About the Presenters 

Paul K. Longmore, Professor of History and Director of the Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, specializes in Early American history and the history of people with disabilities. He earned his Ph.D. at the Claremont Graduate School and his B.A. and M.A. at Occidental College. Longmore has also written articles in scholarly journals and newspapers on themes related to the history of people with disabilities and their contemporary civil rights struggle. With Lauri Umansky, he co-edited The New Disability History: American Perspectives (New York University Press, 2001), an anthology of essays, and is co-editing a book series, The History of Disability, for NYU Press. A collection of his writings, Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability, was published by Temple University Press in 2003. He has been interviewed regarding disability-related issues on ABC's Nightline, ABC's World News Tonight, NBC's Today, and NPR's Weekend Edition, as well as in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, McCall's, and TV Guide. He has obtained grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct a Summer Institute on Disability Studies, the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research to examine the impact of disability studies curricula, and the U.S. Department of Education to direct a mentoring project to facilitate the transition of students with disabilities from college to careers.

Julia Sain has been working at Programs for Accessible living in Charlotte, NC since 1984. She has been a Peer Counselor's Assistant, ADA/Advocacy Coordinator, Assistant Director, Interim Director, and, currently, Executive Director. Over the years Julia has performed many training activities for consumers, business leaders, government personnel, human resource professionals, and CIL staff and Board members. She is a sign language interpreter and founder of the local chapter of Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). Julia has been the Executive Director of PAL since September 1997. Since that time she has been active with the Southeastern Center Directors Association, Region IV's coalition of center directors. She has held the offices of Secretary and Vice-President and President. Julia is serving her second appointment to the NC SILC.