2023 Jody Acford Conference Details

Becca Lory Hector, Director of Training, AANE

Becca Lory Hector is the Director of Training at AANE. She was diagnosed on the autism spectrum as an adult and has since become a dynamic autism advocate, consultant, speaker, and author. Becca has published multiple articles and books about life on the autism spectrum with the goal of spreading acceptance, building understanding, and encouraging self-advocacy. The creation of her international, grant-approved, virtual course for autistic adults, “Self Defined Living: A Path to a Quality Autistic Life”, is allowing her to help improve the lives of autistics.

A Conceptual Roadmap for Understanding Benefit Programs for Autistic Adults
Michele Cantara, Neurodiversity Training Specialist, AANE

This session introduces you to the "roadmap" metaphor that is used throughout this conference to orient attendees to the different types of public benefit programs available to autistic adults who do not have a diagnosis of intellectual disability. This session helps attendees navigate through the other sessions in this conference as well as their benefits journey.

Michele Cantara, AANE Neurodiversity Training Specialist is the mother of an autistic young man who is an aspiring aeronautical engineer and currently works part-time. Michele spent 35 years in the high-tech industry, and she’s been at AANE since 2016. Previously at AANE, she was Co-Director of Adult Services. Now at AANE, she applies her consulting and change management skills to webinars, conferences, community training, parent coaching, and support groups at AANE. Michele works with adults over 22 and their families and often handles questions about public benefit programs, as well as civil and criminal legal issues.

Best Practices to Follow to Qualify for Disability Benefit Programs
Moderator: Michele Cantara, AANE Neurodiversity Training Specialist
Panelists: Kate Collins-Wooley, PhD

Autistic adults that don’t also have a diagnosed intellectual disability have to work with their medical providers and other treaters to craft a very compelling “disability story” to meet the eligibility requirements of most public benefits programs. That story must paint a picture of how their disability significantly impairs their ability to function in daily life, school, work, and/or in the community.

In this panel session, agency eligibility specialists and advocates outline the do’s and don’ts of telling an effective “disability’ story” and increasing the chances of being deemed eligible.

Kate Collins-Wooley, PhD is a psychologist in private practice in Hingham, MA. For the past 22 years, she has been a medical consultant to Disability Determination Services, a division of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), which evaluates medical and vocational eligibility on behalf of Social Security. Kate has spoken widely about benefits for adults with disabilities and has written several articles for AANE on this topic. Kate currently sits on the Program/Conference Committee as well as the Strategic Planning Committee at AANE. She is the parent of an adult with ASD.

Maximizing & Retaining Public Benefits while Working or when you have Some Assets
Moderator: Michele Cantara, AANE Neurodiversity Training Specialist
Panelists: Raymond A. Cebula, III, Director of YTI Online, Cornell University

You can work and receive Social Security and Medicaid under certain circumstances, but you also need to:

• know how to take advantage of Social Security Work Incentive Programs.
• make sure you aren’t working so much that you become ineligible or reduce your benefit payments.
• understand how your living arrangements, in-kind support from your family, and impairment-related work expenses (IRWEs) affect your benefit payment amount.
• get some ideas for minimizing taxes on trusts, shielding assets from needs-based benefits programs, to stretch resources for your adult child after you’re gone.
• understand and follow through with your responsibilities as a benefit recipient to maintain program eligibility.

In this session, a national expert and Social Security Disability Advocate, Financial Planner, and Disability Benefits Counselor share facts and strategies for maximizing and retaining benefits.

Raymond A. Cebula, III received his J.D. from the Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the UNH Law School) in 1982. He spent a total of 23 years working with legal services providing direct representation to individuals with disabilities having legal issues with the SSA. He became part of Cornell University’s Work Incentive Support Center in 2000, and in January of 2005, Ray was brought on staff at ILR's Yang-Tan Institute on Employment & Disability where he now serves as the Program Director of YTI Online (Cornell’s Work Incentive Practitioner credentialing program). While with YTI he has provided training and technical assistance to Youth Transition Demonstration projects across the country, served as Director of Training and Technical Assistance for the NYS Medicaid Infrastructure Grant and continues to serve as a team member for the Technical Assistance Team of the National Training Center of VCU providing technical assistance benefits planners in SSA Region 1. Ray is also the President of the Board of the National Association of Benefits and Work Incentive Specialists (NABWIS)

Becca Lory Hector, Director of Training, AANE