2019 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Award Recipient, Sarah Blahovec
March 19, 2019
Hosted by Joyce Bender
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Guest Information
Episode Description
Joyce’s honored guest is disability advocate, Sarah Blahovec. Sarah is a recipient of the 2019 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award given out at the 2019 American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) Leadership Award Gala on March 12th in Washington, DC. Diagnosed with severe Crohn’s Disease at age 15, she has always had a passion for politics and focuses her advocacy on civic engagement and issues that intersect the chronic illness and disability communities. The AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leadership Awards recognize outstanding emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community. With the 2019 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader honorarium, Sarah is thrilled to establish the first campaign training curriculum for people with disabilities who want to run for elected office. She will discuss this training curriculum in detail during the show.
Disability Matters
Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel
Competitive employment and empowerment for people with disabilities is the emphasis of this show. Broadcast live and captioned in real-time for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing, we discuss how people with disabilities can secure career opportunities, and how employers, organizations and individuals can support employment and empowerment of people with disabilities.
Joyce Bender
Joyce A. Bender is the CEO and president of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. Bender Consulting recruits and hires individuals with disabilities, across the United States and Canada for competitive career opportunities in the public and private sectors. In 1985, Joyce survived a life-threatening accident caused by a misdiagnosis of epilepsy. Due to her personal experience living with both epilepsy and a hearing disability, she founded Bender Consulting Services, Inc. in 1995.
Joyce is the past-chair of both the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities and the national Epilepsy Foundation. She has received awards from both the Bush and Clinton administrations.
Joyce speaks across the United States and internationally representing the State Department on informational exchanges related to disability employment best practices. She has represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.