Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy to Feature Talk by CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities Nov. 4

PITTSBURGH—Andrew J. Imparato, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD), will be the featured speaker 1-2:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy. The lecture will take place in Ballroom B of the University Club, 123 University Pl., Oakland.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was a student at Stanford University law school, Imparato has long been an advocate for people with disabilities. Before joining AAPD in 1999, he served as director of policy for the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency advising the president and Congress on public policy issues related to disabilities.

At AAPD, Imparato has worked with a coalition of disability, employer, civil rights, and faith-based groups in a political strategy that led to the passing of the 2008 ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) Amendments Act. This law revised the definition of disabilities to encompass and protect the millions of Americans with such impairments as epilepsy, diabetes, depression, and cancer.

Imparato has been featured on CNN, CBS News, Fox Sports, and BBC Radio, among other media outlets, discussing disability issues as well as his own condition.

Founded in 1995, AAPD is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan, cross-disability membership organization in the nation. It was founded in an effort to organize the disability community to become a force for social, political, and economic change. Under Imparato’s leadership, AAPD has quadrupled its membership and staff size.

The Thornburgh Family Lecture Series is sponsored by the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy. After receiving the 2003 Henry B. Betts Award, Dick and Ginny Thornburgh donated the proceeds from that award to the University of Pittsburgh to establish the lecture series. The fund has been supplemented by grants from Pitt’s Office of the Chancellor, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and School of Law.

The Nov. 4 event is free and open to the public, though preregistration is requested because of limited seating. A reception will follow the lecture. The lecture has been approved for 1.5 hours of substantive CLE Credit by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board. For more information on the event, CLE credit, or to preregister, visit www.law.pitt.edu/Thornburgh-2010. 

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