Join us for lunch and learn about a topic driven by membership!

Members attend free!

This month's topic: When what a person wants isn't aligned with what their family wants for them
If you are this person, you understand this more than anyone. If you are someone else you might be wondering how or IF you balance these two things, or how to support people in their autonomy and authority over themselves. Please join us and Special Guest Sue Swenson. We are excited to have Sue speak from many perspectives ~ especially one of a guardian who upholds the roots of person-direction even, yes, in her role as a guardian.

Presenter: Sue Swenson, President, Inclusion International

Sue Swenson is President of Inclusion International and serves on the board of the International Disability Alliance. Sue served both terms of the Obama administration as deputy and acting assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services and was director of the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research in 2010. She was appointed senior advisor in OSERS in the Biden administration for 8 months in 2021-22. She was the commissioner for developmental disabilities in the Clinton administration and has been executive director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and The Arc of the United States. She was a Kennedy Fellow in the US Senate Disability Policy Subcommittee in 1996 where she worked for Chairman Senator Bill Frist of TN.

Sue learned about disability from her middle son Charlie, who lived for 30 years with multiple disabilities and complex support needs, was included in neighborhood schools, and always lived with his family and in the community. Charlie and Sue testified together on legal capacity and inclusive education during UN CRPD deliberations and in multiple state and federal committees. Sue lives in Bethesda MD, is from Red Wing, MN, was educated at the University of Chicago (BA, MA), and holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota.