NCIL would like to welcome Ericka Reil to the ADRC Subcommittee. Ericka comes to us from the Vermont Center for Independent Living in Montpelier, Vermont. Ericka has worked for the VCIL for eleven years in many different capacities, most recently and currently, she is a Peer Advocate Counselor Coordinator. She is also Chair of the Barre City ADA Committee, Chair of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Program (PAIMI) Council, and sits on the Board of Disability Rights Vermont. She has also been involved in ADAPT and National People’s Action (NPA).
What interests Ericka in disability issues is that not only was she born with Marfan’s Syndrome, she also acquired a mental health diagnosis. She also has a son who is on the Autism spectrum. She would like to help build a world where her son doesn’t have to feel that he has to hide his disability the way that she did before she found out about the ADA and Independent Living. “I don’t want anyone to be ashamed of who they are. I am disabled and I am proud. 15 years ago I probably would have never have uttered those words, but now I don’t care who hears them,” she says.
