Wisconsin Fall Leadership Institute & Development Program
Made Possible by Common Good Philanthropies
Oct 25, 2026
– Oct 30, 2026
Eau Claire, WI
$100
Details
With support from Common Good Philanthropies, the National Leadership Consortium is excited to support Wisconsin disability sector leaders to build their skills, advance organizational and systems practices, and grow their networks.
The multifaceted program will offer an in-person Leadership Institute, targeted quarterly virtual follow-up training and support, and short-term leadership coaching with the field’s top leaders to those accepted.
Dates
October 25-30, 2026
Starting 4:30 pm CT on Sunday, October 25th
Ending 12:30 pm CT on Friday, October 30th
For 6 months after the Institute, participants will be invited to monthly follow-up virtual sessions with their cohort and past cohorts of WI leaders and guest speakers on topics of interest. They will also have access to a coach for individual leadership coaching and organizational support. More information on each of these follow-up support opportunities will be provided to attendees.
Cost
Due to generous funding through Common Good Philanthropies, participation in the program is $100 per person.
Tuition includes all training materials, supplies, most meals, access to monthly follow-up sessions, and a leadership coach.
If costs is a barrier for you to attend, please contact Nicole Jones at njones@natleadership.org
Deadlines
Applications are due October 1st.
Location
Eau Claire, WI
Accommodation and Travel
Participants will be responsible for their travel, hotel reservations, and associated costs. The Institute has a competitively priced room block near the meeting space. Information will be provided to confirmed attendees.
If these costs are a barrier for you to attend, please contact Nicole Jones at njones@natleadership.org.
Speakers
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Caitlin Bailey, Ph.D.
Caitlin Bailey, PhD is Co-Director of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities, where she has been a driving force since 2010. She leads research and evaluation efforts, oversees technical assistance, and supports organizations and leaders across the disability sector. Caitlin also co-guides NLCDD’s strategic planning initiatives with Kristen Loomis Greenidge.
With deep expertise in research, facilitation, and leadership development, Caitlin has supported the development of leaders in the disability service sector, federal government, and more. She is constantly exploring the intersection of what it means to be a leader and what it means to be human, and is passionate about supporting leaders to understand what makes them great at both.
Caitlin has had the honor to serve on the boards of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals and the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports, and currently advises NAQ.
(Contact Caitlin Bailey at cbailey@natleadership.org)
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Whit Downing
Whit Downing is the Vice President of Policy and Programming at the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities (KCDD), where she leads statewide initiatives focused on disability policy, behavioral health partnerships, systems change, and self-advocacy. Whit first joined KCDD as a contract worker in February 2024, quickly became a part-time Program Coordinator in March 2024, and then was promoted to a full-time leadership role in November 2024.
As an autistic self-advocate with lived experience navigating both intellectual/developmental disability and mental health systems, Whit brings a unique and informed perspective to her work. Her professional advocacy is shaped in part by her own experiences, including spending eight years on the Kansas IDD waiver waitlist.
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David Ervin, MA
David is CEO of Makom, a community provider organization supporting people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) in Maryland and Virginia. With nearly 40 years in this space, David has extensive professional experience working in and/or consulting to organizations and governments in the US and abroad. He is a recognized subject matter expert in the field, is a published author with over 50 peer-reviewed and other journal articles, book chapters, and policy briefs primarily on health for people with IDD, and speaks and consults internationally on health and healthcare systems, organization development and transformation, and other areas of expertise. David is a graduate of the 2007 Leadership Institute.
David is a Fellow of The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, is Conscience of the Field Editor for Helen: The Journal on Human Exceptionality, is a consulting editor for three scientific/professional journals, and serves on a number of local, regional and national policy and practice committees, including the American Academy on Developmental Medicine and Dentistry Policy & Advocacy Committee and The Arc of the US Policy and Positions Committee. He is Chair of the Board of Directors for The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL), is an appointee to the Board of Advisors to Project DIME (Disability in Medical Education) and was recently elected Vice President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) Board of Directors. (Contact David at dervin@makomlife.org) -
Kristen Loomis, MBA
Kristen Loomis Greenidge, MBA is the Co-Director of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. In partnership with Caitlin Bailey, Kristen leads and oversees the strategic development, coordination, and implementation of all NLCDD programs, services, products, and activities.
Kristen has worked with NLCDD since 2012. Her work has focused on developing and coordinating training and technical assistance for leaders across the intellectual and developmental disabilities field.
Kristen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services and her Master’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Strategic Leadership from the University of Delaware. (Contact Kristen Loomis at kloomis@natleadership.org)
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Joseph M. Macbeth
Joseph M. Macbeth is the Chief Executive Officer and President of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) and has worked in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities for 42 years – beginning as a direct support professional. Macbeth is recognized as an international leader in the advocacy & movement to recognize direct support as a profession and has been a highly sought-after contributor on the workforce challenges that affects our service system.
In the early 2000s, while working for a New York trade association, Macbeth helped the state lead the nation in direct support workforce initiatives. The impact of his work in New York led to Macbeth being hired as the first employee at the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals as a part time Executive Director in 2011. During the ensuing 15 years, NADSP has built a robust membership of more than 300 service provider organizations representing nearly 60,000 direct support professionals, partnered with other national organizations to influence public policy reform and created the first national certification program using a digital badge platform called the E-Badge Academy where tens of thousands of direct support professionals are receiving recognition for the demonstration of their skills. Today, the NADSP employs twelve full time employees and dozens of part time employees working across North America.
Macbeth was appointed by the Governor of New York as a Member of the Advisory Council for the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs and appointed by President Biden to serve two terms on the President’s Committee for Intellectual Disabilities where he co-chaired the sub-committee for workforce shortages. He lives in North Bennington, VT. (Contact Joe at jmacbeth@nadsp.org)
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Sue Swenson, MBA
Sue Swenson, MBA, is the President of Inclusion International, the United Nations-recognized organization for children with disabilities, their parents, and adults with intellectual disabilities. She was appointed to senior leadership roles in the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations. Ms. Swenson’s middle son Charlie lived with profound disabilities for 30 years. Ms. Swenson is a graduate of Partners in Policymaking, was a Kennedy Fellow in the U.S. Senate, and has held the position of Executive Director at both the Kennedy Foundation and The Arc of the United States. She was educated at the University of Chicago and holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota. (Contact Sue at sue.swenson@gmail.com)
Coaches
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Tina Campanella, MA
Tina M. Campanella has over 45 years of experience working with children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She has worked in both the state government and private non-profit sector during her career. She has extensive experience at multiple levels within systems that support people with disabilities including direct service provision in residential and vocational settings, program development, management and administration as well as quality management activities in Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/ID) and Medicaid Waiver funded services. She was also part of the leadership group that created the Personal Outcomes still used by CQL. Ms. Campanella is currently an independent consultant working with multiple organizations and as an expert witness. (Contact Tina at tina818@aol.com)
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Derrick F. Dufresne
Derrick F. Dufresne, is the President of CRA. Over the course of his career, he has delivered conference presentations, training, strategic board planning retreats, workshops, and management consultation to over eighty thousand people in forty-nine states regarding issues related to people with disabilities. Since entering the field in 1974, Derrick’s dedication to the community has evolved from serving as a unit manager in an institutional setting to running a non-profit that provided housing to individuals with disabilities in the community to managing projects that close institutions and assist in the transition of individuals into the community. From 2003-2009, Derrick served as President/CEO of the Institute on Public Policy For People with Disabilities in Illinois. The Institute is a membership organization that focuses on promoting best practice and quality community supports for people with disabilities throughout Illinois.
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Steven Eidelman, MBA, MSW
Steven Eidelman is a Co-Founder of and Advisor to the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. Steven is the H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Human Services Policy and Leadership at the University of Delaware. He is a past President of AAIDD and serves as Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Special Olympics International. Steven also serves as the Executive Director of The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation. His recent efforts have focused on implementing Article 19 of the UN CRPD, with a focus on deinstitutionalization. He was the Pennsylvania state government official in charge when Pennhurst State School and Hospital was closed.
Steve holds an MSW from The University of Maryland, an MBA from Loyola Baltimore, and a post-Master’s Certificate in the Administration of Social Services from Temple University. (Contact Steve Eidelman at smeidelman@gmail.com)
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Gail Godwin
Gail Godwin is the Founder of Shared Support Maryland, Inc. and holds a Training Associate position at ICI UMass. Gail’s MA is from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Education, Program in Severe Disabilities – educational, employment & community inclusion. For over 30 years, she has been an advocate in collaboration with people with disabilities and has worked in service provider organizations as a direct support staff, middle manager, administrator, and in training and development. She served 10 years as a member of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council on the Executive and Cross-Cutting Issues Committee. She also served 10 years as a board member of The Maryland Association of Community Services. She is the co-founder of the New York Downstate Person-Centered Consortium and one of many Founders of the Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports. Gail has extensive experience in self-directed service provision, positive supports, training, development, person-directed planning, individualized supports, and organizational development. Gail has co-authored articles and presents testimonies on topics in support of the advancement of disability rights. Gail graduated from the 2009 Leadership Institute and has been a faculty member of the Consortium for over 15 years. (Contact Gail at gail@sharedsupportmd.org)
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Shayne Roos
Shayne Roos currently serves as the North Carolina Project Director for the Disability Innovation Fund (DIF) – Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE), a federal program under the U.S. Department of Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration designed to help people with disabilities transition from subminimum wage employment to competitive integrated employment. Prior to relocating to NC, Roos served as Executive Vice President of Achieva, a non-profit human services organization based out of Pittsburgh, PA, and President of Achieva Support, which encompassed the majority of Achieva’s service offerings including early intervention, housing services and employment supports. He had been employed with Achieva since 2002. Roos was vital to Achieva’s vocational transformation, closing all facility-based supports and ending the practice of paying people with disabilities a sub-minimum wage. Prior to his time at Achieva, he worked as a Qualified Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Professional and then as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. Roos graduated from Westminster College with a B.A. in Sociology in 1996 and in 2009 became a graduate of The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. (Contact Shayne at roos.shayne@gmail.com)
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Nancy Weiss, MSW
Nancy Weiss, MSW, is a co-founder of and advisor to the National Leadership Consortium. She was a professor at and the Director of Disability Initiatives for the College of Health Sciences at the University of Delaware. Ms. Weiss was the Executive Director of TASH, an international advocacy association committed to full inclusion for people with disabilities, and the Director of the Department for Community Services at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. She also served as the Executive Director of Community Systems, Inc., an agency providing progressive supports for adults with developmental disabilities across Delaware. The consistent theme of Ms. Weiss’s work has been the promotion of disability supports and policies that assure that people with disabilities are both treated humanely and guaranteed the full range of rights and opportunities available to all citizens. (Contact Nancy at nancyrobinweiss@gmail.com)
