FY22 Annual Report
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We are proud to share some highlights of who we are and what we accomplished during the last fiscal year, FY22.
The pandemic’s impact on people’s lives motivated us to grow our work. We launched new projects, and we expanded our disability studies curriculum. And we created new and accessible ways to share research and stories of people with disabilities..
Our CDCI family changed greatly this year. With new projects we welcomed many new colleagues who jumped into their work at a very challenging time.
This year was marked by the unexpected death of an amazing advocate, colleague, mentor, and friend, Deborah Lisi-Baker. Many at CDCI knew her as our Associate Director, 2009-2017, and Executive Director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living. As we try to share stories of our work and the lives of people in Vermont, I am grateful to still have opportunities to learn from Deborah.
All my best,
Jesse Suter
Executive Director
Our Mission
The UVM Center on Disability and Community Inclusion (CDCI) is Vermont’s University Center for Excellence
in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). We work to create a space where people with disabilities and their families, are fully included in their homes, schools, and communities.
Our mission is to:
- Connect Vermonters with disabilities with services and resources to participate fully in the communities of their choosing.
- Connect learners with classes, scholarship and opportunities to make disability a professional priority.
- Connect the dots through research into how things are, and how people with disabilities want them to be.
Our Community Advisory Council (CAC)
The CAC is vital to helping the CDCI achieve our goals.
This year our CAC had 15 members. 40% of those members were Vermonters with disabilities. 20% were family members of Vermonters with disabilities.
Our Center strives to maintain a council that is representative of the racial, ethnic, and LGBTQ diversity of Vermont. In FY 2022, 27% of the CAC identified as belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, or being part of the LGBTQ community.
Karen Price (co-chair)David Frye (co-chair)June BascomMary Alice FavroKristofor MedinaKirsten MurphyNicole Chicoine | Persephone RinggenbergMeagan RoyLiliane SavardMichael ShorArline SeilerRandy LizotteNicole Villemaire |
Many of our stories are not written: we pass them
Deborah Lisi-Baker, 1952-2022 – excerpt from Women’s Stories
like strangers glanced at on the street. The sound of their presence,
their shape-changing movements, slip by us
like autumn leaves that rustle and nudge our heedless feet