Joshua Skolnick
Board Member
Joshua Skolnick has spent the better part of the last 20 years, as an advocate and life planner, for people with developmental disabilities, creating new kinds of individualized programs in order to help them to live the life that they want to have rather than what other people prescribe for them. He received a Masters Degree in Special Education from NYU in 1993. His work doing life planning has been published in several major peer reviewed journals as well as in books on Person-Centered Life Planning.
Mr. Skolnick is the current Director of Individualized Services and Program Development at Goodwill Industries. In that role, he has developed several new programs, including a demonstration project in New Jersey promoting the use of Customized Employment for people who can't seem to move off the Vocational Rehabilitation Services rosters. Mr. Skolnick provides technical assistance to program staff. Mr. Skolnick is a fierce advocate for disenfranchised people, especially those with disabilities, and sees their ability to carve out employment for themselves as a key to their full inclusion.
Lastly, Mr. Skolnick is a member of the Board of Directors of the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, a national Jewish organization dedicated to secular Jewish Culture and Identity and Progressive Social Justice.