Pat grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she taught English and history before moving to Washington, D.C. working on Capitol Hill doing press work. She is currently living in Denver, Colorado, near her daughter Kim, and her three granddaughters. Pat has spent most of her professional career in communications, radio ownership and nonprofit work. She served as CEO for Special Olympics Colorado as well as the Kempe Foundation for Abused and Neglected Children. However, she admits to learning most about kids who are “different” from her daughter Sammy’s experiences of feeling marginalized. Sammy was in a wheelchair with Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy from the age of 10 until her untimely death at age 22. Pat is therefore motivated to change the culture by promoting kindness, compassion and acceptance of kids who are “different.” SHOUT is Pat’s first book and, in March 2016, according to the Denver Post, SHOUT was the number one best-selling title in paperback non fiction books, in the Denver region. SHOUT earned the Parent’s Choice award in 2016 out of 4,000 books nationally. Pat wanted to honor Sammy by “Normalizing Difference” in the schools. Therefore, in September of 2017, she launched Sammy’s Buddy Program in two schools and learned a great deal about how difficult it was to break into the schools with a buddy program pairing disabled students with general education students. Seven years later, Sammy’s Buddy Program is thriving in Colorado and Utah in 59 schools and has impacted 37,000 students.

A Denver native and Manual High School graduate, Kim’s career and community experience has centered around creating strong collaborations, generating entrepreneurial ideas; with a focus on successful outcomes and continuous learning. For many years, Kim’s work in the governmental and nonprofit space centered on strengthening systems change in education. Kim currently works at the Center for Work Education and Employment (CWEE), an anti-poverty organization that supports working adults with “up-skilling” and career readiness. Previously, Kim worked as a Regional Specialist in Denver Public Schools’ College and Career Success Department, working to support high school students with planning for the future.
Kim holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from University of Colorado at Denver and sits on the board of the Donnell-Kay Foundation and the Sammy Buddy Program. Through her experience, she seeks to elevate individual and community assets, while working to make a positive community impact. In her free time Kim loves running, skiing, traveling, and watching rom-coms with her three daughters.

Ann Kiley is president of the Law Office of Ann C. Kiley, P.C. Her firm specializes in representing the elderly, the disabled, and the people who care about them. Ann’s cases have ranged from bringing claims under the National Childhood Vaccine Program Act on behalf of an injured child to investigating claims of financial exploitation of the elderly on behalf of the Denver Probate Court. Her pro bono experience includes writing a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief on behalf of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and handling cases for Metro Denver Volunteer Lawyers and the Legal Center for People With Disabilities. A 1996 graduate of the University of Denver College of Law, Ann has a BA from Connecticut College and an MA from the University of Colorado. A non-traditional law student, she began law school after a 20-year career in the health care industry. Ann recently completed several years of service on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Health Facilities Authority (COHFA). COHFA is a state authority responsible for issuing over $5 billion tax-exempt bonds on behalf of non-profit healthcare facilities in Colorado and nationwide. Other prior community activities include serving on the Board of Trustees for Big Brothers of Metro Denver, Inc., the Denver Zoological Foundation, and Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins is a passionate advocate for the support and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and an activist for disability rights. She joined the disability rights movement at age six and at age eight she participated in the famous” Capitol Crawl” protest to support the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1990, she received the Americans with Disabilities Act Award from The Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities. Jennifer received her GED in 2002 and an Associate of Arts Degree in 2008 both from Arapahoe Community College before earning a B.S. in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University in 2017.
Today Jennifer is an educator and a motivational speaker and together with her new illustrated biography “All the Way to the Top, how one girl’s fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything, Jennifer teaches audiences the importance of the ADA, the Capitol Crawl, and the disability rights movement and its place in American history, with an emphasis on education, advocacy, and empowerment. The book has been recognized as a 2021 Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book for the young children’s category (0 to 8), from the American Library Association, along with being A 2020 A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year and a 2021 EUREKA Honor Book Award winner, to name a few. She is the proud owner of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins LLC, established in May 2020 and lives in Arvada, Colorado.

In spite of battling muscular dystrophy, Sammy Loewi made the absolute most of every moment until she died unexpectedly of pulmonary edema at age 22. She never let her physical challenges define her. Although she needed help getting dressed, with toileting, hair brushing and bathing, there was so much she could do and she focused her energies there. She played the piano for 11 years, as well as the soprano saxophone and guitar. She swam three times a week from the time she was two, eventually entering the National Disability Swimming Competition, where she set national records in the backstroke and the front crawl – even though her arms and legs were bent due to permanent muscle shortening. Sammy’s quiet strength and unyielding positive attitude were an inspiration to others. She fought for better wheelchair transport with the airlines, more accessible hotel accommodations and public transportation, and fair and equal treatment in the workplace for people with disabilities. It was Sammy’s idea as a 10 year old to start the Buddy Program, she worked for a summer in the Daniels Executive MBA program office, and was a graduate of Graland Country Day and East High School in Denver Colorado. She served three years as the Colorado Muscular Dystrophy Ambassador and the kindness and empathy she exhibited to everyone she met serves as a reminder of how we can all give to others more of ourselves. Sammy was the essence of “handicapable while being differently-abled.”