clinic.  Overall, Bartley brings nearly 20 years of experience to the table. Bartley is also involved in numerous committees in this community working with both foundations, local government, and other non profit agencies.

Peter V. Berns is a nationally recognized nonprofit sector leader and public interest lawyer. He is the Chief Executive Officer of The Arc, the world’s largest community based organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Berns has been at the helm of The Arc since July, 2008.  Under his leadership, the organization has charted an ambitious course of progress, innovation and change with the development of a Strategic Framework for the Future of The Arc. As the leading provider of vital services and support for families and individuals, The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes. The Arc works daily on behalf of the more than 140,000 members and in concert with a nationwide network of more than 730 state and local chapters across the nation. Before joining The Arc, Berns was the Executive Director of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, a post he held for 16 years. In that capacity, he built the Association from a start-up to a position of prominence in the nonprofit community, nationally, with nearly 2,000 members of all sizes, all sectors and from all regions of the state. In addition, he served as Chief Executive Officer of the Standards for Excellence Institute since its inception in 2004. Berns came to The Arc with a track record of success in the areas of nonprofit management, governmental relations and advocacy. As a public policy advocate, he was critical to reforming state and federal Medicaid regulations improving life for persons with disabilities and their families. He was named to the Nonprofit Times Power and Influence Top 50 list in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. His previously held positions include Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection in the Maryland Attorney General’s Office as well as Assistant Attorney General and, earlier in his career, Staff Attorney/Fellow at the Institute for Public Representation at the Georgetown University Law Center. Berns received his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School and has an LLM in advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center. He received his BA in psychology, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Melissa Zieve, reside in Baltimore, MD with their four children.

Christine Boucher is the director of development and communications at the National Council on Independent Living. As a membership organization, NCIL advances independent living and the rights of people with disabilities through consumer-driven advocacy.

Judy Brewer directs the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Since September 1997 she has coordinated five areas of work for W3C with regard to Web accessibility: ensuring that W3C technologies (HTML, CSS, SMIL, XML, etc.) support accessibility; developing accessibility guidelines for Web content, browsers and multimedia players, authoring tools, and XML applications; improving tools for evaluation and repair of Web sites; conducting education and outreach on Web accessibility; and monitoring research and development which may impact future accessibility of the Web.  WAI guidelines developed through this work include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, adopted by an increasing number of governments around the world, and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines.

Jan was born and raised in West Toledo, attending Start High School and the University of Toledo.  She moved to West Virginia, receiving her masters degree in Special Education (MRDD) from Marshall University.  Jan began working for Special Olympics in 1976, becoming Chapter Director of West Virginia Special Olympics in 1979. She served in that position for five years, growing the state chapter from 14 to 55 local programs and raising more than five times the original budget.  She moved to Washington, DC to work for Special Olympics International as Assistant Development Director.  She managed corporate affinity marketing accounts, direct marketing and provided fundraising and public relations training to hundreds of local, state and national volunteers across the country. Jan accepted a position with Florida Special Olympics, moving to Tallahassee and staying there for 22 years.  While in Tallahassee, she also worked at Florida State University as Assistant Vice President for University Relations, owned a staffing and recruiting firm for seven years and became a licensed financial professional.  Jan was very active in the Tallahassee community where she served on a number of boards of directors, is a former Rotary club president and a graduate of both Leadership Tallahassee and Leadership Florida.  She returned to the Toledo area in February of 2009.

Mary Bryant joined Achilles in 1997 when her oldest brother, paralyzed from the neck down, became the first man to complete the NYC Marathon without the use of arms or legs. She is a ten-time marathoner herself. Besides her work with the Freedom Team, she is responsible for the growth and development of Achilles, including finding sponsors. Mary co-authored, Success is a Team Effort, and, GO ACHILLES!. She is also an inspirational speaker, having been featured on several television programs including, NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight. She was the 2009 kick-off speaker of the White House’s Wellness Seminars; she served as president of the New York Tri-State Chapter of the National Speakers Association, and she is on the Advisory Board of Evelyn Lauder’s Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Just One Break. She is also a consultant to America’s Athletes with Disabilities, and has worked with WE Media for the Paralympics in Sydney, Australia.

Curt Decker has been affiliated with the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)* since its inception in 1982. As Executive Director of the nation’s largest non-governmental enforcer of disability rights, Curt oversees all activities related to training and technical assistance, membership services, and legislative advocacy. Before founding NDRN with other P&A Directors, Curt served as Director of the Maryland P&A – the Maryland Disability Law Center. Curt also served as Director of the H.E.L.P. Resource Project for Abused and Neglected Children for four years, and was a VISTA worker prior to working as a senior attorney for Baltimore Legal Aid Bureau for five years. Curt is the immediate past chair of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a coalition of over 100 national disability groups, and serves on the boards of Friends of Research and Opera Vivente. In his career, Curt also served as a legislative consultant for numerous groups, including the American Association on Mental Retardation, the National Public Law Training Center, and the Maryland Academy of Physician’s Assistants. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and Cornell Law School.

Sheri Farinha is the CEO ofNorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. NorCal strives to empower deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to live independently and productively within the greater society.

Patt Foth is an associate director at the Department for Persons with Disabilities. With a deeply rooted sense of family and a commitment to excellence, the Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD) provides residential, vocational, spiritual, and social services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Through competent and compassionate care, DPD empowers each person to become active, contributing, and valued members of their community, and to participate fully in life with dignity and respect. As a Catholic Charities Agency, DPD strives to end discrimination toward people with disabilities and works for social change by being a voice for justice and advocacy, and convenes others to do the same.

William Freeman is the president of the American Disability Association. The American Disability Association's mission is to meet the informational needs of Americans from Uruguay to Alaska with diverse disabilities, to promote awareness of disability culture by building bridges of understanding among all people, and to enhance our collective quality of life and access to freedom.

Dr. Alycia Halladay is Autism Speaks’ Director, Research for Enivronmental Services. At Autism Speaks, their goal is to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders. She was previously the Research Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. She studied at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick, and The University of Texas at Austin.

Cary Harned is the major gifts & grants officer at Opportunity Village. Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities. We provide them with vocational training, employment and social recreation services that make their lives more productive and interesting. Through our programs and services, well over a thousand people with disabilities are learning vocational skills, working in jobs throughout the community, paying taxes and living more fulfilling lives.

Kathy Hatch is the director of training and technical assistance at the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL). The Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living is a national grass roots, consumer controlled, nonprofit membership organization consisting of centers for independent living, their satellites and branch offices, statewide independent living councils, other organizations and individuals concerned with the independent living issues of people with disabilities living in rural America.

Sujatha began working at the intersection of race, reproduction and genetics at the Center for Genetics and Society in 2004. She founded Generations Ahead in 2008 to organize a social justice perspective in the public policy debates on genetic technologies. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and comes to this work with a background in immigration, racial justice, domestic violence prevention, particularly in the South Asian community, and reproductive justice in communities of color. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in sociology.

Dr. Kukic is currently Vice President of Strategic Sales Initiatives at Cambium Learning/Voyager. As the former director of At Risk and Special Services, Utah State Department of Education, his office provided supervision for all special education services delivered to students with disabilities throughout the state, including direct services to Students-at-Risk, Chapter 1, Migrant Education, Corrections and Youth in Custody, Homeless, Drug and Alcohol, and Vocational Special Needs.

Richard Mankin served on the board for the Foundation for Science and Disability. The Foundation for Science and Disability (FSD) was founded in 1975 as a non-profit organization. FSD has the following goals: to promote the integration of scientists with disabilities into all activities of the scientific community and of society as a whole and to promote the removal of barriers in order to enable students with disabilities to choose careers in science.

Ken Mason is an independent finance professional seeking his next opportunity to serve a non-profit organization. Following a career in the publishing industry, he served for six years as Director of Finance and Information Technology for Goodwill Industries in Long Beach, CA, which celebrated 75 years of service to the people of Long Beach and the South Bay communities during his tenure. Goodwill SOLAC serves 22 cities and communities in Southern Los Angeles County and issues more than 7,800 paychecks annually. Their skills training, education, job preparation and placement programs build lives, families and communities—one job at a time. Placing individuals in productive and competitive employment fills them with the value, joy and dignity of a paycheck. They believe putting people to work not only benefits the individual, but also the communities’ economic vitality as well, through taxes, spending power, real estate values, quality of life, and relief to social services and welfare systems.

Sarah Matthews is the community outreach coordinator for Community Living, Inc. Since 1979, Community Living, Incorporated (CLI) has been Frederick, Maryland’s largest provider of homes throughout the community for persons with developmental disabilities (mental retardation). The agency is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization, and is also a member of the Frederick County United Way.

Bernadette Mauro is the director of information and resource services at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Paralysis Resource Center. The Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.

Roxann Mayros has worked in the non-profit sector for 20 years, holds a Masters in nonprofit management, and spends a good deal of her time working with VisionServe Alliance's member organizations and discussing how to fund vision rehabilitation services.

Lemmietta G. McNeilly, PhD, CCC-SLP, has served as ASHA’s Chief Staff Officer for Speech-Language Pathology since 2004. She is responsible for Government Relations and Public Policy, Speech-Language Pathology Practices (Clinical Issues, Health Care, and Schools), and Special Interest Divisions and International Liaison Programs. Prior to joining ASHA, Dr. McNeilly served as founding chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida International University in Miami. Her administrative experiences span higher education (University of Florida, Howard University, South Carolina State University), health care systems (Braintree Hospital Rehabilitation Network, The Hospital for Sick Children), and educational settings (Anchorage School District). Her research and clinical expertise is in language disorders and swallowing disorders of medically fragile children. She has published and conducted seminars internationally for leaders in health care and academic arenas on various topics, including genomics for health care professionals, working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations in neonatal intensive care units, and children living with prenatal exposure to drugs and HIV.

Scott Milliken has known for years that his future would be spent working with people with special needs. There was a group home down the street from the house where he grew up in Emerson, and after he graduated from college, it didn’t take him long to find his way to the Department for Persons With Disabilities (DPD) in Oak Ridge.

Pam Monsky is the community relations director at Vocational Development Center, Inc. Vocational Development Center, (VODEC) is a private, non-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation founded in 1968. We provide vocational, residential, and day services for persons with intellectual disabilities in Nebraska and Iowa. The mission of VODEC is to provide services to persons with disabilities in order that those persons may live, work and participate in the community in the least restrictive environment to achieve their full potential.

A leader in the nonprofit sector for over a decade, Morrissey has advanced missions of HIV/AIDS care and prevention, disability and independent living, and community volunteerism. He has presented internationally on developing disabled people’s organizations and the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities, with particular focus on Vietnam and its disability community. As the 2007 Disability Policy Leadership Fellow for the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Morrissey was on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Expert Working Group on Transition at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. In 2010, he served as Private Sector Advisor in the United States delegation to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of the U.S. human rights record. Morrissey was a member of the inaugural class of the Clinton School of Public Service where he earned his Master of Public Service degree and conducted service projects in the Arkansas Delta and in Vietnam.

Charles Moseley has worked in the developmental disabilities field for more than 38 years. As Associate Executive Director, he manages national projects and research, performs state and federal policy analysis, and provides technical assistance to states on Medicaid, self-determination, systems change, individual budgeting, and other areas. Dr. Moseley was the Co-Director of the National Program Office on Self-Determination, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project at the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability. Prior to that, he was the Director of Vermont’s Division of Developmental Services for 11 years. He led the initiative to close the state’s institution, transition all services to community-based alternatives, and restructure service delivery to incorporate self-directed services. He holds a doctorate in mental retardation policy from Syracuse University.

Dr. Nygren will be responsible for AAIDD’s efforts to promote progressive government policies which effect change at a national level, support sound research in the field, model best practices for community-based services, and achieve recognition of basic and universal human rights for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Paula Pearlman is the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center, formerly Western Law Center for Disability Rights, a cross-disability civil rights organization. The DRLC is comprised of the Cancer Legal Resource Center, Civil Rights Litigation Program, Community Outreach Program, Education Advocacy Program, Inland Empire Program, Options Counseling and Lawyer Referral Service and Pro Bono Services. Prior to her current position at the DRLC, she was the Deputy Director of Advocacy Programs and Director of Litigation. Ms. Pearlman is an Associate Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, teaching Disability Rights and Special Education law as well as litigation skills. She also teaches Special Education Law and Advocacy at Loyola Marymount University, Department of Education. Ms. Pearlman is also a litigator, with extensive experience in class action litigation in the areas of disability rights, sex discrimination and immigration law. Ms. Pearlman is a former Supervising Attorney at the California Women's Law Center, where she specialized in sex discrimination in employment, education, and in girls’ athletics. She has a distinguished career of over 25 years in public interest law. She is a graduate of Southwestern University School of Law, and University of California, Los Angeles. Ms. Pearlman is a member of the California Commission on Access to Justice, Federal Courts Committee (2007). She is a board member of the Employment Round Table of Southern California (ERTSC), formerly Southern California Employers Roundtable (SCERT). She is currently a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Juvenile Courts Task Force Committee. Previously, she was Co-Chair, Lawyer Representatives, Central District, Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (2008-2009), a member of the California State Bar Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and was on the U. S. Access Board, Courthouse Access Advisory Committee. In 2009, Ms. Pearlman received a “FEHA 50th Anniversary Civil Rights Award” from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, State of California. Ms. Pearlman was named as a “Super Lawyer” in 2009 in the area of public interest law and class actions. She is the recipient of the 2007 Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) Attorney Award of Merit Recipient, and a finalist as attorney of the year for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. In 2006, Ms. Pearlman was named one of the “Top 75 Women Litigators” in California by the Daily Journal. As a new lawyer, Ms. Pearlman was the recipient of the Carol King Award, National Immigration Project, National Lawyer’s Guild, for her work on the nationwide class action, Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese (1987).

Julie Rems-Smario is the executive director of DeafHope. DeafHope is a nonprofit organization, established for and by Deaf women in January 2003. Our mission at DeafHope is to end domestic and sexual violence against Deaf women and children through empowerment, education and services. This mission will be achieved on three levels - by providing services to Deaf women and children who are survivors of domestic and sexual violence; by educating our community and service providers about domestic and sexual violence; and by providing statewide training and technical assistance to establish more Deaf-run services for Deaf survivors.

Jane Rhys has been the executive director of the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities for over 15 years. Councils are funded through the federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. The mission of the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities is to ensure the opportunity to make choices regarding participation in society and quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities. Jane was president of the National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils for two years and the Midwest Symposium on Leadership for Behavior Disorders (21 years).  During her tenure on the Midwest Symposium the organization became a private non-profit organization that is fully self sustaining.  She previously worked as a Program Specialist for the Kansas State Department of Education in the areas of behavior disorders, autism, and compliance monitoring.  A native of Kansas, she has a bachelors and masters in art from Fort Hays State University, a Masters in special education from Kansas State University, and a doctorate of philosophy in education from the University of Kansas.

Suzanne Richard has joined USICD as the Outreach Coordinator. Previously she worked as the Accessibility Specialist at the National Endowments for the Arts and served as a trained speaker for the Human Genome Project’s HuGem program which addressed the legal, social and ethical implications of modern Genomics. She served on the Maryland Governor’s Advisory Committee for Congenital and Heritable Disorders, and is the author of the chapter “Dealing with Being Different” for the book Growing Up with O.I. published by the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation.

Born a congenital amputee, John Robinson has no hands. His arms stop at his elbows. His lower legs are attached to his hips without knees. He is 3’9’’ tall. As a child, John's parents had many worries: Would he be able to go to school? Could he hold a pencil? Could he ever support himself? Yet, through his remarkable tenacity, talent and faith, John has succeeded in business and in building a family in a way that few may have expected from the outset. In this documentary from WMHT, we get to know a man who has made his way in a world not designed for those without the dexterity of typical arms and legs--a man who has gone on to lead what many would consider an ordinary life. Yet this ordinary life is actually extraordinary when one witnesses the determination required for John to do that which others take for granted, from driving a car to playing a round of golf. People with disabilities are the nation’s most vulnerable demographic, and the obstacles they face in everyday life can seem overwhelming. John’s inspirational story teaches those of us with and without disabilities that, with the aid of a strong education and a few caring individuals, we can achieve that which may initially seem impossible.

Howard A. Rosenblum started as the Chief Executive Officer of the NAD in April 2011 and also serves as an ex officio member of the NAD Board of Directors. He comes to the NAD after 19 years as a lawyer, focusing his practice on disability rights and special education law.  For the past nine years, he was a Senior Attorney at Equip for Equality, the designated Protection & Advocacy entity for the State of Illinois. Previously, he worked ten years as an associate at Monahan & Cohen, a private law firm, and briefly as a legal counsel at Access Living, the center for independent living for the Chicago area. In 1997, he founded the Midwest Center on Law and the Deaf, to address the lack of access to the legal profession for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and oversaw its operation as the Board Chair until 2011.  In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Rosenblum to serve on the United States Access Board, which is responsible for setting accessible design and technical criteria used to promote compliance with federal disability rights laws. Mr. Rosenblum has a bachelor of science degree in computer engineering from the University of Arizona and a juris doctor degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law. Born and raised in Chicago, Rosenblum is a diehard fan of Chicago sports teams. He also enjoys traveling the world to meet deaf people in other countries and learning their sign languages.

Dr. Beth Rous joined the University of Kentucky faculty in 2007. Dr. Rous received her B.A. in Elementary and Special Education from Morehead State University; her M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood and Ed.D in Educational Administration and Leadership from the University of Kentucky. Her areas of academic interest and expertise include early childhood policy, local and state service system design, leadership, and adult learning and professional development. She served as President of the International Division for Early Childhood in 2000, after which she received Merle B. Karnes Service to the Division Award in 2002. She has been a technical advisor to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Institute for Education Sciences. Dr. Rous also serves as the Director of Early Childhood at the Human Development Institute, Kentucky Partnership for Early Childhood Services at UK, a position she has held since 1996. Since coming to UK, Dr. Rous has served as Principal Investigator for six federally funded research projects and 16 foundation or state funded research or service contracts totaling over $30,000,000.

Celine Saulnier, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist at the Child Study Center and both the Clinical Director and Training Director for the Autism Program. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut and then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Alliance for Autism Research under the mentorship of Drs. Klin, Volkmar, and Chawarska. Presently, Celine manages, conducts, and supervises diagnostic assessments for both clinical and research evaluations from infancy through young adulthood. Her current research focuses on adaptive behavior deficits in autism, specifically on the discrepancy between cognitive potential and functional independence, particularly in higher-functioning individuals.

Dr. David Shern was named in 2006 as the president and CEO of Mental Health America, formerly the National Mental Health Association, the country's oldest and largest nonprofit organization addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness.  Prior to joining NMHA, Dr. Shern served as dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) at the University of South Florida, one of the largest research and training institutes in behavioral health services in the United States.  He also founded and directed the National Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health - a National Institute of Mental Health-funded services research center - located in the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH).  In 2000, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Dr. Shern to the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse.  He was elected Chair of the Commission by his fellow Commissioners and spearheaded an effort to develop a new statewide focus on and governance model for behavioral health across all human service agencies and settings.  Dr. Shern received his Bachelor of Science, Masters and PhD in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Sandy has been involved in the TMA since shortly after its inception. Sandy's wife, Pauline, contracted TM in 1994. At the time of her onset, Pauline was a kindergarten teacher. Currently she is a second grade teacher in a public school district in central Ohio. Sandy is a cultural anthropologist and has been an adjunct instructor at various colleges in central Ohio. He is employed by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and is involved in policy research. Sandy also sit on the board of ambassadors for Johns Hopkins Project RESTORE.

Alison Singer is Co-Founder and President of the Autism Science Foundation, a not for profit organization that funds autism research and serves to increase awareness of autism spectrum disorders and the needs of individuals and families affected by autism. From 2005-2009 she served as Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of Autism Speaks. As the mother of a child with autism and legal guardian of her adult brother with autism, she is a natural advocate. Since 2007, Singer has served on the national Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) which is charged with writing a strategic plan to guide federal spending for autism research. Within the IACC, she serves as co-chair of the safety subcommittee and on the subcommittee for strategic plan review. Singer also currently serves on the Executive Board of the Yale Child Study Center, on the external advisory board of the Autism Baby Siblings Research Consortium, on the external advisory board of the CDC’s Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, on the board of directors of Mental Health News, as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Immunization Coalition, as a member of the program committee for the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) and as chair of the public relations committee for IMFAR. She is hard at work on a book about autism research forthcoming from Columbia University Press. Singer graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ms. Darla Stuart is the executive director of The Arc of Aurora. She was one of 40 disability advocates in 2003, selected to attend the first institute of train the trainers on "Stop the Violence, Break the Silence." Additionally, Darla is recognized as the co-author of two nationally distributed manuals, one on criminal justice issues "People with Developmental Disabilities and the Criminal Justice System: Access Denied" and one on the Human Genome Project and disability policy, "Have We Gotten Too Big for Our Genes?." In her capacity as executive director, Darla oversees The Arc of Aurora’s focused work on impacting the issue of victimization and violence against people with developmental disabilities through Project Illumination. Additionally, Darla is actively involved in systems change advocacy of which a most recent effort has been to address the multi-year waiting list for long-term supports for people with developmental disabilities.

Caroll Vick is a program director at the ChairScholars Foundation. The ChairScholars Foundation is a Tampa-based charity that has the singular mission of providing scholarships for post-secondary education to individuals with serious physical disabilities and great financial need.

Michelle Wolf co-founded a new collaborative approach to help Jewish families raising a child or teen with special needs (www.hamercaz.org) at the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and is also blogging regularly on this topic at JewishJournal.com, In 2002, Wolf received a certificate as a Parent Resource Specialist as part of the USC/Children’s Hospital University Affiliated Program (UAP) Leadership Education in Neuro-developmental Disorders Program. Wolf also holds a master's degree in Public Administration from USC.

Patricia Yeager is the interim CEO of the Colorado Springs Independence Center. The Independence Center (TIC) was founded by and for people with disabilities. We believe that people with disabilities have the right to make informed decisions about how and where they want to live. To that end, TIC provides a variety of services aimed at empowering people with disabilities to maintain their independence within the community. Our primary services include Peer Support, Advocacy, Independent Living Skills Training and Information and Referral.

Dr. Sherril York was appointed Director of the National Center on Accessibility beginning July 1, 2008 following the retirement of NCA founding director, Gary Robb.  Dr. York joins NCA from Oklahoma ABLE Tech, the state’s assistive technology program located at Oklahoma State University. Dr. York has over 25 years of experience in accessibility and disability in physical activity development, recreation activities, and adapted sports. At Oklahoma State University she has served as the Training/Outreach Coordinator for Oklahoma ABLE Tech, Associate Director for the American Humanics Program, and Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Applied Health and Educational Psychology. She has a Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University with an emphasis in biomechanics and adapted physical education

Cherisse Young is the executive director of the Adaptive Sports Foundation. In October of 2005, the ASF realized its long-awaited dream of having a permanent home. The Gwen Allard Adaptive Sports Center represents the culmination of a $4.5 million fundraising campaign, the vision of our board, and the hard work and determination of countless volunteers and donors. The 8,000 square foot building far exceeds all our expectations. Designed from the ground up as a completely handicapped accessible building, the structure allows our students to easily navigate from the entrance, through the building and out to the slopes without changing levels. Having our own Center has helped the program develop a sense of community for students, their families and our volunteers.