CEO Awards & Self-Advocate Leadership Circle

Each year, NACDD presents two awards both entitled “Champions of Equal Opportunity,” or CEO. The first is given to a national policymaker with outstanding leadership and commitment to policy that supports equal rights for people with disabilities.  The second is presented to a self-advocate who has been nominated by his or her DD Council as someone who shares and promotes NACDD’s values of self-determination, independence, productivity and inclusion.

In the past couple of years we have sadly lost two of our advocate awardees.  Ms. Betty Williams received the Champion of Equal Opportunity Award in 2016, and passed in 2018.  Because we want to continue to honor the extraordinary work that Betty had done in her career and her life, we are renaming the Champion of Equal Opportunity award to the Betty Williams, Champion of Equal Opportunity Award. 

Ms. April Dunn was our 2019 recipient of the Start Your Journey Award.  We sadly lost April in the Spring of 2020 to the COVID-19 pandemic.  After conversations with her family, we have chosen to honor her memory and her work by renaming the award “The April Dunn, Start Your Journey Award.”  We are confident that any recipients of either award will carry on the memory of both extraordinary women and advocates. 

Our CEO Award recipients are listed below:

At the 2014 Annual Conference, the Leadership Circle for Self-Advocates was established. The purpose of the Circle was to create an entry point for the many highly talented self-advocates identified by DD Councils to become more involved in the work of NACDD. As a national organization, we want to be sure that the voice of those who live with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is included in every aspect of our work. All too often, we have found ourselves creating committees and work groups saying, “Do we have self-advocates or individuals with DD on that group?” and often the same 3 individuals would volunteer. By establishing the Circle, we have a ready group of highly qualified and available voices to join every committee and group within NACDD to ensure a strong advocate voice. In the two years since its’ creation, the members of this Circle have helped write “The Art of Impact,” served on multiple committees and helped to write grant opportunities. The Leadership Circle is not a standalone committee with its own agenda, but a portal to serving in all meaningful roles in NACDD’s work. The names below are the current members of the Leadership Circle: