National Disability Rights Leader, Jonathan Young

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guests, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Welcome to the show, everyone in the United States and around the world. Speaking of around the world, We have 17 countries with listeners. China, you are really getting larger and larger with the listening audience. But Mongolia, with one person. Now one person can make a difference. Tell everyone, wherever you are, Spain, Australia, tell everyone with disabilities about this show so they too can hear about quality of life for all people with disabilities. With a special shout out to my friend Richard Roberts, who I love so much, with the State Department in Brazil. And get ready, we're having a show coming up live from Brazil. But Richard is awesome. He is awesome. And he is Hopefully, I'm going to see him next year, but they are going to do a program this year on disability training, disability employment. I've known him since South Korea when I went there for the first time, and now he's the disability rights leader with the State Department, as is Gang Yong Cho. In South Korea, love him. Cheryl Harris with the State Department, so fantastic. Kazakhstan with Venyamin. I can go on and on, but there are so many great people from those countries working with the State Department who is making a difference by sending me around the world to these countries talking about quality of life. For people living with disabilities. And a special shout out, Yoshiko Dart. Oh, I bet you're so excited because Jonathan Young's on today. I'll bet you are, Yoshiko. Love you. And hi, Mark. Thank you so much for continuing to be the lead sponsor. We're getting closer now because next year is— can you believe it? The 20th anniversary of Disability Matters with Joyce Bender on Voice America. 20 years, and you can still go to voiceamerica.com and go to benderconsult.com or Spotify and listen to the old shows. Guess what the number one listened show is from years ago? Marc Abrisso every week. Still the number one listed listen-to show. So, we are National Disability— okay, I'm going to do what Chris Griffin says, not National Disability Employment Awareness Month, because we have had plenty of awareness. National Disability Employment Month, that's what we need. National Disability Employment Month. And guess what tomorrow is? Disability Mentoring Day in the United States. Oh, so exciting, because right here in Pittsburgh we have— I just looked— 600 to 700 students with disabilities going to companies in the Pittsburgh area. Is that not unbelievable? And a great event last evening at the Heinz History Center. Fantastic. With companies and young people and speakers, high school students, speakers. It was just fantastic. So think about this, started in 1999. How would you like to be the person that started it all knowing that you continue to impact the lives of people, high school students with disabilities, year after year? Think how many people that is. When you feel just overwhelmed, well, that must be how Jonathan Young feels, our guest today. In 1999, I still remember him talking to me on the phone saying, Joyce Bender, we don't have a month, but we can have a day, and it has to be connected to employment. And so came Disability Mentoring Day with this young man to me, young man that I look up to, uh, but it all started with him. That's where it started. And guess what? He's our guest today. Jonathan, welcome to the show.

Uh, Joyce, thank you so much. It truly is a pleasure to join you. I love your enthusiasm, and congratulations on all your many milestones. Um, 20 years next year on the radio, reaching around the world. Truly Truly remarkable. So pleasure to join you as always.

Well, it's exciting to have you, being that tomorrow is Disability Mentoring Day, Jonathan, your day, DMD Man. It is so exciting. I am thrilled to have you on today. But so you know this, Jonathan, everyone knows about this show. All of the people involved with DMD, everyone is so excited about this show today. But first, before we talk about that, But let's talk about you and what you're doing so people around the world will know. What is your current position and what is Akiro? Is it Akiro or Akiro?

Akiro Therapeutics. I am one of the co-founders and now the Chief Operating Officer. It is a biotechnology company. We are developing a a drug, a biologic for the treatment of liver disease. And we're in the process of doing two Phase 2B clinical trials to develop a drug that we hope one day, if approved, would be, you know, help to people around the world.

Okay, so I have to ask you, how did this come to be? I mean, what gave you this idea?

Well, it wasn't sort of planned out, if you will. My life in general has been a story of pursuing interesting opportunities that were in front of me. And to make a relatively long story short, I'd been an attorney at a boutique law firm that was working with companies that were trying to get new drug products approved. And one of the clients that I'd had after working with them pretty, um, for a short time, invited me to join a venture capital firm in New York City called Apple Tree Partners to develop a new company, basically co-found a new company and build it around a new drug product that we would develop and hopefully market. And it was certainly, um, uh, an exciting opportunity given my background as a sort of historian and a lawyer and a disability advocate. Being offered a chance to go work in a New York venture capital firm isn't sort of a logical step. So it was appealing, but I had young kids at the time, and it seemed honestly a little bit too much of a risk for me to pursue, so I said no. But then I ended up joining one of that venture fund's portfolio companies as general counsel and thought that would give me some good experience in-house at a pharmaceutical company. And then after that drug product was approved, they recruited me again and encouraged me to talk to this guy, Tim Rolf, who is currently our chief scientific officer, my co-founder. And he had previously been Pfizer's chief scientific officer for their cardiovascular metabolic unit. And he suggested the two of us kind of connect and see if we could work together. And basically, we, we joined in October of 2016 and started hunting for drug products that we could in-license. And the particular mechanism of this drug is called FGF21. It's a fibroblast growth factor, and this was a drug that Amgen had developed for treatment of diabetes. And then, as sometimes happens, companies will put a product on the shelf, their priorities shift, they didn't want to move in the direction of diabetes, and we were able to negotiate a deal to license the product from Amgen and raise money to do the development work. And that was back in 2018. And so we're, you know, 4 years in and just recently reported out some really exciting data from one of our Phase 2B clinical trials. So, so far things are looking really promising, but it's been super fun.

Oh, that is so exciting. Well, no surprise to me, Jonathan, that you would do this. So, at this company, I did have one question. Joyce Bender, is there a specific reason that you focused on a drug for liver disease, or is that just a result of the two of you doing extensive research and coming upon this drug?

Sure. So credit where credit is due, my co-founder Tim, he is a brilliant scientist, and part of the reason that I'd said no to the venture capital firm the first time around is They basically said it's sort of one year up or out. We had one year to find a product, and if we weren't successful, they'd kind of give us a year to kind of transition out. So it was kind of a high-stakes world, and I'm not a scientist and didn't have industry experience. But Tim Ralph, a brilliant scientist, we took this strategy on day one of kind of starting with a handful of mechanisms of action that we thought were compelling. And just pursued those and diligence them and saw what we could make work. So his background was in metabolic diseases, and that's kind of the direction that we took. And so this mechanism, FGF21, was one of the products or one of the mechanisms that he showed up with on day one saying, hey, let's, let's pursue this. And it was the mechanism that we, we couldn't kill. It just kind of kept standing up to our scrutiny. So it wasn't really we wanted to go in the direction of liver disease. What we were looking for is really exciting fundamental new biology and to try to make a transformative impact for patients around the world. There are some business models of making like a really minor tweak to an existing sort of approach. We wanted to do something really transformational, and this mechanism we certainly think has that potential. But again, it was really Tim kind of suggesting an approach scientifically, and the two of us working together to diligence it and then negotiate the deals around it and build up a new company.

Wow, that is exciting. That is so exciting. So you're executive vice president and COO, so I guess that means you're running the show.

Well, we recruited a phenomenal guy as CEO after we founded the company and negotiated the Amgen deal. Andrew Chang was previously Chief Medical Officer at Gilead. And so when he came in a few months after we closed the deal with Amgen, honestly, I wasn't quite sure what my role would be. And his advice was, you know, kind of keep doing what I was doing, which, as things had started out, Tim kind of covered the science and I did pretty much everything else around that. And then Andrew assumed the more outward-facing role with the board and with the investors. And then as we built out the company, you know, various functions have been picked up by people that have more expertise in certain areas. And so I kind of do view my job as doing a little bit of, of everything. Uh, my, my pledge to Andrew when he came on board is I would just do anything and everything it took for the company to be a success. And, um, you know, I, I think he'd tell you that's what I've, what I've done. So it's, um, a pretty diverse role. But my main focus is just working with the team, building a phenomenal team, and helping the organization move forward.

Wow, they're lucky to have you, and I'm sure that you will be successful. But moving on to my excitement with Disability Mentoring Day, and I already told this story. Actually, though, when you called me, you were at the White House reporting to President Clinton as the person that really was like the advisor on anything related to disability. And I'm just wondering, while you were there, is that like— what made you think of this? I mean, what caused you not, not just to think about employment, but about a day and job shadowing and all? What made you think about that?

Sure, no, it's a great question. And maybe a little bit like my career, it wasn't sort of fully kind of preconceived and planned. It just sort of emerged. And I've always been one to kind of look for compelling opportunities. And in the White House, you know, just to back up for a moment, so my role was liaison to the disability community. And as you said, you know, my My paycheck was from, you know, the White House, the president, and that was sort of my job's focus was to advance the objectives of President Clinton. But the reason that I was in the White House to begin with was because President Clinton prioritized disability policy issues and for the first time wanted to have a full-time person with a disability as the liaison to the disability community. And so, you know, going into the White House, I had a lot of folks, you know, approach me thinking, well, you know, I was now the kind of mole on the inside who could advance the disability community priorities, which is certainly why the position was created. But my approach was to try to figure out, okay, knowing what all the priorities of the disability community are, let me not kind of bang my head up against the wall on things that aren't really going to gain traction. I try to figure out, okay, where are the priorities of the president and where can I find common ground? And part of that meant looking around to how the personnel working with other communities, what they were doing. And so, one of the things that I had observed was there was a big effort around the Groundhog Job Shadow Day, and all of the Office of Public Liaison was engaged with that. There was a, you know, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. There was a National Hispanic Heritage Month, and they had done some mentoring pieces there. Certainly, priority number one, both for the disability community and for President Clinton generally, was employment, right? Getting job opportunities for people. And in particular, President Clinton had focused on— because at the time, seems a long way away now, but we were enjoying the longest period of peacetime economic prosperity in the nation's history. And President Clinton started focusing on, well, Who are the communities that are not participating in this great sort of period of economic growth? And that to me felt like a really great opportunity to focus on disability. Anyway, so when I was looking at some of these opportunities, you know, that were focusing on young people, I felt like disability— people with disabilities were just being lost. And part of what we tried to do— maybe this was the year before we kicked off Disability Mentoring Day— was trying to find a way to incorporate people with disabilities people with disabilities more into the planning around the Groundhog Job Shadow Day. And this was sort of like a, you know, a big issue among, you know, for disability advocacy generally. How much do you integrate versus draw kind of unique attention to disability on its own? And we found it was kind of a struggle to break through and get people to really pay attention to people with disabilities. And so while I would certainly be a huge advocate of integrating into all of those mainstream activities, if you will, in the same way that other communities had focused on their community. It just seemed like really focusing on disability and employment in a concrete, tangible way made a lot of sense. And we can talk about this more, but, you know, why is it called a day? Obviously, you don't mentor in the course of a day. That's a lifetime or many months, years process. Process. But one of the things I had learned in working on employment issues is that a lot of employers were just afraid. They just didn't know a lot about disability. They weren't sure what to expect, and they, you know, had a lot of, you know, societal stigma that had sort of, you know, kind of creeped in. And it struck me, well, what if we just have a vehicle that's not particularly threatening and just introduces people with disabilities to employers, kind of break down that fear and that unknown. And so, the idea of a day was really about an introduction. And the hope always was that if we can just give employers an opportunity to see people with disabilities face-to-face, that it could be the beginning of something longer, bigger, greater, better, you know, an internship, a job offer. And I think that's been one of the really satisfying things to see is that it's not just about that day. And I know that the work that you have done kind of building around a year-long effort that kind of uses this as a hook, but it's a way to draw the community in, draw the community together, pull employers into the effort, and really focus on let's give these talented young people a chance to provide and produce and deliver and contribute everything they're capable of.

Well, Jonathan, you have changed so many lives. Even when I was hearing you talk about that, you know, you're doing two things. Number one, you're giving hope to these young people that I do have a job, I do have an opportunity. And to the hiring manager, what you're doing is you're having them say, You know what, why am I not hiring people with disabilities? But I must tell you that when I heard you tell that whole story, it just really got to me. It really did. I just— look what you've done. Look what happened from all of this. It's amazing what has happened, and you changed all these lives. What does that do to you thinking about that?

Sure. I appreciate that, Joyce Bender. But let me also emphasize it really was very much a "we." You know, it was an idea, and that idea was the product of all the people that came, you know, before you and I that had been laying the groundwork. You know, President Clinton, you know, deciding to pay attention to disability issues, the groundwork that was laid by the ADA. I viewed, you know, my role as being, you know, a person in a place of, you know, opportunity at the White House to help pull something together and try to find something tangible. But we would not be where we are now were it not for people like you that, you know, I think they actually— the very first time we did it was like a dozen people in the White House. It was like a really small endeavor. And then I was like, well, hey, you know, let us make this bigger, which is why I reached out out to you. And so it is the people that have been making this work, you know, day after day, year after year. How does it make me feel? You know, I would say one of the most disappointing things about my White House experience was watching what happened after I left the White House. And all the things that felt so great and exciting and the places where we felt like we made great progress, in the nature of our political system, it could so quickly be unwound. And so, so much of what occupied my time at the time, you know, it's just sort of evaporated in certain respects. But Disability Mentoring Day is without question the singular thing that I'm most proud of and that had the most far-reaching impact of my time at the White House. And, you know, a huge shout out to the American Association of People with Disabilities. At the time, Andy Imperato was president and CEO, and I think fortunately I had the foresight to be concerned that if Disability Mentoring Day was a White House program, it would live and die with the leadership of the White House. So I wanted to get it out of the White House. And so I teamed up with Andy and AAPD to basically transition— you know, ownership is too strong of a word, but kind of, yeah, you know, taking charge of the idea and the program at AAPD and then spent some time consulting for AAPD. Trying to build out a program that could lay the foundation for sort of a more national and ultimately global effort. So it's humbling and overwhelming to see how a nugget of an idea could basically, you know, move around the world, you know, to states all across the country and countries around the world. And the stories that I hear about people's lives that have been changed by it Again, nothing more tangible, more concrete, more far-reaching than all of my time at the White House than this program that lives on.

And you know how you're a historian? I will never let this go, Jonathan. Never. That's why I have a shout-out to Yoshiko. It always bothers me that, you know, if you go and say, hey, who's Justin Dart? That you have so many people that would say, I don't know. That really bothers me that we don't have stronger educational history, you know, in the schools. But I will do my part, and I've got good news for you. There is interest at the Heinz History Center and possibly archiving these shows so that way everyone will always know. And with that, I'm going to go to break. Hey, Disability Mentoring Day is tomorrow. We'll be right back with the idea man himself, Jonathan Young, Executive Vice President and COO at Acero Therapeutics. This is Joyce Bender. We'll be right back. Don't go away.

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Get the news on our shows and other happenings by following us on Twitter. Find us @VoiceAmericaTRN or twitter.com/VoiceAmericaTRN. You're listening to Disability Matters. If you have a question, If you have a question or comment, call in toll-free at 1-866-472-5788. That's 1-866-472-5788. Now please welcome back the host of Disability Matters. Here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone, welcome back. Tomorrow is Disability Mentoring Day, and we have the idea man himself, Jonathan Young, who I met when he reported to President Clinton as the liaison on disability issues at the White House is the person that called me with the idea of Disability Mentoring Day. And if you were listening to the show a little bit ago, you probably noticed I was choked up, speechless after Jonathan told that whole story because it was hard for me to not think of last night where Rushma, a young woman with cerebral palsy, Significant from India was talking about Disability Mentoring Day and how much this all means to her. It's coordinated in Pittsburgh by our not-for-profit, the Bender Leadership Academy. And when she was speaking, she told the story of how in India people would throw rocks at her, and actual rocks, and make fun of her. And how she didn't understand this, and now how everything has changed. And of course, she's going tomorrow to participate in Disability Mentoring Day. And right in the middle of all this, she just broke down and cried with what she had been through and now what she has. So that, Jonathan, when you told that story, I was thinking Wow, if he would have seen this, he would not have believed what I mean when I say the impact that you have had on so many young people like Reshma, like Zach, like Joey, like all the speakers last night that today are going to different companies. One of the speakers last night, Jonathan, is a young woman who is deaf. Who went to Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and she told the story of Disability Mentoring Day and what it meant to her to job shadow at PNC. So if you don't know, the third Wednesday of every October is Disability Mentoring Day. And it is Joyce Bender as the overseer. AAPD, the American Association of People with Disabilities, at AAPD.com. And you've got to participate. If you're a company and you're listening, you know, you've got to call. You can call us. You can call— go to BenderConsult.com and put in that contact you're interested. Next year in participating in Disability Mentoring Day, and we will get back to you. If you're an educator, same thing. You know, you can get your school involved, get the transitional coordinators together. You, you will just not believe what it does for those young people. And if you are a parent or a young person you're thinking, I wish we did this, go to your school and tell them. Disability Mentoring Day, third Wednesday of every October, every year. So, Jonathan, I think I told you, you know, that we have this huge group of high school students participating, and we're going to talk about this in a little more detail because I want to talk about why that's not transitioning to employment. But first, on the half hour, it is our news break with Perry Jude Radesik, the CEO of Disability Rights Pennsylvania, with our news break to the day. She is so dedicated that she is stepping out of a retreat to do this. Of course they want her to because, you know, they know how awesome she's been doing this 4 years. We're the only place you can go where you hear what's going on every week for people with disabilities. Perry, welcome.

Joyce, thank you. You stepped out as well because you're a board member with DRP.

I did, I did. We both, we both stepped out. That's right. So, Perry, what do you have for us today?

Yeah, you know, so many pieces of legislation get introduced into Congress, and, you know, seldom do they— we all get to the finish line. And one of the pieces of legislation that keeps getting introduced into Congress, and it just never gets across the finish line, is the ABLE Age Adjustment Act. We all celebrated the ABLE Act, which we know it as the Achieving a Better Life Act. When it was signed into law in December of 2014. In fact, it was our Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey who introduced that legislation. And the ABLE Act amends a section of the IRS Code, and it allows certain persons with disabilities to save money tax-free to cover disability-related expenses. And the other great thing about this is that these resources are not taken into consideration when determining eligibility for supplemental Social Security and Medicaid. But here's what happened. Congress set an age limit on who could end up with an ABLE account. And so eligibility has, for the last 6 years, been limited to persons who had acquired their disability prior to the age of 26. It's been a priority of our entire disability community to change that and move that to age 46. So in other words, we want individuals who acquired their disabilities prior to the age of 46 to be eligible for ABLE accounts. This is really good public policy for many reasons. Certainly more people with disabilities can benefit from the ABLE Act. It expands the pool of individuals who can open ABLE accounts if we have this ABLE Age Adjustment Act. Now, there isn't much time left in Congress to finish the important work of passing the ABLE Age Adjustment Act. Congress just recently passed that legislation out of a Senate committee in June, but we still needed to get it across the finish line. So advocacy matters, and so does your help in pushing this important legislation forward. With only I think just really 2 months left in the congressional schedule. So, if you go to disabilityrightsPA.org, that's disabilityrightsPA.org, you can find information about where things stand with the ABLE Age Adjustment Act. And we have a link to the Arc, their action page on the ABLE Age Adjustment Act. It's really easy to contact your members of Congress. You just click on that link and send an email. It is that simple, and you can do it today. So please don't wait. Let's get behind and support the ABLE Age Adjustment Act.

Please go to disabilityrightsPA.org to the website Advocacy Matters and read that. But Perry, I know this is a big day for all of us. At Disability Rights Pennsylvania. Would you take a moment and just share with our listeners what is the organization, what do you do?

Sure, thank you, Joyce. Disability Rights Pennsylvania is one of 57 what we call protection and advocacy agencies around the country, so you'll find one of us in every state and territory, and we are authorized by Congress to protect against abuse and neglect of people with disabilities, expand employment through the elimination of discrimination, working on housing, access to healthcare, mental healthcare issues, education for students with disabilities. We do so many things, and it's legal, legal advice and legal representation to individuals with disabilities and their family members. So That's what we do. You can find out more about us at disabilityrightspa.org, and you can make a contribution.

That's how we change things. Thank you, Perry. I'll see you in a little bit.

Thanks, Joyce.

I'll tell you, Jonathan, I love it that we have news every week, you know, on what's going on nationally in the world of disability.

Yeah, that's great. I learned some new things.

Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. But anyway, what I was saying before our break is that we have, as I told you, 600 to 700 students participating in Disability Mentoring Day just here in Pittsburgh. My question is, Why do you think, after all these years, 32, since the ADA was signed, that the employment of high school students with disabilities is still so low? And do you think disparity in education plays a part of it? So it's two, two questions.

Sure. Look, I wish I had a really great, easy answer that led to a quick fix. The reality is that we've seen these high unemployment rates persist, you know, year after year, decade after decade. And it's certainly discouraging because we know, as you've shown, that we can make it work locally, that people with disabilities are able to be hugely successful. Maybe just as an analogy, though, that maybe helps put it a little bit in perspective, I'm on the board of a group called the MedStar Health Research Institute, which is here in D.C., a research arm of a 10-hospital system across D.C. and Baltimore. And one of the themes that we've been focusing on is equity in healthcare. And at our last meeting, we were talking a bit about mortality rates among women of color that is many times higher than white women. And basically, the numbers have been unchanged for 100 years. And that's despite the Civil Rights Act and all the progress we've made around civil rights issues. And we're trying to figure out exactly why that is. I don't think we kind of know yet. But there are in many respects, you know, around race, around disability, just deep, long-standing cultural attitudes and judgments and stigma. And I think that's an underlying challenge. And so I think disparity in education absolutely plays a role. I remember when I was interviewing Judy Heumann for a history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, And I interviewed both Judy and her mom because Judy had said, "Look, you've got to pay attention to parents." And part of what Judy and her mom emphasized, and I heard the same story from Fred Fay, was high expectations. And if you look back at a lot of the early leaders in the disability rights movement, many of them were young people who were extraordinary young people. And had extraordinary parents who didn't view their disabilities as lowering the expectations they should have. I think that's sort of, you know, you tell the story of Reshma earlier, you know, a person who people are throwing rocks at is a sign that they just thought that she didn't have much to contribute, didn't have high expectations, didn't think she was worthy of the same kind of goals and aspirations of other of other kids. And so, I think we see that in our education system. We kind of pass kids through, you know, pass through the grades, but don't really have expectations that they're going to be employed on the other side of that educational system. So, to me, you know, what do we need to make it work? And this is kind of why I like Disability Mentoring Day. We can focus on national legislation, you know, like the ABLE Act, and that's hugely important to addressing a lot of the kind of barriers that we face on a systemic level, at the end of the day, you need people on the ground in local communities at individual jobs and people like you and your entire network of people there in Pittsburgh that are working day in and day out to break down those— the stigma and those attitudes and open up those doors and make those connections and let people see what people with disabilities have to offer. That's why I said there's no like quick fix. It just means year after year, we need people to keep fighting the fight and doing the hard work day in and day out.

And I agree with what you said 100% about expectations because as you know, Bender Leadership Academy, I have been doing for 20 years on a volunteer basis, 3 places, 3 school districts in Pittsburgh and 1 in Delaware.. And I love these students. And it got to the place where I said, that's it, I've got to make this bigger. And that's when in 2018 I founded the Bender Leadership Academy. And through all those years, in every class, you know, Mrs. Bender, oh, Miss Bender, she's strict because it would be— you were supposed to be prepared for a speech. You weren't. Do you know what would happen if you had a job? You'd lose it. And this is how I am in the class. Do you know, in all those years, not one student ever, ever talked back to me? Do you know why? Wow, you mean I matter? You mean, you mean you think I can do these things? Like, wow, I'm like everyone else. I mean, it is lowering the bar. That hurts so much. And the parent part is so important. What you said, like what Judy told you, is so true. That part is so important. But Jonathan, having an internship, as you know, prepares you for employment. What benefits do you see for young people and companies, and why do you think they should be involved in Disability Mentoring Day? If in fact they are listening to this show right now, what, what, what would you tell them?

There was a study decades ago now, and I'm sure there's updated research, and I should try to figure out what it was so I could cite it, but I'm reminded of this study that talked about the unique ways that people with disabilities approach the world because of the what they face day to day in their own lives and how that can create innovative, creative thinking in the workplace. And so, you know, it's what— who we are kind of is our normal, so it's kind of hard to appreciate it. But when I think about my life, you know, my spinal cord injury is sort of more paralysis on the left side than the right. I'm able to walk, you know, not as I used to before I broke my neck in a wrestling match.. But because my left hand doesn't work the way it used to, and, you know, I have to deal with, you know, my, you know, foot and my hip and spasticity and different things, I have to, like, figure out how to navigate the world because the world isn't sort of built for me. And I think those thought processes of trying to figure out creative ways to do things probably plays— has a lot to do with the way I've approached the jobs that I've done because I've had to think a bit outside the box and think creatively. So, What are the benefits for companies? It's fundamentally that there are really phenomenal creative people that in their own lives day to day and potentially in the workplace can think about new and innovative ways to do things that, you know, advance those companies' agendas. And for people with disabilities, you know, you talked about, you know, kids in the classroom with you and kind of like responding to you, you know, being surprised that they are treated with such respect and value and held to high expectations. I think, and I tell this to my kids all the time, confidence is probably the single biggest attribute that any of us can ever develop. And I struggled a lot as a young person in a variety of ways and certainly struggled after my spinal cord injury. I had an opportunity to work for Congressman Tony Coelho as an intern. For the first summer after my freshman year in college. It happened because we got an award together at the National Rehab Hospital, and he came up to me and said, "Jonathan, I'm really impressed with your story. Write me a letter. I'd love to have you come work for me." And I kind of thought he was joking, like just something a politician says to be nice, but I thought, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I wrote him a letter. I didn't really expect a response, and sure enough, he wrote back, and the following summer, pulled me into the Majority Whip office, the third-ranking position in the House of Representatives, and just let me be a fly on the wall in our nation's, you know, capital, in the heart of Congress. And just kind of, as you said, he made me feel valuable. He made me feel like I had potential and opportunity, and I kind of swung from engineering as a major to political science because of the example that he sort of showed for me. So I think just, you know, again, these opportunities, it may seem small, but so many big things can grow from it. So that's really the big benefit is what you don't know might happen, but you're not going to know until you give it a try.

And, you know, I love that story, and that is so Tony. That is so him. If he tells you to do something and you follow up, he is going to pull that trigger. But just think if you had not done that, Jonathan. There's all these connect the dots, isn't it amazing? It is so amazing because he's responsible for everything you're doing and you have done. And I think that is phenomenal. Jonathan, what do you try to do? To keep involved in disability advocacy?

I will confess, Joyce, I've been so consumed by company effort these last few years. It's been extraordinarily exhilarating, absolutely overwhelming, and depressing at times. It's sort of a brutal environment. And I've not been as engaged as much as I'd like to. But I'll be honest, I'm I'm really just energized by being on your show and hearing about the work that you're doing. And so I'll just make a commitment right here and right now. I would like to be much more involved in Disability Mentoring Day. I think I kind of stepped aside in a way to enable other people to lead it, but I would like to do more. And if there's anything I can do to support you around your particular efforts in Pittsburgh, you know, sign me up. And I'll do more to figure out what I can do at my company and to continue to be involved going forward. But it really is great to be with you, and I would like to do more than I've been doing and help in any way that I can.

Well, Jonathan, you— that's you, Mr. Modish. You've already done and do so much. I appreciate that, and we would be thrilled to have you more involved because you are the founder, so you deserve the recognition. One more example, we have a young man with a mental health disability, and at the beginning of the classes under leadership, again, he wasn't that together and he wasn't that attentive, and so, you know, My teacher, Scott Hammerstrom, runs this whole program, and they would say, "Okay, Ms. Bender, you know how it is here. Pay attention. Let's go." And every year he got better and better. He too is participating tomorrow in Disability Mentoring Day. He spoke last night, but he said how much all of this builds his confidence. What you just said, and he had a suit on. I mean, just totally different than how he was before.

He—

and he said, now I'm going to play Miss Bender's favorite, Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. And we, we had the piano there ready for him. Oh my goodness, he's like— you're incarnate— the— oh, I mean, everyone was speechless. They were I mean, he's phenomenal. There you go. Confidence, Disability Mentoring Day, just what you said, and look what it's done with him. It is just— I just wish you had been there because you have no idea the impact that you have had. What we need to do here, I have a job for you, Jonathan. What do we need to do to get the media involved next year? So that Disability Mentoring Day becomes more well-known nationally. That's what we need to do. We need, you know, like the Today Show or MSNBC or someone talk about Disability Mentoring Day so that this opportunity that you started, you can go on TV and talk about it to everyone. We need media coverage for next year. That's your job.

Well, I'll take that as a challenge. And actually, I remember back, you know, 20-something years ago, Andy Imperato and I were talking about that, and that was kind of the dream, you know, how do we make this, you know, something that's recognized on, you know, the Today Show or the equivalent. So I don't know how to do that just now, but let's, uh, let's talk after this. Uh, you know, that's certainly something that's not going to be, uh, an easy thing to do, and it's not going to happen right away. But I think if we make that a long-term goal and work toward it and lay the groundwork, uh, I think we can get that done. So let's make it happen together.

Yeah, we'll get Maria involved, and yes, Tony Coelho, and I'll bet we'll be able— I mean, I want I want young people and businesses across America to be doing this. That's what I want. I want that everywhere. Well, Jonathan, it is apparent that you have incredible initiative. You always had. I mean, you're brilliant, but you've always— just that example you gave about Tony, this is, this is you. I mean, look what you've accomplished. Oh my goodness. So much already in your young life. But my question is, who is your role model or models? Like, what has impacted you the most?

Sure, I'll get to that in one moment, but let me just make one comment when you make reference to the things that I've accomplished, and certainly I'm very proud of that. But I also want to mention that after my spinal cord injury, some years after, I went through a really difficult period of depression. And I remember an occasion where I was telling my father I was getting ready to drop out of my PhD program, and I told him I just didn't think I was ever going to be able to hold down a 9-to-5 job. I just wasn't going to be able to be employed. And I remember sometime later, he kind of joked about that, and it really infuriated me because I don't think he appreciated just how acutely I felt it. Because I had lost all my confidence. I was just in a dark place. And so, you know, I would just like to emphasize to, you know, young people and parents and anybody listening that, you know, a lot of people that you see that, you know, seem to have accomplished a lot have been through some really dark, dark places and dark periods and difficult struggles. And that is, that is part of ultimately what makes success possible. But I do want to emphasize that, that it is emerged from some really difficult times, and I'm so grateful to people like Tony that made opportunities available. Briefly, among many mentors and role models, I'd just like to call out Justin Dart. You mentioned him earlier, and part of what I love so much about Justin was his ability to embrace all people and recognize the roles that all people have to play. We see it in our own disability community. There can be a lot of judgments about what type of advocate you need to be or who the true disability advocates are. And Justin had this extraordinary ability to embrace everybody, to love everyone, not without holding people to high standards. I mean, he could have a pretty sharp tongue, but he did it out of a place of love and valuing what each and every person had to contribute. And that to me is something that's a little bit lost today. We don't have enough people like that, and I will forever cherish Justin's and Yoshiko's leadership, really, for pulling the community together and finding common cause and camaraderie. We just need a lot more of that.

You know what, he is the— I was talking to someone about this. He is— there are too many silos, you know, the disability community with groups, nonprofits, all of this. He is the person that was able to bring everyone together. There hasn't been anyone else like that. He could bring everyone together. And Yoshiko, we have you. So I agree with you, Jonathan. Thank you so much, Jonathan, for being with us.

Thank you, Joyce Bender. Pleasure. And I do look forward to working with you more in the days ahead.

You can count on it. I'm not going to let you go, that's for sure. Well, we end every show with a quote, and you're going to love this quote, Jonathan. Disabled children are equally entitled to an exciting and brilliant future, said Nelson Mandela. This is Joyce Bender America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. Talk to you next week, and in the words of Mary Brooker, remember, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters, right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.