Meet the Workshop Speakers
Meet the speakers for the Abilities Expo Chicago workshops! They bring years of experience and knowledge to the workshops they will share with you. Many are recognized regionally and nationally for their ongoing work with the disability community. All Abilities Expo speakers have apparent and non-apparent disabilities, work in the disability field, or are the sibling or parent of a person with disabilities.
Ryan Cavender
Technical Support & Education Manager - Stealth Products, LLC
Ryan Cavender is the Education Manager for Stealth Products and is responsible for providing training to internal teams within Stealth as well as to customers around the world. He has spent the last seven years in various training and research and development (R&D) roles with Stealth. While earning his bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, he began working part time for a local DME supplier. During his 17 years in the industry, Ryan has had a heavy focus on technical and product education.
Workshop: Wheelchair Seating Solutions for Kids
Jonathan Garcia-Limanni
Self-Guided Facilitator, Fable
Jonathan is a Self-Guided Facilitator at Fable, working as part of the Community Team to help manage request delivery and tester experiences. Passionate about digital and neurodiverse/cognitive accessibility, his job at Fable allows him to work with a wide range of audiences directly through their engagements with Fable, but also in supporting their long-term professional growth. Jonathan has a Bachelor's of Commerce, and shares his life with his four cats as well as his grandparents, whom he and his parents support on a daily basis.
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Workshop: Workforce Readiness for People with Disabilities
Carla Johnson, EdD
Board Member, The Legacy Ranch
Dr. Carla Johnson has a doctorate in Educational Administration from Northern Illinois University and is a multiple World Champion with her family's show horses. After spending 9 years as a high school teacher and 24 years as a K-12 School Administrator, Carla retired and again asked herself, "What do I want to do with my life?" The answer blended her love of serving those in need and her love of horses. Carla now is a Board Member for The Legacy Ranch Equine Therapy Facility and even has one of her own horses, "Ajax," volunteer in the Legacy Healing Herd. Carla herself was diagnosed with sensorimotor polyneuropathy 7 years ago and accredits her horses for keeping her legs moving and attitude optimistic. Carla believes miracles happen on a daily basis at The Legacy Ranch and her favorite saying is "A life-changing experience is only a NEIGH away!"
Workshop: Equine-Assisted Services for All
Shane Kehoe
Community Talent Manager, Fable
Shane is the Community Talent Manager at Fable and is visually impaired. He is passionate about digital accessibility and assistive technology. Shane's work at Fable allows him to do the work he is most passionate about – ensuring that everyone has equal access to digital information. Shane has a BA in Psychology and has studied and worked in Accessibility and Human Resources. He shares his life with his 3 daughters, 6 grandchildren, and his wife – his true love.
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Workshop: Workforce Readiness for People with Disabilities
Riss Leitzke
Program Coordinator, Wilderness Inquiry
As a Program Coordinator at Wilderness Inquiry, Riss assists with program development and facilitates new program outreach. They are a true community connector, prioritizing programs and performing outreach duties to engage with communities and organizations. They believe that accessibility and developing relationships between people and the outdoors are important. In 2022, they launched Wilderness Inquiry's first Deaf/Hard of Hearing Affinity trip, co-leading a group on a backcountry paddling/camping trip in the Boundary Waters.
As the first DeafBlind person to graduate from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Riss earned their degree in Environmental and Outdoor Education. They spent time working and participating in various outdoor organizations before joining Wilderness Inquiry in 2021.
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Workshop: Everyone Belongs in the Outdoors
Sharon Parmet, MS
Healthcare Communications Associate, Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Sharon Parmet is a Healthcare Communications Associate in the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. She produces the podcast, INside the OUTcomes, manages CROR's social media and produces CROR newsletters.
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Workshop: Get Involved in Research: Help Improve Services and Treatments!
Kate Rasmussen
Executive Director, The Legacy Ranch
Kate Rasmussen is the Executive Director at The Legacy Ranch. She is a PATH International Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor, and she has been working in the Equine- Assisted therapy field for the past 15 years. Kate's passion for working with people of all abilities and horses has been the motivation to create inclusivity into the horse and therapy world.
Workshop: Equine-Assisted Services for All
Andre Sam
Disability/Special Needs Planner, Disability & Special Needs Project
Andre Sam is a comprehensive Disability and Special Needs Planner with the Disability & Special Needs Project. Upon earning a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Arizona, Andre began a career in comprehensive disability and special needs planning. Andre has been in the industry for 12 years now working with individuals and families with special needs and disabilities and spends time providing complimentary educational presentations to conferences, organizations and support groups who have loved ones that are part of this wonderful disability/special needs community.
Workshop: Disability & Special Needs Planning Made Easy
Linda M. Schultz, PhD, CRRN
Linda M. Schultz, PhD, CRRN is a leader and provider of rehabilitation nursing for 40 years, most recently developing Activity Based Rehabilitation strategies. She has directed programs at an international level, including the Christopher Reeve Recovery Project at Washington University in St. Louis. She is certified by the Association of Rehabilitation Registered Nurses. Dr. Schultz writes the interactive Ask a Nurse blog, an evidence-based community forum, conducts monthly international webinars hosting discussions and questions from individuals with paralysis, and has created emergency pocket cards concerning the topics of sepsis and autonomic dysreflexia, in coordination with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Foundation. As a researcher, Dr. Schultz focuses on the concepts of promoting bladder and bowel continence and skin integrity. She has completed a national analysis of urinary continence in the elderly population utilizing NIH data. The results of these findings have been used to establish protocols by the AHCPR.
Workshop: The Art of Complex Caregiving
Anne Strootman
Customer Service Manager, Wilderness Inquiry
Anne oversees Wilderness Inquiry's comprehensive registration and assessment process, working with participants of all abilities to find a trip to accommodate their interests and abilities. She also manages disability organization partnership development. Each year, 40-50 organizations in the disability community partner with Wilderness Inquiry for experiences in the outdoors including day excursions and extended trips across the country. She even finds time to lead a trip or two each season to some of her favorite locations such as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or Olympic National Park.
Prior to joining the Wilderness Inquiry team, Anne worked in public education focusing on operational management and academic intervention in special education. Her work with students and families from diverse backgrounds and abilities well prepared her to implement the organization's mission to connect people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to each other and the natural world through shared outdoor adventures.
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Workshop: Everyone Belongs in the Outdoors
Tracy Williams
Tracy's Plate
Tracy Williams has a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Dominican University. She has cerebral palsy and other chronic conditions. She aims to use her degree as a freelance writer, public speaker, disability advocate, food access advocate, and mental health advocate. She has won five mini-grants from the Kids Eat Right campaign of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation. She enjoys speaking on various nutrition topics and has frequently spoken at garden clubs, rotary clubs, schools, churches, non-profit organizations, public libraries, and disability advocacy organizations. She has been a general contractor for her local office of the American Cancer Society, Abilities Expo Chicago, Mainstay/My25, and Food Dignity Movement Institute. She has been a freelance content creator for her first continuing education webinar on empathetic nutrition counseling for the disability community hosted by Today's Dietitian. She loves volunteering for her church's food pantry and being a board member.
Social Media
Workshop: Encouraging Each Other to Better Mental Health: Everyone Has Their Own Story
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