Katherine Beh Neas

Director, Congressional Affairs
Easter Seals

Katy Beh Neas has been a member of the government relations team at Easter Seals since January 1995. Her primary responsibilities are to monitor and analyze federal legislation and regulation affecting children with disabilities and their families, particularly in the areas of early intervention, early childhood education, special education and budget and appropriations. She also develops and implements strategies for influencing Congress, Federal agencies, and others to increase opportunities for young children with disabilities and their families.

Since 1996, Neas has served as one of the five co-chairs of the Education Task Force of the national disability coalition, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. She oversees the advocacy efforts of the 50 organizations who volunteer on the task force.

She has co-authored with the Center for Law and Social Policy several policy papers and reports on early education and care opportunities for children with disabilities, including "Coming Together for Children with Disabilities - State Collaboration to Support Quality Inclusive Child Care."

Prior to Easter Seals, Neas was the associate director of the American Association of University Affiliated Programs for persons with Developmental Disabilities. She also was legislative staff to chairman Senator Tom Harkin of the Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy between 1987 and 1991, where she worked on all disability legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She is a 1985 graduate of Georgetown University.

Esther Canty-Barnes

Clinical Professor and Director, Special Education Clinic
Rutgers School of Law

Ms. Esther Canty-Barnes currently serves as Clinical Professor and Director of the Special Education Clinic at Rutgers University School where she represents indigent parents and students with disabilities, trains law students in this specialized area of the law and conducts workshops for judges, court personnel, various agencies, and attorneys in an effort to broaden the resources and information available to parents of children with disabilities.

Since her tenure with the Clinic, Ms. Canty-Barnes has represented numerous children with disabilities and assisted in the training of parents, attorneys, judges, case managers, foster parents, and persons interested in the health and welfare of disabled children. She has also participated in several conferences organized by the Division of Youth and Family Services, CASA, AARP, the NJ State Bar Foundation and served as guest lecturer at the Rutgers University undergraduate and graduate schools of education and the University of Novi Sad, Serbia.

She was responsible for broadening the Clinic’s community outreach by coordinating workshops, roundtable discussions, and trainings, and sought ways in which to develop partnerships and linkages within the community to serve the needs of disabled children.

With the assistance of the Honorable Donald Volkert, then presiding judge of the Essex County Family Court, she was instrumental in developing a “Special Education in the Courts Initiative” to educate parents and caregivers and to assist responsible parties in identifying and referring children, who were in need of early intervention and special education services. Recently, Ms. Canty-Barnes was responsible for securing a grant for the Special Education Clinic to expand the Special Education in the Courts Initiative. The program is designed primarily to 1) offer judicial training to each county vicinage and other individuals responsible for the health and welfare of children on the early intervention and special education systems and the rights of children with disabilities in foster care to receive appropriate developmental and educational services; 2) coordinate and collaborate with state agencies, such as the Office of the Child Advocate, DYFS, as well as local school districts in an effort to bridge the gaps between the child welfare, education and health systems that result in the failure to meet the special needs of children with disabilities in foster care; and 3) to serve as a resource for the family courts, court personnel and resource families regarding issues that impact the developmental and educational needs of children in foster care.

Prior to becoming Director of the Special Education Clinic, Ms. Canty-Barnes was a Municipal Court Judge in Irvington where she developed an educational component to her role as Municipal Court Judge. She regularly invited elementary school aged children into court to explain the legal process and using the facts from various children stories, conducted mock trials. Through her efforts, she organized the first Law Day program at Irvington High School featuring former Justice James A. Coleman, Jr. (the first African American Supreme Court Justice in the State of New Jersey) and attorneys from various professions.

Ms. Canty-Barnes is the recipient of many awards. On April 30, 2006, she was honored by the National Association of Women Judges (District III) for her work and advocacy on behalf of disabled children in the Courts. On April 23, 2005, she received a Presidential Citation from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington, D.C.. In April 2004, the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey, Inc. honored Ms. Canty-Barnes for her advocacy and innovative strategies in protecting and preserving the rights of New Jersey’s children. Additionally, in May 2004, she was the recipient of the Association of American Law Schools Clinical Legal Education Association Shanara Gilbert award in San Diego, California. The award is made annually and was presented in recognition of excellence in teaching and contributions to the advancement of social justice.

Ms. Canty-Barnes is a member of St. Marks United Methodist Church in Montclair, New Jersey where she serves as a founding member of the Church’s Neighborhood Dispute Resolution Team; and Co-Superintendent of the Church’s Family Life Center. As a member of the Conflict Resolution Team she was instrumental in obtaining the Church’s first grant to Train children and young adult in ways to resolve conflict by using Christian Principals and has incorporated conflict resolution into the church’s Sunday School and Vacation Bible School Curriculum.

Dr. Stephen Haley

Senior Scientist, Health and Disability Institute
Boston University

Stephen M. Haley, Ph.D. is a senior scientist at the Health and Disability Institute at Boston University. He currently holds an academic appointment as Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Washington, and his clinical training in physical therapy at the Ohio State University.

His primary specialty areas are in measurement of functional status in children and adults, outcomes research, and the application of item response theory and computer adaptive testing applications in rehabilitation and post-acute health care settings. He is an author of a number of pediatric assessments, including the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory and the School Function Assessment. He has served for the past seven years as the Director of Research for the Research Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs at Franciscan Children's Hospital in Boston.

Dr. William Henderson, Jr.

Principal
Patrick O'Hearn Elementary School

Bill Henderson has been an educator in Boston for the past 33 years. Bill holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Goddard College, and an ED.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Bill began his career as a bilingual (Spanish) teacher at both the elementary and middle school levels. He has worked as a staff trainer and curriculum consultant and as an assistant principal. Bill has also presented extensively at universities and conferences, and he has served as a consultant for school systems and agencies. For the past 16 years, he has been principal of the O'Hearn Elementary School.

The Patrick O'Hearn is a small, urban elementary school serving children from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and ability backgrounds from early childhood through Grade 5. The O'Hearn has gained national recognition for its excellent full inclusion program. Students who are involved in regular education, students who have moderate to significant disabilities, and students considered talented and gifted learn together and from each other. Teachers and support staff team to work with all children in integrated classrooms.

When not working, Bill enjoys exercising, gardening, playing the saxophone, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

John M. Kelly

President and Chief Executive Officer
Meeting Street

John M. Kelly has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Meeting Street since 1998 and served as a member of its Board of Trustees from 1990 to 1997. From 1995 to 1997, he served as Chairman of the Board of Meeting Street, a non-profit agency founded in 1946 that provides comprehensive educational, therapeutic and developmental services to children, with and without developmental delays or disabilities, and their families in order to help the children achieve their maximum potential and highest quality of life.

Prior to accepting the position of President at Meeting Street, Kelly was General Counsel for Cornish Associates, L.P., a real estate development company headquartered in Providence. In that role, he also served as the lead staff person for the Coalition for Community Development, a community organization formed to implement the revitalization of downtown Providence. Before joining Cornish Associates in 1995, Kelly was a partner with the law firm of Tillinghast, Collins & Graham in Providence.

Kelly is a member of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He is a current Board member for About Families, LLC, and a Board member for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence.

Dr. Rick Rader

Editor-in-Chief
Exceptional Parent Magazine

Dr. Rader is the Editor in chief of Exceptional Parent Magazine, the world's most highly respected magazine devoted to parents and professionals raising and supporting individuals with significant and complex disabilities. Under his tutelage the magazine has won innumerable prestigious awards for editorial excellence.

Dr. Rader is the Director of the Morton J. Kent Habilitation Center at Orange Grove in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr. Rader functions as a medical futurist in trying to predict the future medical problems of individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities as they age. He is crossed trained in both internal medicine and medical anthropology.

Dr. Rader is the President elect of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry and a Fellow of the American Association on Mental Retardation. He was the first appointed Special Liaison for Family Healthcare Concerns at the Presidents Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Dr. Rader is a past recipient of the Exceptional Physician of the Year Award granted by parents of children with special needs.

He has authored over 50 articles on neurodevelopmental disabilities and has lectured extensively all over the world on the dynamics of the special needs community.

Dr. Rader was a member of the Surgeon General's Task Force on Healthcare Disparities for People with Mental Retardation as well as serving as a consultant to the NIH's Office on Rare Diseases. He serves as a medical consultant to Special Olympics. He is an adjunct professor of Human Development at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as well as serving on the Genetics Advisory Board for the State of Tennessee. He serves on the board of the American Association on Health and Disabilities. He was the first physician elected as an honorary member of the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association. He is a member of the New York Academy of Science.

Dr. James Rimmer

Director, National Center on Physical Activity and Disability and
Professor, Disability and Human Development University of Illinois at Chicago

James H. Rimmer, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development and Adjunct Professor in Movement Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University, which is affiliated with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

For the past 25 years, Dr. Rimmer has been developing and directing physical activity and health promotion programs for people with disabilities. He has published more than 85 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on various topics related to physical activity, health promotion, secondary conditions and disability. He is director of two federally funded centers, the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (www.ncpad.org), and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Recreational Technologies and Exercise Physiology Benefiting People with Disabilities (www.rectech.org), and has received over $20M in federal grants since 1997.

Dr. Rimmer has published standardized measurement instruments that can be used to evaluate the accessibility of fitness and recreation facilities for people with disabilities, and was recently awarded a 5-year grant by NIH to develop a health empowerment zone for people with disabilities in and around the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical District. Dr. Rimmer is currently completing a CDC-funded randomized controlled trial titled, "A Physician-Referred Community-Based Approach to Increasing Awareness and Sustainability of Physical Activity for Overweight Adults with Mobility Limitations." He is a Healthy People 2010 Panel Member and was recently appointed to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Health Disparities Advisory Committee. Dr. Rimmer serves on several national boards including the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for Life Fitness Academy and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Robotics.

He is an avid fitness enthusiast and especially enjoys running and walking with his family and Cairn terrier, Mica.

Jean Schappet

Co-founder
The National Center for Boundless Playgrounds^®

Jean Schappet co-founded Boundless Playgrounds, the first national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities create extraordinary playgrounds where all children, with and without disabilities, can develop essential skills for life as they learn together through play. Schappet is an educator and designer who is an expert in helping people develop playgrounds that both address the developmental needs of children and celebrate the principles of universally accessible design. There are over 80 Boundless Playgrounds in 21 states and Canada with dozens more in development throughout the U.S.

As part of her work with Boundless Playgrounds, Schappet provides training to playground industry professionals on how to create barrier-free playgrounds that address the predictable play behaviors of children at each stage of development. Her advocacy for developmentally advantageous and barrier-free play environments is tied to a personal mission: to positively influence the self-image of multitudes of children.

Schappet is the co-author of High Expectations: Playgrounds for Children of All Abilities, which focuses on play environments for preschoolers. Published in 2003, it is the first in a series of three books being published by Boundless Playgrounds about barrier-free play environments for children of all abilities across all stages of their development.

Before co-founding Boundless Playgrounds in 1997, Schappet was the co-founder, president and chief designer for Woodset Inc. It was her personal mission that moved the company from a small local manufacturer of premium residential play structures to a nationally respected commercial play equipment manufacturer.

Schappet was a featured presenter at a 2004 W.K. Kellogg Foundation seminar, "Able to Play: Mobilizing Communities for Children of All Abilities." She also has been a featured presenter at the National Safe Kids Conference and International Conference on Universal Design, and a trainer for the National Playground Safety School. She has been a guest speaker for Head Start regional conference, play equipment manufacturers and the Connecticut Center for School Change. Schappet was recognized with a Woman of the Year Award in 1992-93 by the Business & Professional Organization of Charles County, Maryland.

Schappet has served on several committees for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and as an advisory board member for the National Program for Playground Safety. She has also served as president of the Charles County United Way; president of the LaPlata Rotary Club; chair of the Southern Maryland Private Industry Council; vice chair of the Planning Commission for Charles County, Maryland; and state board member of the Maryland Small Business Development Center.