Dr. Arielle Silverman
Dr. Arielle Silverman is the Research Specialist at the American Foundation for the Blind where she supports a broad portfolio of research projects to improve the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Dr. Silverman has spent 15 years conducting research on the lived experiences of people with disabilities, especially people who are blind. She has published findings on topics including disability identity, the impact of access barriers on experiences in the workplace, and methods of teaching inclusion to people without disabilities. Dr. Silverman holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She currently lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband Jason.
Dr. Carlie Rhoads
Dr. Carlie Rhoads is the Program Metrics and Evaluation Specialist at the American Foundation for the Blind where she is part of a team that engages in research on a wide variety of topics and provides program evaluation support. Prior to joining AFB, Dr. Rhoads was the director of the Oregon Deafblind Project, where she supported children with deafblindness, from birth to age 22. She has presented throughout the United States, is published in several different publications including the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, and has worked previously as both a special educator and a teacher of students with visual impairments. Dr. Rhoads is also a former National Leadership Consortium on Sensory Disabilities scholar. She currently lives in Tennessee with her many rescued animals.
David Wiley
David Wiley has been with the Texas Deafblind Project for over 30 years as the Transition Specialist. With a background in working with older students in residential settings, David brings a wealth of expertise to the issues related to transition from school life to adult life in the community. David chairs the Texas Deaf-Blind Task Force made up of services agencies and organizations, family members of individuals who are deafblind, and individuals who are deafblind. This group, which as been in existence for nearly forty years, has worked together to help develop a unique Medicaid Waiver for individuals who are deafblind with additional disabilities, support the development and use of interveners working in community settings and other important projects. Want to connect with David? Contact him at wileyd@tsbvi.edu.
Sylvia Stinson-Perez
Sylvia Stinson-Perez has over 25 years of experience in the blindness field. She has Master’s degrees in Social Work, Visual Disabilities VRT, and Business Administration. She is a Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist. Sylvia is the Chief Programs Officer at the American Foundation for the Blind. Sylvia recently served as the Vision Specialist graduate certificate program and the Independent Living Skills Older Individuals who are Blind Technical Assistance Center (OIB-TAC) at the National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision at MSU. As a person with a visual impairment, she strongly believes in and is dedicated to improving the independence and potential of others with vision loss.
Robbin Clark
Robbin Clark is an Expanded Core enthusiast! She currently serves as the Assistant Director/Principal at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind over the Expanded Core Curriculum and the Bridges Programs. She is the camp director for Camp Abilities Utah, a one-week developmental sport camp for children with visual impairments. Prior to her current work, she worked seven years as the vision rehabilitation therapist in the Children’s Services division at BESB in Connecticut. Other past professional roles include: teacher for deafblind children, an early intervention therapist for children with vision impairments and director for various programs of students with vision impairments. Robbin offers professional expertise, tips, and resources to parents and educators on her blog The Independent Little Bee, adifferentkindofvision.blogspot.com, and on her 9MoreThanCore social media accounts (IG, Facebook, Twitter). She collaborates with a number of schools for the blind to effectively train staff in Expanded Core instruction and is often invited to be a keynote speaker in workshops and symposiums. Personally, Robbin has been active in the vision impairment community since her youth: living and working with her mother who has total vision loss provided the foundation for her life’s passion. Her credentials include a vision rehabilitation therapist graduate degree from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock and a graduate endorsement in curriculum & instruction from Walden University.
Mark Richert
Mark Richert, Interim Executive Director: Since March of 2020, Mark has been serving as Interim Executive Director for the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). He previously served as AER’s Executive Director from 2001 to 2005. As AER’s chief staff officer, Mark partners with AER’s elected leadership to provide strategic direction and oversight for all AER programs and activities. Mark leads AER’s team of professional staff and supports the work of AER’s member-led committees. Over the course of his more than twenty-five-year-long career in the vision loss and broader disability communities, Mark has successfully championed most of the significant public policy achievements in our field over the last quarter century, including: establishment of the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) to support K-12 students with print disabilities; ensuring voting accessibility at each polling place in America; promoting prescription drug labeling accessibility; authorship of the historic Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act to drive fundamental systems change in special education for students with sensory disabilities; and enactment of the landmark Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act which began a revolution in mainstream technology usability, audio description, and availability of assistive technologies for specific populations including low-income individuals with deafblindness.
Neva Fairchild
Neva Fairchild, MS, of Flower Mound, Texas, is the National Aging & Vision Loss Specialist at the American Foundation for the Blind, where she has worked since 2008. She was employed for over 15 years by the state of Texas as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and as an Employment Assistance Specialist. She began her career in vision rehabilitation at the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind as a Vocational Evaluator in 1991. She served on the International Board of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired for three non-consecutive terms, beginning in 2008, before being elected as President Elect in 2019. She has served in leadership roles in Division 2, Division 5 and Division 15, as well as serving as secretary and then President of the Texas Chapter of AER.
Panelists for session on working adults with VI
Nick Pavel – Sioux Falls, SD
I am originally from Lesterville, SD. At birth I was diagnosed with Leber’s and have been blind my whole life. I went to college at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, NE and obtained an associate’s degree in radio broadcasting. I moved to Sioux Falls in 2011. There I started working at Communication Services for the Deaf. I worked there until they closed the Relay Center in 2013. My next position was a contact center associate for Midco Connections. I am currently working at Valentus in customer service. I started working at Valentus in 2019. In my spare time, I volunteer at my church by helping out with the music at least once a month. I either sing all the songs during the services, or every once in a while I will play a song on the organ. My hobbies are nothing too exciting. I do enjoy playing the piano, listening to music, and hanging with friends from time to time. I'm always up for a fun game of bowling, even though the gutter is my friend most of the time. I am still living my life to the fullest.
Candace Rivinius – Mandan, ND
Candace is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) at Corner Post Counseling in Mandan, North Dakota. She attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND where in 2013 she earned a bachelor's in Psychology with a minor in Addiction Counseling; she then graduated with a master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2015. Candace was a full-time student and maintained a part-time job throughout her college years. She is also blind, only having light perception. However, she does not let this hold her back.
Throughout her college years, Candace worked with Vocational Rehabilitation and the Accessibility Services at the University of Mary. Vocational Rehabilitation helped with the cost of technology devices that Candace needed to help her complete her coursework and be successful such as a BrailleNote, laptop with JAWS screen reading software, and scanner. The Accessibility Services department on campus helped with finding and providing Candace her textbooks and other required materials in an accessible format.
After graduating with her master's in Counseling, Candace began working full-time as a Program Coordinator in the Youth Services Department at Pride Inc., where she worked for 5.5 years. Although she was working full-time, Candace was having trouble getting enough counseling hours to maintain her license. She then began working part-time at Anchor Christian Counseling. Candace was able to be flexible with her hours at Pride, so that she was available to do counseling a few hours per week while still working full-time at Pride. She continued these two jobs for a few years until it became evident that she still was not getting enough client-contact hours and was in danger of losing her counseling license. Around this time in 2019, a former colleague who Candace had worked with when she was completing her counseling internship reached out to her. This person had started her own counseling business, Corner Post Counseling. Candace took the opportunity to join her team in hopes of keeping her counseling license.
Candace began working part-time at Corner Post Counseling in fall 2019. She continued working full-time at Pride for about a year until it became too difficult to maintain full-time hours at Pride while still having availability to take on more clients at Corner Post Counseling. Around this time Candace began working with Vocational Rehabilitation again to make the transition to working at Corner Post Counseling full-time.
Candace enjoys her work at Corner Post Counseling. She is very grateful for the employers who give her a chance and do not see her blindness as a hindrance that cannot be overcome. She is also very thankful for her family and friends, because she may not be where she is today without their support and encouragement.
William Quist – Minot, ND
My name is William Quist, and I graduated from Minot High School in Minot, North Dakota, class of 2002. I shortly moved to Johnson City, TN after high school and attended North East State Technical Community College, where I graduated in 2007 with a AAS in Information Technology. I moved back to North Dakota in 2007, attended Minot State University and graduated in 2011 with a BAS in Business Information Technology. In 2011, I took a job working as a cleaner on the Minot AFB, worked that for a year, and then was hired on as e-commerce for Envision Inc., an AbilityOne agency. We basically support the military with any items they may need to support the mission. I moved up to shipping and receiving shortly after being hired. In 2015, I was nominated for the Milton J. Samuelson Career Achievement Award and was sent to Washington, DC to be part of the employee of the year hosted by the National Industries for the Blind (NIB). At that point, I was hired on as the assistant manager at the Minot AFB Envision Base Service Center. I worked for about 2 years at this position, then was moved to Store Manager. I have 4 employees that work under me. I was just recently appointed as Envision advocate and accepted into the Advocates for Leadership Program under the National Industries for the Blind.
I have a strong work ethic. Being visually impaired, I have not been limited to reach this position. I work twice as hard as any else, sighted or unsighted. Envision is a great company as there are many other NIB agencies that employ people who are blind or visually impaired. My employment has been due to hard work and dedication. My nephew was recently diagnosed with the same sight disorder, Leber’s, and I feel strongly that I need to show him through hard work, he can accomplish many things.
Sara Czapiewski – Moorhead, MN
Sara graduated from Minto High School in 2019. She currently attends Moorhead State University Moorhead.
Richard Early – Fargo, ND
Richard was born with congenital glaucoma in 1969, fell in love with comic books as a child during more than 40 eye surgeries, and opened Paradox Comics-N-cards when he turned 23. His shop has been in operation for nearly 30 years, and he has gained national recognition as one of the top stores in the country.