Featured Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Local Speaker

Jeff Jessee from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority will be presenting on Thursday, April 17. He will be speaking on the importance of direct support staff and the impact they have in Alaska.

For more information on Jeff Jessee, you can download his biography.

National Speaker

Dale DiLeo will open Friday, April 18 with an inspiring keynote presentation. Our national speaker will also provide additional sessions during the conference on Friday that speaks of his expertise and our attendees’ interest.

Dale DiLeo is a widely sought-after speaker, writer, and consultant, and well-known advocate for people with disabilities, Dale DiLeo has provided training throughout the US and in Canada and Europe on community inclusion for persons with disabilities. Dale has trained over 75,000 participants over the past 20 years, and delivered the keynote for the Canadian Conference on Supported Employment, the European Union of Supported Employment Conferences in Norway and Spain. He has consulted with state and private agencies, universities, professional associations, and corporations. He is the Past-President of the Board of the Association for Persons in Supported Employment (APSE), and is the lead author of that organization’s highly respected Ethical Guidelines in Supported Employment, as well as the author of numerous books and manuals. He has developed several innovative web courses and sites in supported employment and transition. His most recent book, Raymond's Room, focuses on ending the segregation of people with disabilities.

For more information on Dale Dileo, you can download his vitae or visit his website.

Featured Presenters Leading the Employment Track

Laurie Ford & John Dineen - Western Washington University-Center for Continuing Education in Rehabilitation (CCER)

Laurie is a Project Director at CCER, and has worked in employment services for people with developmental and mental health disabilities for more than 25 years. Her experience includes time as a pre-employment trainer, job developer, job coach and job coach supervisor, program manager, and troubleshooter.

John is a Training Specialist at CCER with a rich background in serving people with developmental disabilities, including work in a residential institution, job development and coaching, recent management experience in a CRP, and as a consultant. He enjoys working with people who are new to the rehabilitation field.

Both are skilled trainers offering a hands-on approach characterized by practicality, humor and the credibility that comes with personal experience.

For more information on CCER, visit the website: http://www.ccer.org/

David Hammis - Technical Assistance Co-Director, StartUp/USA

David Hammis is Senior Partner at Griffin-Hammis Associates, a full service consultancy which specializes in building communities of economic cooperation, creating high performance organizations, and focuses on disability and employment. David maintains an ongoing relationship with the Rural Institute at The University of Montana, where he served as Project Director for four employment and Social Security outreach training and technical assistance projects, and now serves as an Organizational Consultant for the Rural Institutes Rural Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Expansion Design Project. Dave works with organizations nationally and internationally on benefits analysis, supported employment, supported entrepreneurial employment, and employment engineering.

For more information on David, visit his website: http://www.griffinhammis.com

Marsha Katz - Mentor, StartUp/USA

Marsha Katz is a Project Director at the Rural Institute for RESEED and has worked in disability rights for 25 years, coming to Montana in late 1998 after serving as Vice President of the Association for Community Advocacy in Michigan. She is an experienced trainer on self-employment, and all aspects of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). For the past seven years much of her work has been in tribal communities across the country, and in rural/frontier communities. Formerly in Michigan, and currently in Montana, Marsha has been a regular trainer for and/or consultant to state and tribal vocational rehabilitation agencies, Workforce Investment Act partners, the Social Security Administration, Arc's, Centers for Independent Living, many consumer and professional groups, state and local developmental disabilities/mental health staff, and university classes in law, business, social policy, special education, and social work.

For more information on Marsha, visit the following website: http://www.start-up-usa.biz

For more information on Full Lives:

Contact Raelynn Smith at 907-264-6244, toll-free outside Anchorage 1-800-243-2199, or email.

2008 Full Lives Conference Sponsors

Full Lives receives funding and support from the Alaska Alliance for Direct Service Careers through the Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special Education, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority; the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services; and donations from community agencies.

The Center for Human Development is a program of the University of Alaska Anchorage, College of Heath and Social Welfare, and is a designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service (UCEDD).

The Center for Human Development and UAA are AA/EO employers and educational institutions.