Inclusion at Work by No Limits Media: Recent Episodes
Larry Rothstein
Welcome to Inclusion at Work where we show the value and ability of people with disabilities through thoughtful interviews.
Our host is Larry Rothstein, bestselling author and filmmaker focused on producing films and documentaries that improve job opportunities for people with disabilities.
This podcast is brought to you by No Limits Media (NLM), a non-profit dedicated to helping all people with different abilities live lives of opportunity and achievement through films, videos, podcasts, television, web, documentaries, art exhibits, and educational curriculum. Learn more at https://nolimitsmedia.org/
Daniel Smrokowski is a Sargent Shriver Global Messenger, a Special Olympics athlete in basketball and swimming, a graduate of Roosevelt University in journalism, an employee at United Airlines and the host of the award winning podcast Special Chronicles.
Tammy Duckworth is the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, a former Blackhawk pilot in Iraq, and a highly decorated, retired Lt. Colonel from the Army National Guard.
Jim Sinocchi has a 40-year history with disability inclusion strategies since 1976, when he joined the IBM Corporation. After his retirement, he joined JP Morgan Chase in 2016.
Jim spent 6 years with the bank as its first head of the “Office of Disability Inclusion.” He established policies and strategies to oversee and provide accommodations, accessibility and assimilation solutions for employees with disabilities worldwide. He also led, created and developed business processes, to ensure people with disabilities would assimilate into the bank’s robust culture, whether joining as a new employee or as a current employee at the firm.
During his tenure with the bank, Jim worked closely with senior managers to develop consistent policies and strategies across JPMorgan Chase & Co. that better supported employees with disabilities. This work was done with employees, managers and executives – including senior executives -- who were essential to the success of the mission to include disability as an equal platform within the diversity, equity and business inclusion model.
Background: Jim sustained a spinal cord injury early in his business career while employed with IBM at the age of 25. He made championing the “abilities” of people with disabilities an imperative in his life. Throughout his career, he actively created awareness and understanding of disability inclusion through his blog, “View From the Chair.”He has served on several boards, including Jawonio, Respectability, The Viscardi Center, and others during his activism.
At IBM, Jim served as the corporate communications director for IBM's diversity workforce communications organization, working with disability advocates to ensure the company was a technology leader and employer of choice for the disability community.
Jim holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University. He is married to his wife Maggie, and boasts a son and daughter, and their two grandchildren.
Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc is Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and based at the Health Policy Research Center, Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Iezzoni has conducted numerous studies examining the health care experiences of persons with disability. Her book Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities was just published. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she is the Sally Starling Seaver Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Dr. Iezzoni is a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
John Hendrickson is a Senior Editor at The Atlantic and the author of Life on Delay: Making Peace With a Stutter, coming January 2023 from Knopf.
Life on Delay is a reported memoir that grew out of his Atlantic feature "What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say," which was read by more than 2 million people and named one of the best stories of 2019 by Longform.
John has spoken about stuttering, politics, and journalism on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, and at colleges and universities across the country. Before joining The Atlantic, he wrote and edited for Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The Denver Post.
He lives in New York City with his wife.
Caroline has been involved in the disability advocacy world since 1999 as an independent case manager, skills trainer and advocate. She is a co-founder of Vertical Harvest and served as its first Director of Human Resources. During that time, she facilitated teaching and training of her Grow Well Employment Model. That model focuses on innovative teaching techniques and hands-on learning to enhance employees’ professional and personal lives and strengthen community connections. In her free time, Caroline enjoys spontaneous adventures with her family in the Tetons.
This episode features Crocker Stickney, a team member at Vertical Harvest. Here's a little bit about Crocker, in his own words: "My name is Crocker and I am a 34 year old disabled worker. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 22, and have been dealing with it ever since. I was introduced to Vertical Harvest via my sister who took a tour first and told me about the company. I have been with them for almost three years. My family live close by in Idaho, and I am a proud new uncle to an amazing nephew who makes me laugh. In my free time I enjoy movies, books and music. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about history but also enjoy anything well written."
A few things to keep in mind while listening, from the VH team:
- "Clams" are the packaging we use to sell our products. So "clamming" is getting a lot of packages ready for delivery
- Jackson Hole is an area in western WY; just south of Yellowstone National Park. The greenhouse is located in Jackson - one town in the area; the main town you can say.
- Driggs, ID, where his sister lives is about a 55 min drive over the Teton mountains
- We grow lettuce, microgreens, and tomatoes
This week we sat down with Dr. Rhoda Bernard, the Managing Director of the Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Education (the only organization of its kind in the world) and the Assistant Chair of Music Education at Berklee College of Music.
Dr. Bernard holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in government from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Music with academic honors in jazz voice from New England Conservatory. She earned both her Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Bernard regularly presents keynote presentations and research at conferences throughout the United States and abroad, and she provides professional development workshops for educators in local, national, and international forums. Her work has been published in several book chapters and in numerous journals, including Music Educators Journal; Music Education Research; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; Mountain Lake Reader; and Arts and Learning Research Journal.
An active arts education advocate, she is the immediate past chair of the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts, and she serves on the Education Advisory Council for the Kennedy Center. A vocalist and pianist who specializes in jazz music and Jewish music in Yiddish and Hebrew, she performs regularly with a number of klezmer bands and has recorded two CDs with the band Klezamir.
Our guest is Interim Regional Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Vice Provost at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, Deni Elliott.
She also holds the endowed Eleanor Poynter Jamison Chair of Media Studies and Press Policy in the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication. Dr. Elliott began her work with USF in December 2003. She has served as Department Chair for the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication and has served as the campus Ombuds.
Dr. Elliott is Chief Project Officer for a multi-institutional multi-disciplinary research consortium, the National Ethics Project, that studies how students in higher education learn ethics. She serves as the elected public member on the American Psychological Association Ethics Committee. She is a subject matter expert for the National Center on Disability and Journalism.
Prior academic appointments include University of Montana: Mansfield Professor of Ethics and Public Affairs (1992-1996), University Professor of Ethics (1996-2004), Professor of Philosophy (1992-2004), and Founding Director, Practical Ethics Center (1996-2004); Dartmouth College: Director, Ethics Institute (1988-1992), Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy (1988-1992) and Associate Research Professor, Department of Education (1988-1992). Dr. Elliott’s first tenure-track appointment was in Utah State University’s Department of Mass Communication (1984-1988). Dr. Elliott also served as Ethics Officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (2004-2012).
Dr. Elliott is the author of more than 200 articles and book chapters for the scholarly, trade and lay press. The books for which she is author, co-author, editor or co-editor include Ethics for a Digital Era (Wiley/Blackwell, 2018); Ethical Challenges: Building an Ethics Toolkit (Authorhouse, 2009); Ethics in the First Person, A Guide to Teaching and Learning Practical Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), The Kindness of Strangers, Philanthropy in Higher Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), Contemporary Issues: Journalism (ABC-CLIO, 1998), Ethics of Scientific Research, A Guidebook for Course Development, (UPNE, 1997), Research Ethics: A Reader, (UPNE, 1997); The Ethics of Asking: Dilemmas in Higher Education Fundraising, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), Parts and Parity: Ethics and Organ Transplantation (Institute for Study of Applied and Professional Ethics, 1995) and Responsible Journalism (SAGE, 1986). She has also co-produced three video-documentaries: The Burden of Knowledge, on ethical questions of pre-natal genetic testing, and A Case of Need and Buying Time, which both cover ethical issues of news media coverage of medical and financial need. All three documentaries are distributed by Fanlight Productions. From February, 2003-June, 2006, Dr. Elliott wrote and co-hosted Ethically Speaking, a weekly 2-minute radio show for Montana Public Radio with some shows syndicated through PRX (Public Radio Exchange).
Dr. Elliott has a B.A. in Communication from University of Maryland, M.A. in Philosophy from Wayne State University and an Ed.D. in Philosophy of Education from Harvard University that included work through Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Department of Philosophy, Law School and Graduate School of Education. Professors Sissela Bok, Lawrence Kohlberg, Martin Linsky, and Israel Scheffler served as her doctoral examination committee members.
Dr. Tessa Charlesworth is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard University Department of Psychology. Dr. Charlesworth recently completed her PhD at Harvard where she was advised by Professor Mahzarin R. Banaji. Her research tackles questions such as: How and why do the attitudes of our society shift towards or away from prejudice? Why do some attitudes change while others remain stagnant? What are the forces in society that can shift our collective minds? To address such questions, Dr. Charlesworth integrates methods from across cognitive, social, developmental, and quantitative psychology, including laboratory experiments, natural language processing, time series, and big data analyses. Her research has been featured in top journals in psychology including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist, and her dissertation was recently awarded the top dissertation award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Oz most recently served as Senior Vice President of Mission and Advocacy for Spaulding Rehabilitation Network (SRN), the post-acute care services division of Mass General Brigham.
Oz works at the intersection of policy, advocacy, and media. His responsibilities included mission integration and administrative operations across Organizational Development and Community Relations including Adaptive Sports. Oz led SRN's Equity, Dignity, and Respect (EDR). He also oversaw Human Resources and Marketing & Communications.
Prior to joining Mass General Brigham in 2001, Oz led the Social Security Administration's New England Region's diversity recruitment and retention initiatives and worked as a human resources executive in several different industries including manufacturing, hospitality, and finance. Internationally recognized for his expertise on accessibility, disability rights, and workplace accommodation, Oz serves on several boards and is an advisor to others.
Oz has received numerous recognitions, including the President's Champions of Change Award, Social Security Administration's Commissioners Award, Kraft Family MVP Recognition for Community Service, Hispanics Executives Making an Impact, 25 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Pioneers Award, and the Disability Law Center Leadership Award.
Our guest is Keith Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences. As an
African American community activist and entrepreneur with cerebral palsy. As a
strong advocate for independent quality living in the community, Mr. Jones has
participated actively in various issues that face people with disabilities. These
areas include, but are not limited to housing, education, and voting access.
Mr. Jones is also extremely active in multi-cultural, cross-disability education
and outreach efforts and has performed trainings (including train the trainer)
with the purpose of strengthening outreach efforts to provide services and
information to people with disabilities. Mr. Jones works to not only educate the
disability community about enhanced community living but also the community
at large. Mr. Jones holds a strong desire to get the disability community more
involved in the issues that concern their own lives.
Mr. Jones provides outreach support in relationship with the arts and independent
living skills. Mr. Jones has been recognized for his emerging leadership by the
state of Massachusetts and President's Commission for Employment for People
with Disabilities. Also, Mr. Jones is the Disability Law Center’s 2011 Individual
Leadership Award.
Our guests are Dan Berlin and Charles R. Scott - great friends who adventure together this journey we call life.
Dan is an enterprising entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and endurance athlete who happens to be blind. He believes in creating opportunity and giving back around the globe.
Dan gradually lost his eyesight from cone-rod dystrophy. He was diagnosed at 7 years old and became legally blind in his late 20s. After more than 12 years of working around the globe in large multi-national corporations, he co-founded Rodelle, a world-leading vanilla extract company, which sold to Archer-Daniels Midland Company in 2018, and subsequently exited as CEO at age 48.
Dan is a co-founder and President of Team See Possibilities, a non-profit organization that empowers young people with vision loss to thrive by providing scholarship and mentorship to high-achieving college students who are vision impaired. He also serves as chairman of the board of Success Beyond Sight, a nonprofit corporation that helps individuals who are blind or have low vision to advance professionally and fully engage in community life by eliminating barriers to their equal opportunity for success.
Dan is a member of and co-founded Team Sea to See which was comprised of four blind cyclists riding tandem bicycles in 2018 Race Across America, known as the toughest bike race in the world. They completed the race in an amazing 7 days, 15 hours, and 3 minutes. Team Sea to See is now producing a documentary on the project with Sterling Light Films.
Dan also enjoys taking on epic endurance challenges around the world, challenging the perception of what a person with vision loss is capable of achieving. Dan was the first blind runner to complete the 46-mile rim to rim to rim run across the Grand Canyon and back, and has subsequently run over a dozen marathons, Ironman triathlons, as well as trail-ultramarathons in South America, Africa, Asia, and New Zealand.
Dan’s passion is finding and uplifting ability in himself and others.”
Charles is an Executive Mentor who helps people grow personally and professionally. He left a 14-year career at Intel Corporation to become an adventurer, publishing two books and co-founding the nonprofit organization Team See Possibilities. He developed an executive workshop called “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?” and has delivered this popular workshop to thousands of CEOs and senior executives across North America.
The CEO peer group TEC Canada named him Speaker of the Year. Charles has spoken at Uber, Intel, The World Bank, Harvard Business School and many others. His endurance challenges have been featured in press around the world, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, FOX News, National Geographic and Outside Magazine.
He also gives talks at schools and to parent groups about raising resilient children. Mixing in anecdotes from cycling over 7,000 miles with his young children across Japan, Iceland, Europe and the U.S., and from guiding the first blind runner to cross the Grand Canyon and back nonstop, he helps people craft a meaningful life in an intentional way.
For more information, see www.ExecutiveMentorCharlesScott.com.
Our guest is Artemis Joukowsky III - a filmmaker, author, social impact investor, disabilities activist, and the co-founder (with Larry Rothstein) of No Limits Media. He's best known for his work on the documentary film, Defying the Nazis - featuring his family members who saved hundreds of endangered Jews and refugees escape from Nazi camps. He was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III at the age of 14, a pivotal time in his life as he made the choice then to outlive the disease and to inspire others to treat their own disabilities like a gift. He's also a member of the United States Table Tennis Paralympic team.
Our guest is artist, non-profit director, and community activist, David McCauley, currently based out of St. Petersburg, Florida's Art District.
Living with paralysis, David applies various adaptive mark-making techniques in the creation of hisartwork while exploring topics of inclusion, universal design, accessibility, and the physical state of the human body. His work has been featured internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including through ArtLifting, an organization championing artists impacted by housing insecurity and disabilities.
McCauley is the founder of Laundromat Art Space in Miami and Rise Up Gallery, a non-profit providing art therapy workshops and exhibition space to the community.
He's also a board member of The Impossible Dream - a non-profit that utilizes a universally accessible catamaran to raise awareness of barrier-free design and improving the quality of life for people with disabilities through sailing. Every year a mixed crew of able-bodied individuals and people with disabilities sail together on the catamaran over 4,000 miles from Florida to Maine - inviting people who are paralyzed to join them along the way.
Lastly, David is a partner of Void Projects, a series of artist-led projects that encourage public dialogue outside of the conventional art space.
Our guest is Chris Waddell, an American Paralympic sit-skier, a wheelchair track athlete, a motivational speaker, author, TV personality, and emcee. Chris was a ski racer at Middlebury College when he fell in a ski accident, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Chris was back skiing within a year and went on to become one of the most decorated mono-skiers of all time. When Chris retired as a professional athlete, he summited Mt. Kilimanjaro on a handcycle, in an effort to turn perception of disability upside down. He is the first paraplegic to summit Mt Kilimanjaro, nearly unassisted, on a handcycle. Chris’ journey lives on through the documentary 1Revolution.
Our guest is Stephanie Thomas, an American disability fashion stylist, voice actor, author, professor, mentor, and the founder of Cur8able - using tech to help fashion brands create accessible, smart, and fashionable clothing for people with disabilities.