PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO A FAMILY EMERGENCY FOR OUR GUEST SPEAKER, TODAY’S COMMUNITY HAS BEEN CANCELLED (7/28/19). OUR APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

We hope you join us for our second guest speaker for “Todd Talks,” where our board member Todd Groves selects a guest speaker who is deeply devoted to his or her community and works to serve it in important but unconventional ways. As always, this Sunday gathering will be casual and intimate, including an informal chat between Todd and the speaker as well as time for conversation.

We are fortunate to have Ann Cupolo Freeman join us at The Practice Space as our second selected speaker. Ann played a key role in many achievements associated with the disability rights movement in Berkeley, promoting independent living through her work at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and Center for Independent Living. She will be sharing her inside experiences about being part of a significant human rights movement. See a note from Todd below to read more about Ann!

A Note from Todd Groves:

Ann’s Bio:

Ann Cupolo Freeman has been involved in the disability rights movement since she was in her late teens living in New York, before moving to California in 1975. She worked at the Center for Independent Living beginning in 1976 as a Peer Counselor, and returned to CIL in the late 1980s to take the position of Client Services Coordinator. She is currently on the board of directors of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. Before joining DREDF’s Board of Directors, she served on the board of the Center for Independent Living, Jobs for the Homeless in Oakland, and the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program in Berkeley.

Ann received her Master’s Degree in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984, and then subsequently became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She realized that she greatly enjoyed working in physical rehabilitation and worked at both St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, and at Alta Bates – Summit Medical Center in Berkeley before her retirement. Ann felt that she was able to incorporate her independent living work experience into the hospital rehabilitation setting and introduce independent living concepts to newly disabled patients as well as to hospital staff.