Therap Announces 2019 National Conference Keynote Speakers

WATERBURY, Conn., Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Therap's 2019 National Conference features keynote presentations by Cathy Ficker Terrill, board chair of the Human Services Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Michelle C. Reynolds, Director of Individual Advocacy and Family Support at UMKC-Institute for Human Development (UCEDD) in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Cathy Ficker Terill's career has spanned working in government, non-profit organizations and universities along with a lengthy history of advocacy. Cathy was president and CEO of the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities, the Ray Graham Association, the Illinois chapter of TASH, the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and vice-president of the Brain Injury Association (BIA). Cathy authored a manual on Consent Issues for Self-Advocates and Direct Care staff, and was a two-term Presidential Appointee to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID). Over the past 20 years she has been a volunteer and advocate internationally, helping to create services for people with disabilities in Kosovo, Poland, Russia, Korea, Cyprus, Lithuania, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Michelle C. Reynolds has worked at UMKC Institute for Human Development (UCEDD) for the past 17 years. In her role she is responsible for projects including HRSA Family-to-Family Health Information Center for Missouri, Parent-to-Parent program housed within the Missouri Developmental Disability Resource Center, and HRSA Integrated Community Services and Innovative Models grant initiatives. She helped facilitate the Wingspread Conference producing the National Agenda for Supporting Families with a Member with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and served on the AUCD Family Special Interest Group. Her work focuses on transforming state human service systems, including developmental disability, early childhood, and special health care needs to focus on person- and family-centered outcomes.  Her role as co-principal investigator on the National Community of Practice on Supports to Families grant from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in collaboration with the National Association on State Developmental Disability Directors has helped her push for policy and system changes at a state and national level.

The 2019 National Conference will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 29-31.  Visit our conference page to for more details or to register at www.therapservices.net/national-conference-2019/.

SOURCE Therap