January 24, 2019 | Dustin Snowadzky, AAPD/Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies Fellow
Greetings! My name is Dustin Snowadzky and I am excited to join The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) as the first Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies Fellow.
The purpose of the Fellowship is to lead a national legislative initiative and facilitate collaboration among AAPD stakeholders and local and state disability inclusive emergency management coalitions, emergency management personnel and other stakeholders.
My Fellowship was established to advance legislative and community organizing initiatives affecting disaster impacted individuals with disabilities and emergency preparedness. I am focusing on the use of technology to maximize nationwide engagement towards passage and implementation of disability inclusive emergency management legislative initiatives.
My overall goal is to contribute to AAPD’s partnerships with disability organizations and other stakeholders committed to equal access to emergency and disaster services and programs for people with disabilities — before, during, and after disasters
I am joining AAPD for six months after two years as the Chief Technology Officer for the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies. The Partnership was originally formed by Paul Timmons, Board Chair of Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies. For those of you that know my mother, Marcie Roth, or my sister, Jessa Steinbeck (now Specht), you know that I’ve been involved with the disability rights movement since I was born. Jessa was Helena Berger’s and Andy Imparato’s Administrative Assistant at AAPD almost 20 years ago, so my Fellowship at AAPD is, in many ways, among family.
While at the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies I was the organizational lead for rapid and sustained national emergency response and recovery, providing technical assistance in support of federally declared disasters. I created and implemented internal and external tools for web and electronic support in disaster response. This included leading rapid development and deployment of technology solutions including a disaster hotline, information collection, distribution and management, community engagement, including Section 508 electronic and web accessibility compliance, management of medical supplies and durable medical equipment collection and distribution database, volunteer recruitment, training and organizational troubleshooting, and solutions for complex technology problems.
Another passion of mine is in game design. I have worked as a quality control technician and my college degree is in computer gaming and simulation. Last year, I was part of a team that won a national contest for designing and developing an educational game (with climate change as a theme) in 48 hours.
I am excited to bring some of my game design skills to AAPD and plan to work on a game that will be very educational and informative for emergency preparedness. I am engaged to a wonderful and very talented artist who is the Office Manager for the Partnership. Jessica and I will be married in a botanical garden in Juneau, Alaska next September.