Featured Guest: Michael Morris, Founder, National Disability Institute
Michael Morris is the Founder of National Disability Institute (NDI) and a Senior Strategic Advisor. He has more than 30 years of experience in and outside of government pioneering new strategies to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Mr. Morris serves as an advisor and technical expert to multiple federal agencies on policy and systems relationships at federal, state and local levels to advance economic stability, mobility and asset development for persons with disabilities.
In 1981, he was named the first Joseph P. Kennedy Fellow in Public Policy and came to Washington, D.C. to work in the Office of Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker, as legal counsel to the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped. Mr. Morris also served subsequently as counsel to the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee. From Capitol Hill, he went to work at United Cerebral Palsy Association as the first director of government relations, then as director of community services and finally as national executive director. During his 14-year tenure, his leadership put a focus on needed assistive technology and its essential role in accommodating people with disabilities in the areas of employment, education, communications and daily living. In 2001, Mr. Morris helped establish NDI to advance the social and economic independence of persons with disabilities through strategic investment and technical assistance activities nationwide that bring together government, corporations, foundations and community and faith-based organizations.
Mr. Morris received his undergraduate degree with honors in Political Science from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio and his law degree from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Ga.
