Plenary Speakers

Opening Plenary

ANITA CAMERON – Not Dead Yet; Director of Minority Outreach

Anita Cameron began working as Not Dead Yet’s Director of Minority Outreach in January 2017. She has met with national and state policy makers and written persuasively about opposition to a public policy of assisted suicide from the perspective of communities of color who experience disparities in access to healthcare. Anita also serves on the National Disability Leadership Alliance’s Racism Taskforce and has 39 years of experience in transportation issues.

She is a passionate advocate for voting rights and accessibility for people with disabilities. In 1992, she became the first person with disabilities to serve as an election judge for the city and county of Denver. She went on to serve as a poll worker in Washington, DC, while working as a disability vote organizer for the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Anita is also an accomplished writer and blogger who has served as a guest columnist for newspapers, magazines and blogs, writing mainly about issues affecting people with disabilities, including issues of discrimination, voting rights, transportation, opposition to assisted suicide and emergency preparedness.

She currently resides in Rochester, New York, with her wife Lisa, and cats, Jojo and Nemo.

REBECCA COKLEY – Program Officer; U.S. Disability Rights – Ford Foundation

Rebecca Cokley is the program officer for the Ford Foundation’s first-ever U.S. Disability Rights program, which is focused on strengthening the field, building a pipeline of diverse leadership, promoting disability pride, and mobilizing resources toward disability rights work. She also serves as the foundation’s liaison to the President’s Council for Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy.

Prior to joining Ford, Rebecca was the cofounder and director of the Disability Justice initiative at the Center for American Progress, where she built out a progressive policy platform that protected the rights and services disabled people depend on for survival and also developed innovative solutions like a proposed disabled worker tax credit and increased access to capital for disability-owned small businesses. She also stewarded a campaign that resulted in an unprecedented 12 presidential candidates developing disability policy platforms.

Rebecca is a frequent speaker and contributor on issues of public policy and disability inclusion in the media and at major national conferences. She has a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

KEITH JONES – SoulTouchin’ Experiences; President and CEO

Keith Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences LLC,.  It is an organization aimed at bringing a perspective to the issues of access inclusion and empowerment, which affect him as well as others who are persons with and without disabilities.

To achieve this multicultural, cross-disability education and outreach efforts he collaborates and conducts trainings with the purpose of strengthening efforts to provide services and information for people with disabilities. The issues he tackles are wide ranging from immigration, criminal justice reform, health care and environmental justice just to name a few.  Most recently Mr. Jones was awarded the Partners for Youth with Disabilities inaugural Oswald Mondejar Innovator Award

Paralleling with his policy and social justice work Mr. Jones is a multi-talented artist who along with Leroy Moore and Rob Temple founded Krip Hop Nation which is an international collection of artists with disabilities. Mr. Jones is also an Emmy Award winning lyricist on the title song for the Netflix documentary of the Paralympic Games, Rising Phoenix and its critical acclaimed sound track.

CHARLIE CARR – Disability Policy Consortium; Legislative Liaison

Charlie Carr is an authentic disability rights pioneer who has been active in the independent living and disability rights community for over 40 years. He was institutionalized for seven years in his youth and fought his way out by cofounding the Boston Center for Independent Living in 1974. He went on to start his own Independent Living Center, the Northeast Independent Living Program in Lawrence, MA in 1980 and grew it to become a premier ILC nationally. In 2007, he entered public service and was the commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission until 2015. Today, he is working as a consultant and educator promoting the full integration of people with disabilities into society with particular emphasis on youth engagement and empowerment with the ADA generation.

Charlie is also a founding member of the National Council on Independent Living and has served in multiple Board and committee positions since its inception.

In addition to his work at with the Disability Policy Consortium, he has also ventured into the realm of private consulting for public and private entities where he is focuses on turnaround management, strategic planning, teaching, legislative advocacy and public speaking.

DOM KELLY – New Disabled South; Founder and CEO

Dom Kelly is the Founder, President & CEO of New Disabled South. Until November 2022, he served as both the Georgia Fundraising Director and the Senior Advisor for Disability for Stacey Abrams’ campaign for governor of Georgia. Previously, he was Senior Fundraising Manager and a Strategic Advisor for Disability at Fair Fight Action, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, where he also created and led the organization’s Disability Council composed of prominent disability advocates and policy experts from across the country.

Dom is one of a set of triplets born with Cerebral Palsy and has been a disability advocate since he was four years old. Starting when he was a young teenager, Dom and his brothers played around the world with their rock band, touring and collaborating with artists like Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Bangles and more and releasing 6 records over 15+ years. He is now retired from music, but with a decade of additional experience in digital and editorial strategy, he has devoted his life to disability justice, progressive policy and advocacy.

He was a 2021 New Leaders Council fellow, serves as a board member for The Kelsey, Society for Disability Studies, Neighborhood Access, and University of Pennsylvania’s Nonprofit Leadership Alumni Association, and is a member of the NationSwell Council. Dom currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Catie, their dog Vivi and their cat Pippi Longstocking.