YES To Employment

Season 5, Episode 5 — 31 August 2021 About this episode The YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen, Sean Roy and Laura Owens fan out across the Partnerships in Employment states for a five year retrospective on the PIE state projects. We put four questions to each team: Why did your state apply for a PIE Grant?...

Season 5, Episode 4 — 31 August 2021 About this episode The YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen, Sean Roy and Laura Owens fan out across the Partnerships in Employment states for a five year retrospective on the PIE state projects. We put four questions to each team: Why did your state apply for a PIE Grant?...

The YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen talks with Nathan Piper, the Business, Legislative and Community Relations Manager for the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. They discuss what a thoroughgoing employer engagement actually consists of.

Season 5, Episode 2 — 31 August 2021 About this episode Dale Verstegen, state liaison for the YES! Center, talks with Keith Banner, Katie Blumhorst, Stacy Collins, Alex Corwin and Kelly Schuck, part of the team behind Ohio’s multi-agency Employment First Provider Transformation Initiative. They discuss how they have created an integrated approach for transformation...

You’re listening to YES To Employment a podcast series that seeks to improve competitive integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today, the guest speaker is Sean Roy who talks with Emily Sherwood and Marta Osuna from the Association for Career and Technical Education or Act II about...

This is the first in a series of podcasts in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). TASH’s interim Executive Director, Serena Lowe talks with Alison Barkoff, the Director of Advocacy, Center for Public Representation. They have a wide-ranging discussion of employment policy and programs for people with disabilities, but Alison remains rooted throughout...

Serena Lowe, TASH’s interim Executive Director, talks with Cesilee Coulson, the Executive Director of WISE, the Washington Initiative for Supported Employment. They have the sort of conversation you might expect from two people with such depth of experience in these issues: high-level, broad-ranging, big ideas. But mostly they talk about the necessity to not letting...

We talk with we talk with Julie Christensen, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at APSE. APSE has recently conducted a major survey of employment service providers about the impact of COVID-19 and its economic consequences for people with disabilities. We talk about the ways the COVID-19 crisis has affected the employment of people with disabilities, from those who can’t work owing to comorbidities associated with their disability, to people who have lost their jobs, to essential workers. Additionally, we discuss the effect on employment support personnel and services. But we also discuss ways that employment for people with disabilities might emerge stronger on the other side of this crisis. Season 4, Episode 3 — 27 August 2020 About the Presenters Julie J. Christensen, MSW, PhD, is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE). Prior to joining APSE, Dr. Christensen served as the Director of the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD), the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at the University of Iowa, where she was also research faculty in the Carver College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Christensen’s previous experience includes her role as the Director of Employment Programs at the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities at the University of Rochester (a New York UCEDD), where she served as the Principal Investigator and Project Director for the New York State Partnerships in Employment Systems Change project, Co-Director of the New York Employment First State Leadership Mentor Program, and as the New York State Coordinator for Project SEARCH. Dr. Christensen received her undergraduate degrees in advertising and music from Syracuse University, and a Masters in Social Work from Roberts Wesleyan College and her Ph.D. in Health Practice Research at the University of Rochester. Donald Taylor is the Manager of Operations and Digital Presence at TASH and the producer of YES To Employment. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to YES! To Employment, a podcast series that seeks to improve competitive, integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today we talk with Julie Christensen, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at APSE, the Association of People Supporting Employment First. Additionally, Julie was the Project Director for the New York State Partnerships in Employment project during the first round of PIE grants. We discuss the ways the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the employment of people with disabilities, from those who can’t work owing to comorbidities associated with their disability, to people who have lost their jobs, to essential workers. Additionally, we discuss the effect on employment support personnel and services. But we also discuss ways that employment for people with disabilities might emerge stronger on the other side of this crisis. Musical interlude Donald Taylor: Julie Christiansen, you have a really deep background in employment for people with disabilities. Tell us about yourself and how you came to the role you have today. Julie Christensen: So it’s an interesting question. My personal life and my […]

Season 4, Episode 2 — 20 August 2020 About this Episode At the TASH conference in December, the YES! Center’s, Dale Verstegen spoke with Julie Hocker, the Commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities at the Administration for Community Living at the Department of Health and Human Services. They have a rather personal discussion of Commissioner Hocker’s path to the success she has achieved, the things she learned and the mentors who’ve contributed along the way, but they also discussed the important cultural lessons and policy prescriptions we can take from her career path. About the presenters Julie Hocker joined ACL as the Commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities on October 1, 2018. Hocker brings to the role extensive experience in operational process improvement, risk management, and effectiveness assessment. Ms. Hocker joins ACL from the Charles Koch Foundation, where has served as a senior manager since 2016. In that role, she has led several key initiatives to improve the foundation’s operations, including development of an integrated technology and data solution for fundraising, grantmaking and expenditures; redesigning process to improve investment tracking and enable better analysis of effectiveness; and creation and implementation of risk-management processes. Previously, she served in a variety of roles with The Vanguard Group and as an analyst for the Administration for Children and Families. In addition, she has been a senior policy fellow for the Center for Human Dignity at the American Conservative Union Foundation since 2015. Dale Verstegen is a Senior Research Associate at TranScen and one of the State Liaison for the YES! Center. Transcript Announcer:You’re listening to YES! to Employment, a podcast series that seeks to improve competitive integrated employment outcomes for transition aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. At the TASH conference in December, the YES! Center’s, Dale Verstegen spoke with Julie Hocker, the Commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities at the Administration for Community Living at the Department of Health and Human Services. They have a rather personal discussion of Commissioner Hocker’s path to the success she has achieved, the things she learned and the mentors who’ve contributed along the way, but they also discussed the important cultural lessons and policy prescriptions we can take from her career path. Musical interlude Dale Verstegen: Dale Verstegen here with Commissioner Julie Hocker for the Administration on Disabilities. Julie, thank you so much for working us into your busy schedule and taking the time to talk to us today. Julie Hocker: Yeah, I’m just, I’m really happy to be here in Phoenix at the TASH Conference and grateful to talk to you this morning. Dale Verstegen: Great. So, uh, what was your education and training like in the early years of both your life and your career? Julie Hocker: Oh, goodness. Well, I guess we could start all the way back at the, the, the true beginning. Um, when I was in a preschool, I like to tell this story that I actually started off in, um, a preschool just for children […]

Season 4, Episode 1 — 28 February 2020 About this episode Dale Verstegen talks with Karla Lynch of the King County Department of Community and Human Services and Cesilee Coulson and Chisa O’Quinn from WISE about diversity and inclusion in employment services and how to elicit input from people across cultural barriers. About the presenters Karla Lynch is the Employment and Community Inclusion Program Manager with the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), Developmental Disabilities and Early Childhood Supports (DDECS) Division serves as a systems partner to coordinate the delivery of employment and community inclusion services to approximately 2,400 adults in King County, through a network of thirty contracted service providers. Cesilee Coulson is the Executive Director of the Washington Initiative for Supported Employment; Wise. She brings 22 years of experience in competitive integrated employment training and technical assistance to her position. Cesilee uses her experience to assist with organizational transformation, employment systems change and community employment capacity building. Chisa O’Quinn is a Program Manager and Social Worker who has traveled with individuals through the worlds of Corrections, Counseling, Disability Services, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse. What sets her apart as a leader and advocate in the field is her ability to creatively seek solutions in difficult situations, as well as her focus on person centered planning strategies. Dale Verstegen is a Senior Research Associate at TranScen and one of the State Liaison for the YES! Center. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening to YES! To Employment, a podcast series that seeks to improve competitive, integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today the YES! Center’s Dale Verstegen talks with Cesilee Coulson, the Executive Director of the Washington Initiative for Supported Employment, or Wise; Chisa O’Quinn, a Program Manager with Wise; and Karla Lynch, the Employment and Community Inclusion Program Manager with the King County Department of Community and Human Services, Developmental Disabilities and Early Childhood Supports Division. They discuss diversity and inclusion and have a surprisingly forthright discussion about how to elicit input from people across cultural barriers. Complete transcript forthcoming Announcer: You’ve been listening to YES! To Employment, a podcast that seeks to improve competitive, integrated employment outcomes for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today Dale Verstegen spoke with Cesilee Coulson and Chisa O’Quinn from Wise and Karla Lynch from the Developmental Disabilities and Early Childhood Supports Division with King County Department of Community and Human Services. You can learn more about WISE at www.gowise.org and more about the Developmental Disabilities and Early Childhood Supports Division at the kingcounty.gov website. For more about YES! To Employment, including show notes, links to the resources discussed, a complete transcript and a schedule of episodes, visit www.yestoemployment.org/podcast. You can subscribe through iTunes or your favorite Android podcast app to have the series delivered automatically to your device so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please give us a rating on iTunes. Ratings will help […]