List of Speakers

Creating Your Own Microboard	Linda Perry (CANADA) has spent the majority of her career developing supports that encourage meaningful citizenship for everyone. During the last eleven years Linda has focused her attention on the development of microboards in B.C., with additional work in the US and more recently, the United Kingdom. Linda also works as a contract Instructor in the Community Support Worker Program at Kwantlen University College in British Columbia.

Asset Based Community Development	Jody Kretzmann (USA) is co-director of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. The project locates, analyzes and promotes neighborhood-based efforts that build upon and enhance local capacities to address issues and solve problems, and develops policy recommendations aimed at supporting those efforts. Jody brings nearly twenty-five years of urban experience and study to his current position. He was a founding faculty member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Urban Studies Program in 1969, and served as director of that institution for six years. Jody has been a community organizer in Chicago's West Side, served as a consultant to a wide range of neighborhood organizing and development groups and taught at Northwestern University, Valparaiso University, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Topics covered in his writing and teaching include city politics, urban economics, racism, ethics and politics, social movements, neighborhood change, and public policy.

Implementing Individualized Funding: The Importance of Parent Leadership	Jo Dickey (CANADA) is the parent of a young man with an intellectual disability and has been a long time advocate for system change. She is recognized nationally and internationally as a pioneer in the developmental disability field. She was a member of the Woodlands Parents Group in British Columbia in 1976 that submitted a proposal to the provincial government to implement individualized funding and service brokerage. Jo has served in a variety of volunteer capacities including President of the Canadian Association for Community Living and has also represented Canada at various international disability forums. Jan Thurlow (ENGLAND) is the mother of Clare, a young woman who was one of the first people with a developmental disability to obtain direct payments. Jan travels and speaks in various countries on issues associated with direct payments & the important role that parents play in the lives of their sons and daughters who have a disability. Patricia McGill Smith (United States) is the Executive Director of the National Parent Network on Disabilities, an organization dedicated to serving families and individuals with disabilities. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the field of disability. Ms. Smith served as the Acting Assistant and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, in the United States Department of Education. In addition, she was the former Deputy Director of the National Information Center on Children and Youth with Disabilities, the first paid parent coordinator for the Pilot Parent Program in Nebraska and a Parent Activity Consultant for the Meyer Children’s Rehabilitation Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Ms. Smith has seven adult children, the youngest of whom has multiple disabilities, and seven grandchildren, one of whom is an adopted grandson with Down syndrome.

Developing an Individualized Budget	P. Sue Kullen (UNITED STATES) is a private consultant and trainer whose work focuses on helping people with disabilities to get better lives in their communities. She has extensive experience with person-centered planning, self-determination and systems change in the USA. P. Sue has obtained an undergraduate degree in Special Education and a Master’s degree in management. N. Anthony "Tony" Sampson (UNITED STATES) lives and works in Waldorf, Maryland. He has served on the Developmental Disabilities Council in Maryland for nearly three years. He and others organized Advocates Making a Difference, a self-advocacy group in Charles County, Maryland. Tony embodies the struggle for independence and control. He is a teacher to those supporting people with disabilities and will continue to challenge the system.

An Introduction to Creative Facilitation & the PATH Planning Process	David & Faye Wetherow (CANADA) are independent facilitators, trainers and consultants who share their lives with an adopted daughter with complex mobility and communication challenges. They have been involved in innovative service and community development work for over 20 years and created Prairie Housing Cooperative and l'Avenir Cooperative in Manitoba, the Open Access Resource Centre for augmentative and alternative communication, and some of Canada’s earliest supported employment, individualized funding, and personal support projects. They also originated the ‘micro-board’ concept.