Hello! I joined the ANCOR team March 1st 2019 and I am excited to be a part of this exceptional team of professionals.
I have been working in the field of supporting people with I/DD since I was in college in 1984. My first introduction to people with disabilities came when a college friend invited me and several others to help coach her brother’s Special Olympics team. It was a remarkable experience that quickly led me to volunteering at a summer camp and soon thereafter beginning work as a DSP in an eight-person group home. I absolutely fell in love with my work and enjoyed all that I was learning from the people I was assisting! After completing college, I was selected to manage a group home and then one year later was accepted into a grant program for graduate study focused on transitions from school to work for young adults with I/DD.
Over the years I directed a supported employment program, a residential program and later a small agency serving people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Eventually I found my way to the provider association in RI (CPNRI) where I stayed for over eighteen years, fourteen as the Executive Director. During that tenure, I adopted my son at just one day old! When he was three, he was diagnosed with Autism and I suddenly had an entirely different role – no longer as only a professional in the service system, but as a parent! The experiences I have had with my son have galvanized my passion to create the best possible options for people and the systems needed to support their choices. Now, with ANCOR, I hope to help providers and their associations remain strong during these changing times so they may continue to be a resource and support to those they serve.