We’ve got this—because of you. Thank you, Devva. Love, Betsy ________________________________ From: Devva Kasnitz via SDS-Discuss <sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org> Sent: Sunday, June 6, 2021 7:37 PM To: sds-discuss <sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org> Subject: [SDS Members]Devva is Moving into a New Chapter Dear Community, It is with mixed emotions that I embrace what retirement might mean. Well, partially. Over five years ago I was drafted into the job of the Executive Director of my beloved Society for Disability Studies. This was a time of crisis for SDS. We faced legal and financial cleavages. I dove in with the same lack of hesitation as I did in 1984 when Irv Zola invited me to join the Board of what became SDS. It has been the ride of a lifetime. As SDS worked to create disability studies, and then to defend critical disability studies, I had a treasured experience of personal growth into my seventh decade. SDS is strong now. SDS is solvent now. SDS has more members than ever and they are young and eager. As you ponder all the decisions that underlay world discussions of a new and more democratized social structure and human responsibilities to the natural world, I will lend my voice and experience. I also look forward to cheering on SDS to make increasingly better choices based on the fullest possible engagement of our members and to extend the base of that membership in needed and perhaps some unexpected ways. SDS’s emergence from this pandemic stronger than we entered it is a gift of opportunity. While many people assumed that a pandemic experience of vulnerability trumps exercising creative disability power, we eschewed that notion. At the same time SDS also took a deep and unfinished dive to examine our complicity in structural racism and some true cultural ignorance. This dynamic push-pull of our recognition of our successes and shortcomings and of our speaking and listening can be a source of strength. I look forward to working with the leadership over the next months to implement a transition plan. I’m stepping away from the job but I’m not going anywhere except between my spinning wheels and my computer. I’m making a huge blanket of many colors of natural wool and writing a book on speech impairment. I will be an active volunteer member of SDS ready to reflect on our history and to support new initiatives however I can best contribute. You got this. Congratulations! In Solidarity, Devva Devva Kasnitz, PhD Devvaco Consulting,1614 D St. Eureka, CA 95501-2345 -- devva@earthlink.net Adj Professor, City University of New York—School of Professional Studies—Disability Studies Executive Director, Society for Disability Studies, PO BOX 5570, Eureka CA 95502 -- She/Her/Hers