Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

May/June 2001

President's Message

AS I COMPOSE THIS MESSAGE, I can’t help but think of how far NADE has come. During the last week of March, we held our MidYear Board Meeting in Washington. In addition to conducting the regular business of the Association, we were very fortunate to have several guest speakers who told us what they were doing in relation to the disability program and then very sincerely asked us for our input. We were able to visit with Kay Brown, Dan Bertoni and Carol Peterson, all Directors in the Government Accounting Office; Margaret Malone, Staff Director of the Social Security Advisory Board; Ken Nibali, Associate Commissioner for Disability; Kim Hildred, Staff Director of the House Subcommittee on Social Security; and with Tommy Warren and Linda Dorn, the President and Vice President, respectively, of the National Council of Disability Determination Directors. Now that is an impressive list and it doesn’t even include all of the people Jeff, Marty and I saw on Capitol Hill in the 2 ½ days prior to the meeting! I truly believe we had meaningful dialogues on all of our visits and with all of our visitors. It is obvious to me, and I hope to you as well, that NADE has gained the respect of many people in various organizations and within SSA because we are professionals who are most interested in providing the best possible service to disabled people.

This year we celebrate National Disability Professionals Week June 18-22. That is an excellent time to focus on professionalism and have fun doing it, but we should always remember the NADE Code of Ethics which requires us to be personally committed to continuous professional growth in order to better serve the disabled. I also hope you will use this time for membership recruitment because every new member makes our voice stronger. I look forward to seeing many of you at the regional conferences. Please come talk with me and tell me your thoughts about working in the disability field. I really want to hear from you. Thanks for your contributions to the organization.