2024 Summer Conference

Click here to view the ACCSES Summer Conference Agenda. It it going to be terrific and you will not want to miss it. Let’s take a look at what we have planned:

Sunday: State Association Meeting - All Are Welcome!

We will kick things off at 1:30PM on Sunday, July 21 with our popular State Association Meeting where all attendees are invited to join in the conversation on issues occurring in individual states around the country. This is an opportunity to learn from each other and the conversation is always informative and stimulating.

Monday and Tuesday: Conference Sessions

The 2024 ACCSES Summer Conference and Annual Meeting is going to be focused on the future! What will disability services look like? How will artificial intelligence change things? What’s new in robotics and assistive technology? How are we combatting loneliness, preparing for assisting people as they age, and being supporting partners to individuals grieving a loss? What is out there right now that we should know about? These are the questions that we posed when we began planning the Conference, and the speakers are stepping up to participate. As always, the sessions will encourage Q&A and conversation.

We are pleased to announce that Danté Allen, Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, will be among our featured speakers! Commissioner Allen took the helm at RSA in January 2024, and this will be his first time attending an ACCSES Conference. We are delighted to welcome him. Commissioner Allen will be a part of an afternoon focused on the future of employment. Deputy Assistant Secretary Jennifer Sheehy and Senior Policy Advisor Richard Davis of the Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy will lead a discussion on ways to expand employment opportunities for individuals with the most significant disabilities. The afternoon also will feature Kimberly Zeich, Executive Director of the AbilityOne Commission as we talk about modernization. Richard Belden, President & CEO of SourceAmerica, the Honorable Jon Porter, and several other invited guests will also participate in a roundtable discussion of key concerns and opportunities. Ann Gillmore, Corporate Vice President of Peckham, Inc. will moderate. We will have more to announce on this special afternoon of programming next week.

Curtis Cunningham, Director of Division of Long Term Services and Supports, Disabled and Elderly Health Program Group, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Ryan Shannahan, MSW, Deputy Director of the Division of Long Term Services and Supports will be featured in a hybrid session with Curtis attending via Zoom and Ryan in person. This will be a terrific opportunity to discuss CMS’s recent regulatory changes.

In support of our focus on the future, we are also thrilled that Alexandra Whittington, a Futurist with Tata Consultancy Services, will join us for the first time in person to talk about how futurists are incorporating disability into their prospective look at humanity and society. Tata Consultancy Services is a global leader in IT Services and business solutions and partners with some of the world’s biggest companies. Alexandra is a member of the Future of Business Team, as well as the ACCSES Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technology Subcommittee

Seth Keller, M.D., co-president of NTG and past president of AADMD, who joined us virtually at our Winter Summit in Phoenix in 2023 and promised to be with us in person at a Summer Conference is fulfilling that promise! Dr. Keller, a neurologist, specializes in treating patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He is going to talk primarily about Parkinson’s and Dementia in people aging with I/DD. It is a riveting topic, with a lot of science and images of the brain and how it changes. Seth is one of the most dynamic speakers we have ever had, and we are so happy to have him with us in person in July!

Sarah George, MA, CRC, Director of Mission Initiatives at Peckham and Hung Jen Kuo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, will show us how virtual reality-guided mediation can be used to support work engagement and well-being in workers with disabilities. They will be bringing virtual reality headsets for those who are interested in trying them out.

Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke, President & CEO of Relay Resources, is making a return engagement. Jennifer's focus this time will be on how to leverage the CliftonStrengths assessment and coaching approach to the employee lifecycle for employees with disabilities.

Sharon Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Work, Inc., and Liz Fahey, MPA, Transition Services Consultant, ICCD Partners, will share with us a program Work, Inc. and Ms. Fahey are developing to assist individuals with I/DD in forming lasting relationships and friendships beyond work or habilitation settings. Loneliness is a big concern of ours and we are interested in learning more about what Work, Inc. is doing and how their program can be utilized by other providers.

Kenneth Doka, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle and Senior Vice-President for Grief Programs for the Hospice Foundation of America, will talk with us about a topic we have not covered before and that is grief and how we can better support people with I/DD and Autism who have suffered a loss. Dr. Doka is a prolific writer on the subject of grief, and we are looking forward to working closely with him on programs that will further assist providers in the future.

Craig de Fasselle, Founder of Blitz Media Design and the DSP Magnet® Academy, will join us for the first time in person. Craig has decades of experience helping disability service provider organizations with staff issues and will be focusing on supervisor training during the conference session.

Doug Golub, co-chair of ACCSES’s Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technology Subcommittee, and co-founder and former President of MediSked, is planning a session on the A-1 as well as the future of robotics! No description can do justice to the fascinating presentations Doug makes on our changing world. Doug will be joined by Precious Myers-Brown, Chief Innovation & Dream Officer (CINO), CEO, and Co-Founder of Vista Supports, LLC.

Lawrence Force, Ph.D., Director, The Center on Aging and Disability at Mount St. Mary College and co-Chair of ACCSES’s Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technology Subcommittee, will share with us what he has learned this past year about Exoskeletons that allow people with paralysis to walk. Brain/computer interfaces that open up new vistas for people with quadriplegia. Spinal bridges that use artificial intelligence to connect an implant in the brain to an implant in the abdomen that allows movement. Twenty-first century pioneers are creating numerous approaches to conquer what ten years ago were seemingly insurmountable health concerns. This is a first-time topic for ACCSES, and we are honored to have Larry keeping us informed.

We are bringing back our View from the Hill – which has been bumped for time to allow other speakers at the last two conferences – to lead off our Monday sessions. Monday will also feature the ACCSES Annual Meeting where ACCSES members and any other interested attendees will learn more about ACCSES.

There is so much more to share with you, Invitations have been sent to additional speakers, and we will be making announcements shortly. We always have room for you! Is there something your organization is working on that you would like to share during one of our Spotlight Sessions? These abbreviated sessions give attendees the spotlight for five to twenty minutes to share their stories. If you would like to participate, please reach out to Kate at kmcsweeny@accses.org.