2007 Gold Star Award

November 14, 2007

Crystal K. Pariseau, MSSW
Director of Marketing and Public Engagement
301-588-8252 x 223
[email protected]

For Immediate Release

Connie Garner awarded 2007 Gold Star Award

 

Connie Garner with AUCD Board President Bill Kiernan

November 14, 2007, Washington, DC: Connie Garner, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Professional Staff received the 2007 Gold Star Award today at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) Annual Meeting and Conference.

The AUCD Gold Star Award, established in 2002, is presented to a Capitol Hill staffer who exemplifies a true partnership in crafting strong public policy. This award recognizes the staffer for his/her professional and personal efforts to craft policy and implement programs with input from AUCD and the greater disability community, thus supporting AUCD in achieving its mission to advance policy and practice for and with people living with developmental and other disabilities, their families, and communities.

Ms. Garner is amazing in her ability to develop working bipartisan, bicameral relationships with her congressional colleagues. She reaches out to build diverse coalitions across disability and aging communities and often with stakeholders far beyond the traditional disability policy coalitions. Connie is a visionary. She dares to think outside the box about disability policy—always looking for ways to better integrate existing policies and embed disability into non-disability specific legislation. Her experience as a mother of seven, including a daughter with intellectual disabilities, always guides her passions and grounds her work.

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Established in 1971, AUCD is a membership organization comprised of three national networks of interdisciplinary, university-based Centers dedicated to research, education, leadership training, policy development, and direct service for people with disabilities.