Keynote/Breakout Speakers

Sharon Lewis

Sharon Lewis was appointed Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in March 2010. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner, she served as the Senior Disability Policy Advisor to U.S. House Committee on Education & Labor, advising members of the Committee on legislative strategy and disability-related policy issues in education, employment and healthcare, and as a Kennedy Public Policy Fellow for U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children & Families. Sharon is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Distinguished Leadership in National Disability Policy Award and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Chairman's Award.
In Oregon, Sharon worked on public policy for the Oregon Developmental Disabilities Coalition and for the Arc. She served as the co-chair of the Oregon Family Action Coalition Team, founded DisabilityCompass.org and managed the Oregon Partners in Policymaking Program, working with individuals with disabilities and family members to participate in policy decisions at all levels. Sharon is a parent to three daughters, including one with disability. She is a native of Michigan and a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Allan Bergman

Allan I. Bergman is an accomplished nonprofit community agency and association executive and nationally recognized leader in influencing the development of federal and state policy relating to “best practice” services and supports for persons with disabilities.
Bergman’s career includes significant leadership positions within local, state and national non-profit agencies and associations. Most recently, he served as President and CEO of one of Chicago’s largest community agencies, Anixter Center, supporting more than 5,000 individuals living with disabilities through 400 employees, 72 programs, and multiple sites. His earlier positions in Washington, D.C. included President and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, and significant leadership roles with United Cerebral Palsy Associations as Director of the Institute on Disability and Managed Care, Director of State-Federal Relations, and Director of Government Relations.

 

Dr. Sally Burton-Hoyle

Dr. Sally Burton-Hoyle has focused her life and career towards improved family support and education of persons with autism. She developed and coordinates the Masters of Autism Spectrum Disorders program at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). This program is based on Positive Behavioral Supports, family involvement and the values of self-determination for ALL! Sally has been at EMU since 2006 and was Executive director of the Autism Society of Michigan, special education teacher, and family member of a person with autism. Sally is a sought after presenter and consultant in the area of special education, person-centered planning, autism, and challenging behavior. Dr. Burton-Hoyle has worked tirelessly with eight other departments at EMU to establish the Autism Collaborative Center which provides education to EMU students and services to Michigan’s schools and families.

 

Jayne Chase

Jayne Chase is the mother of three children: Christina, Todd, and J. Paul. She became involved in disability issues when J. Paul received the label of autism. She has worked tirelessly for children with disabilities and adults with disabilities in creating welcoming inclusive communities where everybody belongs. Jayne believes "all" means "all" and no one should be excluded from participating in full community life.
Jayne has held various positions including the director of Partners in Policymaking of Alabama, the Alabama director of projects relating to employment and assistive technology, as well as consulted on numerous projects. She collaborated with Auburn University creating a distance learning course for teachers who work with students with disabilities. She is a national advisory board member of Autism NOW, as well as an Adult Ally Consultant with Reap What You Sow, a national project of the National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN).

 

Marc Cherna

Marc Cherna was appointed Director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in 1997. This integrated department, with a budget of nearly one billion dollars, includes five programmatic offices: Aging, Behavioral Health, Children, Youth and Families, Community Services, and Intellectual Disability. Marc first came to Allegheny County as a result of a national search to take charge of the county's child protective service agency and immediately implemented system-wide changes that have resulted in better permanency outcomes for children. These reforms received national recognition and were showcased twice by ABC World News Tonight as well as CNN’s NewsNight.

 

Chris Chittick

Team TVN. Brought up in the small town of Greenville, Michigan, I've always had an immense interest in extreme weather for as long as I can remember. I intercepted my first tornado in eastern Wyoming in May 2000, and have been hooked on storm chasing ever since, driving 50,000+ miles every year striving to document as many tornadoes as possible. I also enjoy chasing hurricanes, blizzards, and even grassfires, and plan to continue traveling the world year-round to satisfy my passion for extreme weather.
I studied Business Management at Central Michigan University until 2002 when I decided to move down to Norman, Oklahoma to pursue storm chasing full-time. While continuing to provide all the still photography for the TVN team, I’ll also be focusing on deploying the 300-lb HD camera probe that Reed and I will be hustling to set down in the path of oncoming twisters.

 

Roberta Ross

Roberta Ross is president of Six Figure Real Estate Coach, Inc. She is a highly sought-after speaker and business coach who travels nationwide speaking to sales professionals in the areas of business strategy, marketing, lead generation, and mindset for success. In addition to founding a successful coaching company, Roberta’s accomplishments include becoming the top salesperson for a marketing software company in her first year and top earner by her second year. She is the author of Motivation for the Mind for Real Estate Agents; the inspirational course Seven Keys to Six Figures, and the forthcoming book The Biggest Prospecting Mistakes Real Estate Agents Make and How to Avoid Them.

 

Kathie Snow

About Kathie Snow. Today, I’m a wife and mother, as well as an author, public speaker, trainer, consultant, and host of this website. And, like others, getting from “there to here” started out as a personal journey that blossomed into professional opportunities.
My interest in disability issues was born in 1987 in Texas, the same year my son, Benjamin, was born prematurely and then diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the tender age of four months. Before that, I had no knowledge of, or experience with, disability issues. I grew up in Texas, with my civil service Dad, stay-at-home Mom, and an older brother and sister. Life was grand! After high school, I enjoyed a stint in a technical school, several jobs, a little college, a marriage and divorce—the usual ups and downs. Then I met Mark, my soul-mate, at work; we married and started a family, and life was grander!

 

Robert Stack

Robert Stack is the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Options. According to the New Jersey Business Journal's Book of Lists for 2011, with over 2,600 employees and over 30 offices in 10 states, Community Options is ranked as the 5th largest non-profit in New Jersey. He has an MBA and is a graduate of the University of Dayton, Mr. Stack also attended the University in Friborg, Switzerland, University of Rome and the University of London. He also taught at Kent State University where he received the Graduate Student Teaching Award and he is a current Adjunct Professor at Kean University.
Mr. Stack has extensive international experience in entrepreneurial business development and non-profit management. He has spoken throughout the world on employment for persons with disabilities using a social entrepreneurial model. He was a keynote at the Yale Goldman-Sachs School of Management and has given the plenary session at the National Council of Negro Women USAID conference in Cairo, Egypt, and at Perspectiva in Moscow, Russia on entrepreneurial management, business development and advocacy.

 

Reed Timmer

Team TVN. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - notorious for massive snow storms - gave me a early introduction to extreme weather, but my first official storm chase was at the age of 13, when I intercepted a severe storm in my front yard and was pelted by golf-ball size hail that destroyed the family video camera. Ever since that day I’ve been obsessed with extreme weather and storm chasing, but was preoccupied for several years with other natural science adventures.
After becoming the national champion in the tree identification event at the 1996 Science Olympiad, I decided to pursue my true passion and began studying meteorology at the University of Oklahoma in 1998. I photographed my first tornado in October of 1998, and documented the massive F5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 3, 1999 from underneath an overpass as the mile-wide wedge was bearing down on my location. Other than getting covered by mud, the F5 tornado left me unscathed and even more obsessed with extreme storm chasing. Ever since that day, I’ve been driving over 50,000 miles every year from the Mexican Border to Canada and have captured over 200 tornadoes on film.

 

Colleen Wieck

Colleen Wieck, PhD, is Executive Director of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities of the Department of Administration, a position she has held for the past 30 years. The Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities is a federally funded, Governor appointed group of 25 members whose mission is to provide information, education, and training to increase the independence, self determination, productivity, integration and inclusion of people with developmental disabilities and their families.
Prior to her work with the DD Council, Dr. Wieck was a researcher at the University of Minnesota for four years conducting national surveys of group homes and state institutions with an emphasis on comparing costs of different types of facilities. She was also a direct services provider for five years in the area of day programs for adults and early intervention for children.