Outstanding Leaders in Disability Matters

Leeann C. Alberts

Board Chair

Leeann C. Alberts is an attorney with more than 40 years of professional experience in primarily Federal Government and commercial contract law. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she is a 1981 graduate of Suflolk University School of Law in Boston, also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Western New England College and earned her Bachelors of Arts from Boston College.

Ms. Alberts is the immediate past Chair and Member-At-Large of the Fairfax Area Disability Services Board (FADSB).  An advisory body, FADSB is comprised of citizen members who are appointed by the Chairman and Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and two members who represent the Cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.

Appointed by Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Sharon Bulova in 2013, Ms. Alberts completed her second term as FADSB Chair.  A person who has had a significant disability since childhood, she is a longtime disability rights advocate and committed to IL Philosophy, having served as a member of the Board and President of the Center for Living and Working in Worcester, MA in the mid-1980s.  She was also a member of the State of Massachusetts Commission for the Developmentally Disabled.

Leeann and her husband live in Springfield, Virginia. She has recently been appointed as the Braddock District representative for the Fairfax County Health Care Advisory Board.

In her spare time, she sang with Metropolitan Chorus and the Vienna Choral Society and has performed locally at the Kennedy Center, at the Lincoln Center and Tully Hall in New York, and previously with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Lyric Opera Company, as well as at Tanglewood.

Joan Joyce

Secretary

Joan Joyce lives in Arlington Virginia and has been employed at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC for 23 years. In her role as Director of Therapeutic Recreation and Community Outreach, Joan started a community adapted sports and fitness program that serves over 200 individuals with physical disabilities. Their mission is to facilitate healthy lifestyles for individuals with physical disability.

Joan has 25 years of experience in post-acute rehabilitation, working with children and adults as a recreation therapist. Joan has a MS in Recreation Administration/Therapeutic Recreation from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is certified as an Aquatic Therapist (ATRI).

Joan was first elected to the United Spinal Metro DC Board in 2015, and is the past Vice President, currently the Secretary. Joan is also on the board of ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV).

Kelley Simoneaux

Kelley Simoneaux is an attorney and disability rights advocate based in Washington, DC. She is the founder of The Spinal Cord Injury Law Firm, PLLC where she represents individuals following a spinal cord injury. Kelley has committed her professional life to helping those with spinal cord injuries after she became a T-12 paraplegic as a passenger in a car wreck when she was 16 years old.

Following her spinal cord injury, Kelley went to rehab for three months at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, continuing her high school education while in the hospital. She graduated with her class, going on to undergrad at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama and then law school at the University of Tennessee College of Law. She practiced at several nationally known law firms in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Washington, DC.

Most importantly, Kelley is known as Mom to a 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. She enjoys traveling the world with her family and uses any rare moment alone to practice adaptive yoga.

When Kelley is not in the courtroom, she is fighting for greater accessibility in rideshare companies. After being denied a ride in an Uber due to her wheelchair, she began a national campaign called Wheel2Ride, focused on education and policy change in accessibility and inclusivity for Transportation Network Providers (TNPs). She also serves as the Director of Law and Advocacy for SPINALpedia.org, an online video mentoring platform for individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Jasmin Bailey

Jasmin Bailey is the Operations Manager and Program Coordinator at AAPD. In this role, She oversees the daily internal operations of the organization and several of AAPD’s youth-focused programs aimed to empower students and young professionals with disabilities.

Prior to her employment at AAPD, Jasmin was a 2013 AAPD summer intern, where she had the opportunity to intern at the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. She specifically help research and aid in the recruitment process of colleges and universities to participate in the Workforce Recruitment Program, a program that connects federal and private sector employers with highly motivated students with disabilities for short and long-term internships.

Jasmin credits the AAPD Summer Internship program for its transformational impact it had in her life and how it initially sparked her passion and commitment to the disability social justice movement. Jasmin is dedicated to the fight for equal rights for the disability community in the U.S and abroad, and works everyday to breakdown the attitudinal barriers that continues to hinder disabled people today.

Jasmin is a graduate of Mary Baldwin College, located in Staunton Virginia, where she received her BA in Exercise Science and a minor in Leadership Studies. She is also a graduate of the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL), the first, only all female corps of cadets in the world. VWIL is a satellite school to the Virginia Military Institute, where she spent four years in Reserve Officer Training Corps. During this time, Jasmin was involved in many extra-curricular activities and served in leadership roles to include Drum Major, band captain and drill team Commander. She also had a unique opportunity to attend and graduate from Airborne School located in Ft, Benning, GA.

In her spare time, Jasmin enjoys participating in outdoor activities, reading various genres of books, and enjoys trying out new sports.

Susan Picerno

Susan Picerno believes that opportunities for people with disabilities are greatest when “all boats rise on the tide together.” She dedicates her life to the equity and inclusion of people with disabilities, including those from intersectional groups.

A graduate of The University of Michigan School of Social Work, Ms. Picerno has particular interest and expertise in asset development for the members of the disability community and in disability employment policy.

She is a Commissioner twice over for the City of Alexandria: first as a vice-chair of the Alexandria Commission on Persons with Disabilities, and secondly, on the Alexandria Commission for Employment, Alexandria’s workforce board.

She currently works as a work incentives coordinator in southern Maryland and was previously one of 45 people who staffed an assistant secretary in a disability policy agency in the federal government.

She sincerely hopes that young people with disabilities and those who are newly disabled realize what an asset they have in ECNV, the voice of the local disability community.