My passion for disability services…

…began at a young age. After graduating from high school in the mid 60’s, I was recruited to work as a summer water safety instructor for ARC of Hinds County, MS, a camp for retarded children, as it was known at the time. Though I had no previous experience working with people impacted by disabilities, I quickly began to empathize with the difficulties I witnessed many of the campers facing. I identified so many wrongs to be righted and people to be understood not only within the camp, but also in regard to the societal perception of those impacted by significant disabilities as a whole.

I moved on to attend the University of Southern Mississippi and earned a degree in Sales Management. I returned to ARC of Hinds County each summer as a water safety instructor and continued to develop an understanding of the world of disability. After graduating, I began working as a special education teacher and a federal funds administrator in Mississippi through 1972. I continued to make strides in the disability field directing a camp for deaf and blind children, starting the first group home in Mississippi for people with disabilities coming out of a state institution, and running a sheltered workshop that employed people with disabilities.

In 1976, I met Marc Gold and immediately connected with the work Marc was doing through Marc Gold & Associates. It wasn’t until 1979, however, that I became an official employee of MG&A working on an early project in Ohio. Marc and I worked together for the following three years and developed a close relationship that enabled me to fluidly and successfully fill the role of president of MG&A following Marc’s untimely death in 1982.

Since then, I have consulted throughout the US, Canada, and Europe in the area of supported employment. I received a doctorate degree from Syracuse University with a focus on vocational rehabilitation. I edited a popular "how-to" book on employment for persons with severe dis­abilities, Getting Employed, Staying Employed (1987) and co-authored of ­Keys to the Work Place (1997) a text on systematic instruction and natural supports in supported employment. Over the years, I have published numerous articles, chapters, manuals and curricula pertaining to employment of persons with disabilities. I played a fundamental role in the development of customized employment, and helped to establish terminology that is widely used in disability employment to this day including the term “Discovery.”