Rachel Simon is the award-winning author of six books and a nationally-recognized public speaker on issues related to diversity and disability. Her titles include the bestsellers The Story of Beautiful Girl and Riding The Bus With My Sister. Both books are frequent selections of book clubs and school reading programs around the country. Rachel‘s work has been adapted for theater, NPR, the Lifetime Channel, and Hallmark Hall of Fame, whose adaptation of Riding The Bus With My Sister starred Rosie O’ Donnell and Andie McDowell, and was directed by Anjelica Huston

John Raffaele MSW is the Director of Educational Services at the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP). His career spans four decades and those years have been spent teaching direct support professionals and the people they support. Most of the people with whom he has worked and supported over the last 40 years are people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and at-risk youth, and people with chronic and terminal illnesses in home-care settings. His graduate education is from Yeshiva University in New York City and State University of New York at New Paltz, Between 2001 and 2012 John worked as a Director of Training and Education for a developmental disabilities service provider in New York and gained notoriety consulting and teaching throughout the United States. John founded his own international direct support professional consulting company in 2012. He has developed many exciting and informative training programs and helped propel the NADSP into international prominence. John has educated tens of thousands of people in the NADSP Code of Ethics and Competencies and most recently, our Informed Decision Making curriculum and Frontline Supervisor Train the Trainer Curriculum.