Meet the Workshop Speakers!
Meet the speakers for the Abilities Expo Phoenix 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.
Kristen Cezat, PT, DPT, ATP/SMS
Clinical Education Specialist – Altimate Medical
Kristen Cezat is a Board-Certified Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy and a RESNA-certified ATP/SMS. She received her DPT from the University of Central Florida in 2011. She has dedicated her career to rehabilitation and improving lives for adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) and other neurologic conditions through clinical practice and program development. She received the APTA SCI Special Interest Group (SIG) award for Clinical Excellence in SCI Care and is currently serving her second term on leadership for the APTA ANPT SCI special interest group.
Kristen is the Clinical Education Specialist for Altimate Medical Inc. She has presented nationally on various topics related to assistive technology recommendations and interventions and current evidence in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, emphasizing translation into clinical practice.
Workshop: Complications of Prolonged Sitting: Why Prescribe Supported Standing Devices Following SCI?
Supported Standing Devices and Exercise in Adults with Spinal Cord Injury
Alex Chesney, OTR, ATP/SMS
Quantum Rehab
Alex Chesney is the clinical sales manager of the Midwest South Region for Quantum Rehab. She provides educational services as an occupational therapist, assistive technology professional and seating and mobility specialist. Alex graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in multidisciplinary studies and a minor in psychology in 2011. She earned her master's in occupational therapy from Texas Woman's University in 2013. Alex practiced occupational therapy in a top neurological inpatient rehabilitation center in Houston, TX treating those with traumatic spinal cord injuries and various neurodegenerative diseases.
As a clinician, Alex prescribed advanced seating and mobility technologies and served as a primary education resource for best practices within neurological rehabilitation. Alex previously served as a committee chair for the Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and continues involvement as a committee member. She is the Vice President and occupational therapy coordinator for Rehabilitation Services Volunteer Project, providing free neurological therapy services to those underserved in the Texas area.
Workshop: Empowering Participation: Mobility Device Air Travel Considerations
Heather C Markham-Creasman, MS CS, MS RST, RESNA ATP, ICC Accessibility Inspector
International-award winning photographer with the Just for the Love Gallery, author of "Rough Waters: From Surviving to Thriving with a Progressive Muscular Dystrophy", and CEO of Making Waves for Good
Heather C. Markham-Creasman, is an engineer, assistive technology professional, educator, ADA architectural barriers specialist, golfer, competitive ParaSurfer, public speaker, and award-winning international photographer. With her background in Electronic Warfare and Assistive Technologies, she has honed her skills and an eye for otherwise unseen details. She specializes in seeing what others rush right past, and her power wheelchair provides a steady surface from which to photograph it. She doesn't let anything stop her from pursuing her interests, despite being diagnosed with a progressive neuromuscular disorder in 2002. Heather believes in a world where businesses make accessibility and compliance to Americans with Disabilities Act Standards a priority. Her personal mission is to show 1 businesses how to make their physical spaces and websites warm, welcoming, and accessible to the more than 1 billion persons with a disability. She expresses herself creatively through her memoir Rough Waters: From Surviving to Thriving with a Progressive Muscular Dystrophy and fine art photography. She resides with her husband, a deaf but super-snuggly part Maine Coon cat, and a deaf but happy little old dog near Cottonwood, Arizona.
Social Media:
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Workshop: WTF? (What's The Focus?) Photographing the Unseen with a Progressive Disease
Erin Finkelstein, M.Mus
Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner - Sound Movement Services
Erin helps people transform limitations into opportunities to move, think and perform easier with more joy through somatic movement. Erin has been a guild certified Feldenkrais Practitioner for over 17 years, and holds a masters degree in Clarinet. In her movement practice in uptown Phoenix, Erin works with anyone - from children with a brain injury to high level musicians and the aging population.
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Workshop: Compassionate Touch for Creating Possibilities with the Feldenkrais Method®
Kelly L. Green
Executive Director – Help Hope Live
Kelly L. Green joined Help Hope Live as its Executive Director in November 2017. Kelly is the daughter of a transplant recipient. She not only believes in the mission of Help Hope Live, but she was also once a client —and it completely changed her life. She feels honored and proud to lead an organization that provided hope and help to her family during her mother's journey to transplant. Kelly describes herself as a mother, a daughter of her hero, a battle-tested unifier, and a thought leader. She has more than 25 years of experience working in and leading nonprofit organizations and has dedicated her life to civic engagement. In the last decade, Kelly has proudly served as the CEO of Variety – The Children's Charity; Director of Montgomery County, PA Voters Services; and Deputy Director for the Institute for the Study of Civic Values in Philadelphia. Her volunteer efforts are points of pride for Kelly. She launched an initiative to battle poverty throughout Philadelphia called Help Make Peace and has served as the President of the League of Women Voters. She currently serves on the Board of Thank A Vet and the Philadelphia Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission – and is a longtime supporter of Gift of Life Howie's House, which provides lodging and support for families of transplant patients seeking treatment in Philadelphia. Kelly is a constant learner. She graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Administrative Justice, continued her graduate studies at Temple University in Social Work, and decided to go back to school to finish her Executive MBA at Cornell University during Covid. 1 Under her leadership, Help Hope Live has expanded its outreach, dedicating full-time support to educating patient and professional communities about the nonprofit's proven fundraising model. These efforts have led to increased awareness and thousands of community-based campaigns that raise $7 million annually to cover the unmet needs of patients nationwide.
Workshop: Discover How to Pay for Everything You See Today
Gary Karp
Author / Speaker / Educator
Gary Karp, a wheelchair user since injuring his spinal cord at T12 in a fall from a tree in 1973, has four books on disability to his credit, starting with Life On Wheels, first published in 1999, and Disability and the Art of Kissing, He has written numerous articles for New Mobility and other disability media, and has spoken widely across the U.S. in rehabilitation, business, and government settings. In 2007 the then National Spinal Cord Injury Association (now United Spinal) inducted him into their Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame as a Disability Educator. He is a professor of Disability History in the Arizona State University Disability Studies Program and consults on emergency preparedness for people with disabilities and other access and functional needs, drawing on his work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for whom he is still a reservist responding to disasters. His core message is to humanize the disability experience, shedding light on the universal qualities we all share — the drive to pursue our potential, and be recognized as the whole people we are in a world where artificial obstacles and adaptive solutions have made immense changes to society as a whole. A guitarist, juggler, and avid backgammon player, Gary lives in Phoenix, AZ.
Workshop: Disability Stereotypes: Built-In Beliefs
Heather R. Price, OTR/L, ATP/SMS
Heather R. Price, OTR/L, ATP/SMS, is a Regional Manager at Stealth Products. She also provides clinical education to therapists and DME providers under the Quantum Rehab education team. Previously, in clinical practice, Heather gained experience in wheelchair seating, positioning, and mobility at two nationally ranked rehab hospitals, TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. At TIRR, Heather was an Occupational Therapist on the inpatient spinal cord injury team. She gained extensive experience in custom wheelchair prescription, training, and seating and positioning. As the Wheelchair Skills and Management Specialist at SRALab, Heather helped develop a new program for inpatient clients of all ages with a variety of diagnoses. The program featured extensive wheelchair trials, evaluations, and instruction on advanced wheelchair skills.
Workshop: Wheelchair Seating Solutions for Kids
Steph and Ty Roach
Steph and Ty Roach share their inter-abled relationship perspective. They have been together for over eight years, married for 3, they share a real-life account of the ins and outs of what a loving and realistic inter-abled relationship looks like. This workshop is an opportunity to engage in community discussion, as well as answering questions that anyone may have!
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Workshop: Inter-abled Dating and Marriage
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
Jenny Smith, M.Ed
Disability Support and Education - Paraclete/Jenny Smith Rolls On
When Jenny was 16 years old, she sustained a C6-7 spinal cord injury, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. After completing her master's degree in counseling psychology, she distributed wheelchairs for eight years in developing countries. For over 13 years, she supported cross-cultural workers as they served overseas.
By coming alongside people with spinal cord injuries and chronic physical conditions, Jenny hopes to support and encourage others in their emotional, physical, and spiritual health as they adapt to life with a disability. She provides education, practical solutions, resources, and hope, so people can live full and productive lives on her website JennySmithRollsOn.com.
One way Jenny stays physically active is rowing on the Ohio River with Louisville Adaptive Rowing. Reading historical fiction and writing are other hobbies she enjoys.
Smith is the author of two books. The Journey: Discovering Emotional and Spiritual Health after Disability helps people cope with the emotional impact of disability. In Live the Impossible, Jenny tells her story of living with a spinal cord injury and shares her message that we can all live the impossible even when life doesn't go as planned.
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Workshop: Traveling with a Disability
Mark Thompson
Senior Associate Director of Architecture Services - Paralyzed Veterans of America
Mark Thompson, AIA, is PVA's Senior Associate Director of Architecture Services. He joined PVA in 2016 after thirty years of architectural design and construction experience as lead designer delivering commercial, healthcare and educational projects valued in excess of $900 million.
Since joining PVA, Mr. Thompson has successfully maximized accessibility on multi-family housing, commercial and healthcare projects for disabled Veterans. He has also provided accessibility technical assistance to Veterans and civilians who are planning accessible renovations to their home.
A licensed architect in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Mr. Thompson holds a BS in Architectural and Master of Architecture from Oklahoma State University.
Workshop: Accessible Home Design: Kitchens & Bathrooms!
Karen Yeager
Owner - Quad Cities Canine
Karen has been training dogs since she was a child. She is certified in pet CPR & first aid instruction, trick dog instruction, AKC CGC evaluation, AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy instruction and AKC Fit Dog instruction. She started training service dogs in 2018 and graduated from the Yavapai College Service Dog Program in 2020, moving on to teach classes in the program in 2021-2023.
She is a stickler for properly trained service dogs whether they are dogs trained through a professional organization or owner-trained dogs. She strives to train dogs to the absolute best of her ability.
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Workshop: What to Know About Service Dogs
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