Janine Bertram Kemp is a communications and marketing consultant. She has written numerous articles for disability publications as well as papers for corporations and federal and state agencies. She works with Social Documentarian Tom Olin on compiling visual and oral histories for organizations and state and local governments. A sampling of clients includes New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Pax TV, Maryland Statewide Independent Living Council, and the Federal Transit Administration. She is President of the Disability Rights Center, founded in Washington, DC in 1976 by Deborah Kaplan and Ralph Nader.
Janine is the former Communications Director for the National Spinal Cord Injury Association and the American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD). Prior to that time, she was Chairman of the Board of Evan Kemp Associates, a durable medical equipment and accessible transportation company based in Maryland. From 1988-1992, she served as Assistant to Evan J, Kemp, Jr., Chairman U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, writing speeches and reports and assisting with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Evan, her late husband, was Janine’s entree’ to the national disability movement. In the 1980’s, a group of advocates decided Evan would become a Republican and bring George Bush (41) and others in that party “on board” to get the Americans with Disabilities Act passed. Evan was on the platform and introduced George Bush on July 26, 1990, when the President signed the ADA into law. Janine’s relationship with Evan gave her a “front row seat” on a seldom seen or discussed portion of the history of the American disability rights movement.
Janine is a Reiki Master in Jo Rei Reiki and divides her time between Mt. Hood, Oregon and Washington, DC.
