Lynda Kahn

Lynda is a long time advocate for people with disabilities. She has applied her knowledge and skills to shaping a system that can truly support individuals and families to have a meaningful life within communities across Rhode Island as the state’s Executive Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) from 1996- 2005. She also served on the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS) Board of Directors from 2000, and as the organization’s President and Past President from 2001-2005.

Lynda is an educator and facilitator helping people to discover solutions to the challenge of creating communities where all people are included. She is a co-leader at Inclusion Press , a small Canadian publisher based In Toronto, of resources to support the work of inclusion of children and adults in everyday life.

Lynda has served on The Neighbours Board since August 2001, and has been an officer of the Board for the past several years, assuming the role as President in 2007 and also serves on the Board of the Marsha Forest Centre: Inclusion.Family.Community.

Since 2006, Lynda has been a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, affiliated with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) initiative on Emergency Preparedness and Planning with folks with developmental disabilities.