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AAPD Board Members and Officers Announced
June 24, 2002FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mariana V. Nork
(202) 955-6114WASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2002- The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a national membership organization dedicated to promoting the economic and political empowerment of all people with disabilities, announces its Board for the coming year. A slate of ten candidates was presented by the Nominating Committee to all active AAPD members to fill six open board positions; all active AAPD members received ballots and were invited to cast their votes, with the election concluding on June 1, 2002.
The following six individuals were elected by the AAPD membership to serve terms of three years each, commencing July 1, 2002: Henry B. Betts, M.D., Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Judy Brewer, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); Judi Chamberlin, author of On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System; The Honorable Tony Coelho, former Majority Whip of the U. S. House of Representatives and an author of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); Tim Holmes, a 2000 recipient of the Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award for outstanding achievement in disability advocacy and leadership; and Frances Priester, Consumer Specialist at the Elgin Mental Health Center, Elgin, IL.
Betts, an AAPD Board member since 2000, is chairman of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Foundation and a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Since 1963, he has served as Medical Director, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; and President/CEO, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. A force in rehabilitation medicine for more than 40 years, Betts has worked to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by advocating for improved accessibility and creating innovative teaching and treatment programs. He established a full-time Injury Prevention Program aimed at lessening the incidence of preventable injuries, the Center for the Study of Disability Ethics, and was responsible for founding Access Living. In 1990, The Prince Charitable Trusts established The Henry B. Betts Award in his honor, a program now administered by AAPD that annually awards a $50,000 cash gift to an individual whose work has improved the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Named in the August 2000 issue of Internet World as one of the "Net's Rising Stars" and recipient of 2002 Harry Murphy Catalyst Award, Brewer has served on the AAPD Board since 2000. She coordinates several areas of work to make the Web more accessible, including technology and guidelines development, education and outreach. Brewer previously directed the Massachusetts Assistive Technology Partnership, where she worked on initiatives to increase access to mainstream technology for people with disabilities and to improve dialogue between industry and the disability community. Her background includes management, technical writing, education, applied linguistics and disability advocacy.
An AAPD Board member since 1995, Chamberlin is a psychiatric survivor and has been an activist since 1971 in the survivor/consumer/ex-patient movement. She is affiliated with the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University and is a co-founder and associate at the National Empowerment Center in Lawrence, MA. A member of the editorial board of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Chamberlin is profiled in Extraordinary People with Disabilities, a book for young people. In 1992, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the United States by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and in 1995, the N. Neal Pike Prize for Services to People with Disabilities by the Boston University School of Law.
A first-time nominee to the AAPD Board, Coelho is a longtime advocate for people with disabilities. After he began having epileptic seizures in college, Coelho was barred from entering the priesthood, stripped of his driver's license and disowned by his family, then struggled with depression. He was elected to Congress in 1978 and served as the first-ever elected House Majority Whip. Since leaving the House in 1989, Coelho has pursued a career in the private sector, including investment finance and corporate boards. President Clinton appointed him to be Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities in 1994 and Vice Chair of the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities in 1998, where he advanced and coordinated federal disability programs and policies.
Also a first-time AAPD Board nominee, Holmes has served a key leadership role in multiple advocacy efforts. These include the Oregon State Rehabilitation Council, where he currently serves as chair, the Grand Ronde Tribal Housing Authority, where he also serves as chair, the Grand Ronde Community Resource Center and the Blanche Fischer Foundation. He has worked as a bridge-builder between cultures and communities, and it was under Holmes' leadership that the Housing Authority recently completed a 38-unit-HUD funded low income Elders universal housing development project and then began another universal visitable project for families.
Priester, who also holds a law degree, is a first-time nominee to the AAPD Board. Currently she serves as the advocate for more than 300 consumers, for "decriminalization" of the mentally ill and a provision for law enforcement training on mental health. Both she and her husband are bi-polar and for more than 10 years she has advocated for safe, decent, affordable housing for all people with disabilities. Priester recently collaborated with elected officials to conduct a successful major voter registration campaign. She was a 2001 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award recipient for her outstanding work in the area of disability advocacy.
The Board terms of Robert Cole, Cole Communications; LaDonna Fowler, American Indian Disability Technical Assistance Center in Missoula, Montana; and Bob Hamilton, Hamilton's Assistive Technology Services, conclude on June 30, 2002.
At their June 17, 2002 meeting, the AAPD Board elected Officers. Serving for terms of one year each, they are as follows. For Chair: John D. Kemp, Principal, Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville, P.C.; for Vice-Chair, James Weisman, Associate Executive Director of Legal Affairs, Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association; for Treasurer, James Billy, Branch Chief, U.S. Department of Education; for Secretary: Margaret Staton, Founder, ELA Foundation; and for Immediate Past-Chair: Patrisha Wright, Director of Governmental Affairs, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF).
Members at large serving terms of three-years each are: Tamara Bibb Allen, Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel, Social Security Administration; Mike Ching, Stanford University; Richard Ellis, Director-Federal Affairs, Verizon; Marilyn Hamilton, Vice President of Consumer Development, Sunrise Medical; The Honorable Judith Heumann, World Bank; Edward Kennedy, Jr., Marwood Group; Paul Marchand, Assistant Executive Director for Policy & Advocacy, The Arc of the U.S.; Helen Roth, Executive Director, OPTIONS for Independence; Linda Shepard, Parents Educating Parents and Professionals; Robert Silverstein, Director, Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy (CSADP); Wesley Vinner, Advocate; Fred Weiner, Special Assistant to the President for Planning, Gallaudet University; and Duncan Wyeth, Consumer Customer Relations Specialist, Michigan Rehabilitation Services.
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is a national membership organization dedicated to promoting the economic and political empowerment of all people with disabilities; educating businesses and the general public about disability issues; and providing membership benefits, like financial services and product discounts. AAPD was founded in 1995 by a group of cross-disability leaders to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act -- equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.
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