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Category: Advisors

Published on

July 22, 2019

Mobility Fitness is thrilled to announce the newest member of our Advisory Committee, Andrew Imparato. He will join a growing list of disability rights leaders to advise Mobility Fitness strategically in the coming years.

Imparato has served as executive director of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) since 2013. As a disability rights lawyer and policy professional with more than 25 years of experience in government and advocacy roles, Imparato has worked with bipartisan policymakers to advance disability policy at the national level in the areas of civil rights, workforce development, and disability benefits. Prior to coming to AUCD, he was senior counsel and disability policy director for Chairman Tom Harkin on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Before that, he spent 11 years as President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, a national organization working to grow the political and economic power of the disability community. Imparato's perspective is informed by his personal experience with bipolar disorder.

April 13, 2018

Mobility Fitness welcomes Senator Tom Harkin to our growing Board of Advisors. Sen. Harkin represented Iowa in the United States Congress for more than four decades. Among his many accomplishments was his role as the primary advocate in the Senate for disability rights. Sen. Harkin’s understanding of disability rights issues began at an early age, witnessing the challenges faced by his brother, who was deaf.

An early pioneer of legislation to recognize the rights of people with disabilities, Sen. Harkin was tapped by Sen. Ted Kennedy to help craft the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He went on to champion the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which ensured public schools provide “free and appropriate public education” and individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities. In 2008, following several court rulings that weakened the ADA’s standards Sen. Harkin worked with Sen. Orrin Hatch to introduce the ADA Amendments Act and that same year, the Higher Education Opportunity Act. In 2014, Senator Harkin introduced the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which established vocational education services to ensure the success of people with disabilities in the competitive, integrated job market.

Senator Harkin continues his disability work today, calling for moving more people with disabilities into the workforce, eliminating sub-minimum wages for the disabled and reforming government health programs that force them into nursing homes and institutions.

Harkin’s experience and enthusiasm will be of great value to Mobility Fitness as we move forward with the Fitness and Education for All Act this year.

Published on

April 13, 2018

Mobility Fitness welcomes Senator Tom Harkin to our growing Board of Advisors. Sen. Harkin represented Iowa in the United States Congress for more than four decades. Among his many accomplishments was his role as the primary advocate in the Senate for disability rights. Sen. Harkin’s understanding of disability rights issues began at an early age, witnessing the challenges faced by his brother, who was deaf.

An early pioneer of legislation to recognize the rights of people with disabilities, Sen. Harkin was tapped by Sen. Ted Kennedy to help craft the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He went on to champion the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which ensured public schools provide “free and appropriate public education” and individualized education programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities. In 2008, following several court rulings that weakened the ADA’s standards Sen. Harkin worked with Sen. Orrin Hatch to introduce the ADA Amendments Act and that same year, the Higher Education Opportunity Act. In 2014, Senator Harkin introduced the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which established vocational education services to ensure the success of people with disabilities in the competitive, integrated job market.

Senator Harkin continues his disability work today, calling for moving more people with disabilities into the workforce, eliminating sub-minimum wages for the disabled and reforming government health programs that force them into nursing homes and institutions.

Harkin’s experience and enthusiasm will be of great value to Mobility Fitness as we move forward with the Fitness and Education for All Act this year.