1. When I am not working hard on furthering the mission of the ACB I work as a Program Manager at Microsoft Corporation on the Windows Accessibility team. My passion centers around accessibility, inclusion and truly wanting to make a difference for blind and visually impaired individuals through my work professionally and through my work as a current member of the ACB board. I am seeking to run for another term as a director on the ACB board. I feel that I bring a number of skills that can help further the mission of the council by assisting in improving ACB’s communication plan and strategy, building out the needed technical infrastructure and features to allow the organization to innovate for the future and to influence the policies and direction for the future to ensure that all that wish to serve can. I feel very strongly that to truly achieve the diversity and inclusion goals of ACB, our leadership must mirror the diversity we endeavor to achieve by attracting people from all walks of life, not just those who have the financial means to participate. I am committed to continuing to influence policies and strategic goals to achieve this. Bringing diverse voices from across our state affiliates, members at large and special interest affiliates is key to the viability and relevance of ACB in the ever-changing world. There is a very common phrase used in the accessibility space, that being: “Nothing About Us Without Us.” This takes on a whole new meaning when we look introspectively at ACB and evaluate ourselves against the diverse nature of those who are blind and visually impaired across society. I am hoping you will consider and support me for my next term on the board. Let’s achieve together for the success of everyone!
2. I have played a pivotal role in:
- Planning, building and executing the implementation of ACB’s technical infrastructure to allow the organization to continue to innovate for the future on a solid technology backbone for our organization. This included bringing ACB’s IT infrastructure into a modern, cloud-based web infrastructure to ensure that we can scale for the future as our organization grows and achieves our projected 3 to 5 year plan.
- Served as a key member of the team that built up the new ACB Media Network, bringing all of ACB’s digital assets under one umbrella to allow us to further the reach of our organization. This includes rolling out a new podcasting platform strategy to allow the distribution of ACB sponsored content, ACB community event content and so much more.
- Ensure that all members of the organization can serve at the national level by sponsoring and driving policy changes at the national level by decreasing the financial barrier to serve on the national board. We need to do more on this area but the changes that we have made will allow many more to serve and bring their voice to our organization to drive it going forward.
- Health is a crucial area of concern. I have worked very closely with the ACB Diabetics in Action special interest affiliate to bring innovative and long lasting diabetes education to all ACB members. Many people are not able to obtain modern and late-breaking information on managing their health. This truly can be a life-saving service for our members and giving people tools to empower them to manage their health is a very core fundamental thing that I strongly believe in and I am driving change to bring this to our members. Knowledge is power!
3. In the last few years we have worked hard on developing a 3 to 5 year strategic plan for the organization. This plan is extremely ambitious and will require some fundamental changes within the organization to achieve this result:
- Keep our eye on who we are as an organization. We all need to be thinking outside the box and being laser focused on achievable and obtainable goals and expectations.
- Communication is the key to our success. We need to continue to innovate and drive significant change in the area of communication for our organization if we wish to obtain the goal, impact and reach that we are driving for as a part of our strategic plan. Our new communications manager is in place now and we as an organization need to drive systematic change throughout the entire organization to utilize the skills that this new manager bring to our organization. This will impact all efforts, everything from the work we do at the national level and to those of you even at the local level. All boats rise when we are rowing together and furthering the mission of our organization.
It is vitally important that we widen the net on our national board, within our committees and within the teams that drive our work. We have worked hard as an organization to drive awareness of inclusion and being inclusive of everyone’s voice. We have not done enough. We need to drive policy and change to ensure that each and every voice is heard and that if you wish to serve that we eliminate barriers that limit this potential for everyone. The youth of this organization is limited and that must change if we are to exist into the future. Let everyone that wishes to serve do it!