History of NLCDD
Focus on Leadership, From the Start
The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities was the first national organization to focus solely on developing the next generation of disability field leaders. Founded with an unwavering stance on social justice for people with IDD, NLCDD was created to ensure emerging and established field leaders have the skills, knowledge, connections, and resources they need to create a world where people with disabilities live with dignity, choice, and full human rights.
Why Does NLCDD Only Focus on Leadership?
Every great thing that has happened in our field is due to the leadership of people in both formal and informal professional, political, and advocacy roles. Leadership is the lever for change.
In the early 2000’s, NLCDD founders Steven Eidelman and Nancy Weiss recognized that our field was about to have a significant leadership problem. The largest generation the workforce had ever known was reaching and surpassing retirement age. The IDD service sector offered few opportunities for the next generation of organizational and systems leaders, especially to those influencing services for adults with disabilities, to develop their leadership acumen.
The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities was created out of a field need that still exists today. There is a greater need for services than there is workforce, and each generation of field professionals and people with IDD brings new expectations, values, and opportunities to continue advancing the IDD sector.
What Makes NLCDD Different?
Leadership is our sole focus. We develop leadership at all professional levels and foster connections and partnerships among leaders across the IDD field. We have stayed focused on our purpose since our inception, which allows us to continually evolve and remain responsive to the needs and interests of each generation of leaders.
NLCDD operates independently of a member structure, allowing us to maintain our focus on transformational leadership development for our field without compromising our values of human rights and social justice. We have no conflicts of interest with advocacy for the status quo. In fact, we partner exclusively with faculty, contractors, and facilitators who have hands-on experience in advancing the rights of people with disabilities through advocacy, services, research, policy, and transformation.
NLCDD conducts long-term research and evaluation on the impact of our programs and alumni progress and development over the years. We have data that backs up our successes in developing leaders, building collaborative networks, and impacting organizational and systems change.
How has NLCDD Evolved?
Over the years, NLCDD has grown and adapted our structure and work to remain on the cutting edge of best practices in leadership and advancements in disability services and supports.
Founded on the Legacies of the Leaders who Shaped Our Field
From its inception, NLCDD has been informed by the changemakers and thought leaders who have been instrumental in advancing the disability rights movement, facilitating deinstitutionalization efforts, and shaping the field’s commitment to inclusion, community, and belonging.
NLCDD Founders
Our founders, Steven Eidelman and Nancy Weiss, have spent their careers promoting the rights of people with disabilities, beginning in direct support roles and eventually as professors, directors of state DD agencies, executives of national and international organizations, and more. Their long-time experience as leaders in the field is what led to the fundamental question from which NLCDD was created:
What if we didn’t leave the shaping of the philosophies and understandings of the future leaders in this critical field to chance?
Nancy and Steve’s vision and innovation have shaped the values and skills of more than 4,000 leaders worldwide.