Learn more about our new Executive Director, Jamie Ray-Leonetti. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What is your background?
Jamie: For about 20 years of my professional career before coming to the IOD, I advocated for people with disabilities and their families. I worked at the Pennsylvania Client Assistance Program, which is an advocacy program for people in Pennsylvania; Disability Rights Pennsylvania, which is one of our Developmental Disabilities Act partners; and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which is very important to me because my husband lives with MS. I also bring my own lived experience as a person with a disability to my work.
At the Institute, I have been our policy director since February 2018. In that role, I’ve worked on a variety of grants, including our state contract, where we complete supports broker certification and train self-advocates and family members through our Competence and Confidence: Partners in Policy Making (C2P2) program. I've also educated our legislators both at the state and federal level about important disability issues.
What would you describe as a few strengths of the IOD?
Jamie: I think we have a group of folks who work at the IOD who are very dedicated and who, in many cases, bring their own lived experience, or the lived experience of a family member, to the work that they do at the IOD.
I also think that we build relationships well throughout various communities, including the Temple community, North Philadelphia community, and across that state of Pennsylvania. We have a variety of grant partners and are involved with statewide organizations like Disability Pride Pennsylvania, Speaking for Ourselves, Self-Advocates United as One, and more.
Where do you see the IOD continuing and expanding its work?
I’d like to continue to grow our research and to include people with disabilities at all levels of that research. We want to continue attracting graduate students who are interested in working in the disability field to grow the next generation of leaders, and we want to continue provide training and education and support to families and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism.
We are also lucky enough to house our Assistive Technology Act program, which we call TechOWL. That gives us the opportunity to serve an even wider population of people with disabilities and assistive technology needs across Pennsylvania.
This is a challenging and exciting time for the Institute on Disabilities and for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities across the country, as well as for people with disabilities and their families.
Jamie Ray-Leonetti
Executive Director, Institute on Disabilities
Anything else that you would like to share?
One of my goals as Executive Director is to be available for individuals and families across Pennsylvania. If you have a question or would like to set up a meeting, please reach out to me at jamie.ray-leonetti@temple.edu. I also plan to work closely with our Consumer Advisory Committee to amplify the voices of people with disabilities and families across Pennsylvania.
This is a challenging and exciting time for the Institute on Disabilities and for University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities across the country, as well as for people with disabilities and their families. It’s exciting because we have new leadership, which always creates opportunities. It’s also challenging because, as people with disabilities, caregivers and family members, we are being challenged on a lot of fronts right now. Everyone is being asked to do more with less. The way that we do that is by working together so that we have one collective disability voice.