Course Value: 0.2 ASHA CEUS (2 MD Hours) - Introductory Level
Speakers:
- Susan Adams, Director of State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, ASHA
- Lorenzo Bellamy, MSHA Lobbyist
- Gil Genn, MSHA Lobbyist
- Mary Casper, MA, CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow, FNAP, MSHA President
- C’Rai Weeden Shannon, MA, CCC-SLP, MSHA Past President
Course Description: By developing awareness of legislative issues and priorities in Maryland and nationally, students and professionals can make a difference in the lives of the people they serve and have a direct impact on their profession. This 2023 event discusses the Maryland Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (MSHA) current legislative priorities including a salary supplement for school-based professionals. Speakers will give you the tools to execute legislative advocacy successfully. MSHA seeks to empower students and professionals to speak up for themselves.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course, a participant should be able to:
- Explain the importance of professional advocacy in Maryland for SLPs and Audiologists.
- Examine ASHA’s public policy agenda including salary supplements for school-based professionals.
- Discuss issues involving the “Blueprint” legislation, related to salary and retention of SLPs and audiologists as well as providing quality services in Maryland schools.
- List 3 steps involved in meeting with elected officials to advocate for SLPs and audiologists practicing in Maryland.
About the Speakers:
Susan Adams, Director of State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, ASHA
- Susan Adams, Esq, is responsible for advancing the public policy objectives of ASHA by representing the Association in all phases of state legislative and regulatory advocacy on state licensing and certification. She is the point person for the Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact.
Disclosures
Financial: Ms. Adams receives a salary for employment with ASHA.
Non-financial: Ms. Adams is the ASHA Liaison to MSHA.
Lorenzo Bellamy, MSHA Lobbyist
- Lorenzo Bellamy has over 25 years of government relations experience, starting as a Legislative Advisor in the Washington, DC offices of two prominent international law firms. Before founding Bellamy Genn, Lorenzo was Director and Legislative Counsel at a well-known legislative practice of a Maryland law firm. While there, Lorenzo successfully secured several millions of dollars in bond financing for clients doing business in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. Throughout Lorenzo’s career, he has advocated for the passage of legislation benefiting clients in the energy, environment, health, housing, non-profit, manufacturing and transportation industries.
- In addition to a successful legislative practice, Lorenzo represented and assisted many clients in procurement matters before state and local agencies amounting to date in over $600 million in procurement awards. Lorenzo positioned clients for the best possible opportunity to win current or future Request for Proposals by using a combined government relations and legal approach to defend or attack the validity of awards made by state and local agencies. Because Maryland and several of its larger jurisdictions have a robust Minority Business Enterprise program, Lorenzo assisted large and small business clients with Minority Business Enterprise compliance on procurement matters at the state and local level.
- Prior to his work in Annapolis, Lorenzo founded the Bellamy Law Firm in Washington, D.C. where he focused on international trade development and transactions. Bellamy advocated on behalf of Fortune 500 companies before the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government. He served as a legislative advisor in two major law firms and has extensive background in federal, state, and municipal legislative advocacy, including lobbying on behalf of Baltimore City before Congress.
Disclosures
Financial: Mr. Bellamy’s firm, Bellamy Genn, is the paid Lobbyist for MSHA.
Non-Financial: None
Gil Genn, MSHA Lobbyist
- Gil Genn has successfully testified before Congress on matters including consumer affairs and health care issues.
- Gil Genn’s wide-ranging experience includes extensive trial and appellate advocacy. He was successful criminal defense trial counsel in one of the most sensational double murder cases in the Washington suburbs in the 1990’s resulting in a full jury acquittal of an Armenian shop owner. Gil Genn also represented an African-American federal government employee who was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned and charged with robbery and attempted murder. The result was the largest jury verdict in the U.S. District Court of Maryland on a single count of violating an innocent person’s constitutional rights.
- He also obtained a unanimous reversal from Maryland’s highest court declaring Maryland’s statutory law, which permitted the judge and state to deny a defendant a jury trial right in the first instance, as unconstitutional and in violation of everyone’s fundamental right to a jury trial. Gil Genn has been successfully involved in administrative and regulatory actions at the EPA and represented the General Contractor in receiving a substantial judgment against the GSA.
- Gil Genn received the rare honor of being sworn into the U.S Supreme Court Bar personally by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Justice’s chambers.
Disclosures
Financial: Mr. Genn’s firm, Bellamy Genn, is the paid Lobbyist for MSHA.
Non-financial: None
Mary Casper, MSHA President
- Mary Lee Casper, MA, CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow, FNAP is employed as a Corporate Rehabilitation Director with ProMedica Senior Care. In her 34 years in the profession, Ms. Casper has been employed in a variety of health care settings, focusing clinically on swallowing disorders in the geriatric population and communication intervention for individuals with dementia. She is a Contributing Faculty member at University of Saint Augustine for the Health Sciences. She is a published author and an invited speaker on clinical, regulatory, ethical and reimbursement topics in local, state, national and international venues.
Disclosures
Financial: None
Non-Financial: Ms. Casper serves as the President of MSHA and is the StAMP Network Liaison for Maryland.
C’Rai Weeden Shannon, MSHA Past President
- C'Rai Weeden Shannon, M.A., CCC-SLP, is a clinical assistant professor of Speech-Language Pathology at Towson University. She received her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio. C’Rai’s clinical areas of interest include augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), multicultural issues in speech-language pathology, literacy, as well as language development and disorders. C’Rai has been a member of the MSHA Executive Board since 2016, and is currently serving as the Past President of MSHA. C’Rai’s goal is to empower and support Maryland communication sciences and disorders professionals and those we serve through advocacy and community engagement. She will continue to promote diversity, inclusion, equity and cultural humility through MSHA and our profession.
Disclosures
Financial: None
Non-Financial: Ms. Shannon serves as the Past President of MSHA.
