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News & Press Releases Latest Judith E. Heumann Confirmed as Director of the Department on Disability Services
News & Press Releases Latest Judith E. Heumann Confirmed as Director of the Department on Disability Services | Judith E. Heumann Confirmed as Director of the Department on Disability Services |
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| Written by Charles Allen | |
| Wednesday, 11 July 2007 | |
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On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, the District Council unanimously approved the confirmation of Judith E. Heumann as Director of the newly created Department on Disability Services (DDS). “It gives me great pleasure to recommend the confirmation of Judith E. Heumann as the first Director of the Department on Disability Services,” Councilmember Tommy Wells, Chairman of the Council’s Human Services Committee, said. “Running the new Department on Disability Services is not a task to be taken lightly and I am certain that Ms. Heumann’s many years of experience have prepared her for the challenges that she will face running this agency.” Last year, the Council passed legislation to create a separate cabinet-level agency within the executive branch of government to lead the reform of the District’s system of services and supports for nearly 2,000 citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities. DDS replaces the long-troubled Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration (MRDDA). Additionally, the legislation creating DDS also provided for the incorporation of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). Ms. Heumann, who was nominated as Director of DDS earlier this year by Mayor Adrian Fenty, brings over 30 years of local, national and international experience in advancing the human and economic rights of disabled people. In addition to serving as Assistant Secretary of Education in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the Clinton Administration, she has worked at the World Bank on Disability and Development issues, and was the Director of the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, California. In a related matter at Tuesday’s legislative session, Councilmember Wells and Council Chair Vincent C. Gray introduced a Sense of the Council Resolution in support of modernizing the laws that govern the rights of residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the District of Columbia. “The Mentally Retarded Citizens and Constitutional Rights and Dignity Act of 1978 no longer reflects contemporary knowledge of the rights, abilities and preferences of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Wells said. “The purpose of this resolution is to begin the process of modernizing the law for this most vulnerable segment of the population.” |
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