AUCD - Plenary B: The Future of Education, Employment, and Community Living for People with Disabilities
<< Back to ProgramTuesday, November 11, 2014 8:45 AM - 10:15 AM
Location: Grand Ballroom North/Central Salon
Session Description
2015 will recognize the major anniversaries of the ADA and IDEA, landmark pieces of legislation that created a foundation for improving the health, economic opportunity, employment and well-being of people with disabilities. Federal initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, the new definition of "community" from CMS, and the newly created Administration for Community Living are good examples of leadership from the Obama Administration that have the potential to accelerate progress as we approach these milestones.
Featured Presenter(s)
JUDY WOODRUFF
Co-Anchor and Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour
Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is the Co-Anchor and Managing Editor of the PBS NewsHour with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. She has covered politics and other news, including serving as White House correspondent, for more than three decades at CNN, NBC, and PBS.
Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women's Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging women in communication industries worldwide. She is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita. Judy is the recent recipient of the Cine Lifetime Achievement award, a Duke Distinguished Alumni award, the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcast Journalism/Television, the University of Southern California Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Al Neuharth/University of South Dakota Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Gaylord Prize for Excellence in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Oklahoma, among others. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, journalist Al Hunt, and they are the parents of three children: Jeffrey, Benjamin and Lauren.
PORTIA WU, JD
Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor
This agency administers job-training initiatives, including paying for training for first-time workers or retraining for those seeking new skills because of job displacement. Portia Wu nominated by President Barack Obama in December 2013 to be assistant secretary of Labor for the Employment and Training Administration and was confirmed by the Senate April 2, 2014. She received her J.D. from Yale in 1998 and clerked until 1999 for Judge Richard Paez, then serving on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Later, while on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Paez wrote the opinion blocking many of the provisions of Arizona's anti-immigrant SB 1070 law. After her clerkship, Ms. Wu went into the private sector, working as an associate in the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser until 2003. She then took a post as a Congressional staffer, working for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and its chairman, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), and later Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). She served as labor and pensions counsel, chief labor and pensions counsel and labor policy director and general counsel during her tenure, which ended in 2010.
Kathy Greenlee, JD
Kathy Greenlee, Assistant Secretary for Aging and Administrator of the Administration for Community Living
Kathy Greenlee serves in the dual roles of Administrator of the Administration for Community Living and Assistant Secretary for Aging. Ms. Greenlee was appointed by President Obama as Assistant Secretary for Aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and confirmed by the Senate in June 2009. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is a new federal agency operating within the Department of Health and Human Services. ACL brings together into a single entity the Administration on Aging, the Office on Disability, and the Administration on developmental Disabilities. ACL is charged with working with states, tribes, community providers, universities, nonprofit organizations, businesses and families to help seniors and people with disabilities live in their homes and fully participate in their communities. Assistant Secretary Greenlee believes that people with functional support needs should have the opportunity to live independently in a home of their choosing, receiving appropriate services and supports. She is committed to building the capacity of the national aging and disability networks to better serve older persons, caregivers, and individuals with disabilities.
MELODY MUSGROVE, EdD
Director, Office of Special Education Programs, Department of Education
Melody Musgrove grew up and worked in Mississippi as a classroom teacher, school administrator, district special education director and assistant superintendent before becoming State Director of Special Education for the Mississippi Department of Education, where she served until January 2007. From 2007 until 2010, she was Director of Business Development for LRP Publications, the nation's leading publisher of legal and regulatory guidance for educators. Dr. Musgrove's career is distinguished by her commitment to collaborative frameworks that find creative solutions to difficult educational problems. She is focused on improving outcomes for all children, and experienced in using data to influence systemic improvement decisions. During her tenure as State Director of Special Education, students with disabilities achieved improved results in reading and math, schools implemented more inclusive practices, graduation rates increased, and drastic steps were taken to halt disproportionate identification of African-American students for special education. Dr. Musgrove was selected by the White House to be Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) for the U.S. Department of Education, and assumed the role in August of 2010.