ODDC - Papenfuse Appointed to ODDC

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 2004

The Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council
8 East Long Street, Suite 1200
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Contact: Leslie Paull
(800) 766-7426, (614) 466-5205

Papenfuse Appointed to ODDC

The Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council (ODDC) today announced the three-year appointment of Shelley Ann Papenfuse of Toledo, Ohio, as a member of the council. Governor Robert Taft made the appointment.

Papenfuse is a 13-year employee of The Ability Center of Greater Toledo. Before then she was an intake coordinator and did crises counseling at Family Services of Northwest Ohio in Toledo. At The Ability Center, she reviews policies and practices of organizations and helps find ways to remove barriers to community living and community services; she is certified by the federal Department of Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to provide training on The Americans with Disabilities Act; and she serves as liaison to the Disability Studies Program at the University of Toledo.

She also serves on the boards of the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority; City of Toledo, Toledo Housing Fund; Ohio Governor’s Olmstead Taskforce; and City of Toledo’s 2020 Planning Committee. She has studied at Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo.

As a person with a disability since infancy, Papenfuse says she has seen the milestones of change that allow people with disabilities to live more independently. “I feel, however, that society is losing what people with disabilities can offer by holding on to biases that continue to keep us segregated from being equal participants and citizens.” She said she works to dispel myths of all disabilities and to create opportunities for greater community access.

ODDC consists of people who have developmental disabilities, parents and guardians of people with developmental disabilities, representatives from concerned state agencies, and nonprofit organizations and agencies that provide services to people with developmental disabilities.

The ODDC is one of a national network of state councils committed to self-determination and community inclusion for people with developmental disabilities. ODDC receives federal funding to help carry out its mission of developing new and better ways of advocating, increasing capacities to assist people, and making needed changes to systems.