Discussion Boards

Projects

June 23, 2008

About the Presenters

Richard Petty is Program Director at ILRU--Independent Living Research Utilization. Since 1998 he has directed the IL NET, a national project which provides training and technical assistance to over 500 centers for independent living and 56 statewide independent living councils, organizations which foster community independence for people with disabilities. Petty directs the ILRU Community Living Partnership which provides training, publications, and implementation support to CMS Real Choice systems change grantees operating innovative home and community services programs. Petty has headed ILRU's support to Real Choice grantees since 2001. Petty is conducting research on the experiences of those with disabilities affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Before coming to ILRU, Petty served for ten years as Executive Director of Mainstream, an advocacy-oriented center for independent living in Little Rock, Arkansas. Petty holds an MBA degree from the C. T. Bauer School of Business at the University of Houston. He writes about and conducts training and workshops on application of evidence based practices in community programs, advocacy and lobbying, grassroots action for change, transition from nursing facilities to the community, and leading organizations in transformational change.

Jeff Sheen, MSW is a Project Director at the Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD), at Utah State University. For the past seven years he has been involved in directing and evaluating a number of projects designed to improve community resources for individuals with disabilities and their families. These projects include working with IL-NET to provide on-line courses to staff of Centers for Independent Living and Statewide Independent Living Councils, implementing improved care coordination for children with special health care needs, and developing improved Social Security and Medicaid work incentives for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, Mr. Sheen had been participating in Emergency Preparedness activities involving disability issues for the past four years.  He attended the first ever National Organization on Disabilities Conference on Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities in 2004 and participated in the National  Consortium on Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response for People with Disabilities Second Working Meeting in 2005.  Mr. Sheen along with colleagues at the CPD, has presented on emergency preparedness for people with disabilities at the annual Utah Bioterrorism/Emergency Preparedness Conferences for the past four years.  Mr. Sheen was also a part of the ILRU training development team that developed the training curriculum on Emergency Preparedness for Centers of Independent Living that is the basis for this webcast. Most recently Mr. Sheen has been directing the Emergency Preparedness for All Utahns project that provides training on emergency preparedness issues for people with disabilities for a variety of audiences including: individuals with disabilities, families of children with special health care needs, and community provider and state agency staff.