Lex Frieden, Convener - Director, Independent Living Research Utilization Program
Working in the independent living movement and on behalf of severely disabled people since the early 1970s, Lex Frieden is Senior Vice President at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) in Houston. TIRR is a comprehensive medical rehabilitation center which provides clinical, educational and research programs pertaining to spinal cord and brain injuries and other disabling conditions. He is currently Director of TIRR’s Independent Living Research Utilization Program (ILRU) and Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. He was appointed by the President in 2002 and served a four-year term as Chairperson of the National Council on Disability. An independent federal agency, the Council is charged with making recommendations on disability policy issues to the President and Congress.
Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte, M.A. - Chairperson, Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel
Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte has been a disability advocate for over 25 years. A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Colombia, South America, she was designated by the President to chair the National Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel for a four-year term ending in 2008. The Panel provides advice to the President, the Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security on issues related to work incentives programs and on the implementation of the Ticket to Work and Work Improvement Act of 1999.
Sita Diehl - Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Tennessee
As Executive Director of NAMI Tennessee, Sita Diehl leads that State’s chapter of an organization dedicated to improving quality of life of individuals and families affected by mental illness. Her chapter provides support and education, advocates for fair and nondiscriminatory laws at the federal and state level, and works to eliminate the stigma surrounding severe mental illness.
The Honorable Chuck Graham (D-19th District) - State Senator, Missouri
Senator Graham serves as the Assistant Minority Floor Leader in the Missouri Senate. Prior to his service in the Senate, Senator Chuck Graham served four terms in the Missouri House of Representatives. Previously, Senator Graham worked as the Missouri Coordinator for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Project at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has served as Chair of the Missouri Assistive Technology Council. In 1990, he was recognized by the U.S. Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities for his leadership in passing the ADA Act. In 1997, the National Rehabilitation Association bestowed upon him the E.B. Whitten Silver Medallion and the Governor's Council on Disability gave him their Breaking the Barriers Award. He has been honored on four occasions as the Elected Official of the Year by Services for Independent Living. He was named Legislator of the Year by Disabled Citizens Alliance for Independence in December 2000 and 2001. This year he was honored by the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians with the 2007 MAFP Legislative Award.
Hunter Hurst - Director, St. Joseph’s/Candler SOURCE (Service Options Using Resources in Community Environments) Program
With a 25-year career in home- and community-based services, Hunter Hurst currently is Director of the St. Joseph’s/Candler SOURCE Program for enhanced case management and primary physician care for chronically ill persons. Mr. Hurst chairs the SOURCE Steering Committee of the Georgia Health Care Association, and from its start as a demonstration project, SOURCE is now provided by 10 companies statewide. Mr. Hurst also developed rural hospital and physician networks, the first Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility licensed in the nation, assisted in development of managed care contracts and medical service networks, and developed numerous demonstration projects to improve home- and community-based services for the elderly and disabled. In 2000 – 2001, he co-chaired Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes’ Blue Ribbon Task Force on Long-Term Care.
Mark Johnson - Director of Advocacy, Shepherd Center
Mark Johnson was recently awarded the 2007 Henry B. Betts Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities in honor of his achievements in improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. A one-time counselor at the Charlotte Rehabilitation Hospital, he helped establish the Metrolina Chapter of the National Paraplegia Foundation and one of the first Title VII Independent Living Centers in the U.S. In Denver in the 1980s, Johnson ran the Transitional Living Program at Holistic Approaches to Independent Living (HAIL) and was subsequently its Director of Advocacy. He also became Colorado’s first Statewide Independence Living Coordinator. Johnson also helped to create Americans Disabled for Accessible Transportation (ADAPT) in 1984, a grassroots-driven organization that has been an effective force for change in the national disability rights movement. In 1987, Johnson assumed the position of Director of Advocacy at the Shepherd Center, recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the country.
Leonard Kirschner, M.D., M.P.H. - State President, AARP Arizona
In addition to his AARP activities, Dr. Leonard Kirschner is currently a member of the Boards of Directors of Sun Health, Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital, La Loma Senior Living Services and the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Kirschner recently was asked by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to lead a comprehensive review of operations of the State Veteran Home. He is a Trustee of the Arizona Perinatal Trust, a member of the Arizona State Medicaid Advisory Committee, and was a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Leadership Council from 2003 to 2006. Dr. Kirschner is a former Director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). He is credited with establishing the Arizona Long Term Care System (ALTCS) under AHCCCS, which serves the elderly, blind and disabled, who are in need of nursing home care.
James M. Parker IV - Elderly and Disability Services Division, New Mexico Aging and Long Term Services Department
An advocate for long-term service expansion and improvement in home and community-based services, James Parker IV has worked directly with CMS Real Choice/Systems Change and Robert Wood Johnson to develop and implement New Mexico’s Self-Directed Medicaid waiver. He also worked to institute the State Medicaid Option for Personal Care, which features a consumer control and direction component, and he helped bring Medicaid “buy-in” for working disabled individuals to the State. Having worked for three independent living centers (Ability Center, Las Cruces; Atlantis Community, Denver; VOLAR, El Paso), he also served as Accessibility Compliance Coordinator for the City of El Paso, Texas, and as VISTA Volunteer for Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. He was actively involved in the formation of ADAPT nationally and in Texas.
Dallas “Rob” Sweezy - Chairperson, President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and President/Co-Founder, Public Affairs Strategies/Healthcare
Dallas “Rob” Sweezy was appointed to his current role by the President. From 2001 to 2004, he served as the Director of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Currently president of a communications firm, he has served on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Parents of Down Syndrome, a local advocacy group.
The Honorable Jane Woods - Liaison for State Health Policy and Community Development, Department of Health Administration & Policy, College of Health and Human Services, George Mason University
Jane Woods is the former Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources and now works for George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services. In the College’s new Department of Health Administration and Policy, Woods provides assistance in analyzing state policies and trends. Previously, she completed an eight-year term as a member of the Virginia Senate and a four-year term as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being named Virginia Leader in Healthcare and twice receiving the Virginia School Board Association’s Legislator of the Year award.