Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce welcomes Jeanette Towles, Founder and CEO of Synterex, a Disability Owned Business Enterprise (DOBE).
 
Synterex is the home of AgileWriter.ai™, an AI-enabled authoring platform that prioritizes accessibility and gets your important information to the intended audience, be it plain language or technical content.

Ms. Towles will share her background as a seasoned and dedicated medical writer with extensive medical/regulatory writing experience, as well as experience building and leading medical writing teams. She will also share her background as an entrepreneur, clinical scientist, responsible sourcing advocate, AI expert, and speaker.

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce is honored to have back as her guest Christine Griffin, a strong disability rights advocate and current Bender Consulting Services’ Senior Search Specialist Consultant on the show.

During the show, she will be discussing her long career which includes her past work as Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Obama Administration.
She will also discuss her protection and advocacy work, and her current work with Bender Consulting Services and the Bender Leadership Academy.

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).

Joyce closes Disability Pride Month, with Veronica Villalobos, Vice President of the Institute for Strategic Social and Workforce Programs for Highmark Health and Allegheny Health Network. She strives to ensure the workforce enables belonging and health access is achieved among members, patients, and communities in PA, western NY, DE, and WV. Among the topics discussed, Veronica will share how Highmark Health and Allegheny Health Network foster a workforce that has Americans with disabilities, her work with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). In addition, she will discuss her past work with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Joyce A. Bender Career Highlights

• Serves as CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc. and Board Chair and Founder of Bender Leadership Academy, a non-profit organization focused on addressing the transition to work for youth and young adults with disabilities.
• Founding partner of iDisability, an eLearning solution.
• Named a 2024 Woman of Influence by The Pittsburgh Business Times and 2024 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award Recipient from the Viscardi Center.
• Recipient of the 2024 Visionary Award from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, DC.
  Lives with epilepsy and hard of hearing.
• Advocates for competitive employment for people with disabilities.
• Serves as vice-chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and former chair of the board.
• Represented the State Department in programming with Panama, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Libya, and Tunisia.
• Serves as chair of Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.
• Received the 2003 New Freedom Initiative Award from the Bush Administration.
• Recognized with the 1999 President’s Award from President Clinton.
• Board member of Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and World Institute on Disability (WID).