James A. Stone, MSA, FAAMR has extensive experience in business, human services administration, and applied research and training specific to the needs of aging and older individuals with disabilities. He was the consultant to the Texas Department on Aging for their five year project to develop access to community supports for aging and older citizens with developmental disabilities with the Area Agencies on Aging as the lead agency in developing work groups and collaborative efforts to share resources for the first 30 months of the project. He has consulted with agencies in Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, and Mississippi over the past decade. He had nine years experience with the KY Division on Mental Retardation as administering agency liaison to the KY DD Planning Council. Developed model of outreach and person-centered-planning for aging and older people with developmental disabilities in rural regions of KY. Eighty people were served in the first year in a five county area using generic services and supports.
For six years, he worked as a Principal Investigator and Project Director with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging and Developmental Disabilities at the University of Kentucky's UAP conducting applied research in community supports and small scale living options including individual home ownership and accessing the community supports on an individual choice basis. He has conducted national surveys on where aging and older people with mental retardation were living and what services they were receiving. Conducting statewide need assessments of aging and older Kentuckians with DD for the KY DD Planning Council in 1993-94, he collected information on 4,300 people known to the formal service systems, and discovered with secondary data analysis of agency records approximately 30,000 people above the age of 50 with developmental disabilities who are at risk of needing supports.
As a subcontractor with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, Consortium on Aging with Mental Retardation (RRTC-CAMR) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Stone applied research expertise in community living options and support services for the aging and elderly population with developmental disabilities. He has been involved in developing and receiving research and demonstration grants in excess of eight million dollars in the past decade.
As a consultant, he has developed and implemented successful demonstration projects in rural and urban areas and in community and facility settings. He has developed programs and policies to adapt the living and working environments in congregate environments to reflect age appropriate options and choices for residents aging in place. He has been successful in assisting older individuals with developmental disabilities to become homeowners. He has worked with individuals, family members, and agencies in face to face settings to solve problems and seek workable solutions.
He created and manages the Lexington Conferences on Aging and Developmental Disabilities providing a national forum for hands-on staff, administrators, family members and aging and older people with DD to come together and share information and issues & concerns. This is the longest running conference on aging and developmental disabilities in the country with nine years of sharing and networking. Other seminars, workshops, and conferences include: Region Five 1999 American Association on Mental Retardation Conference; 1997 Partners in Policymaking State Coordinators Workshop; 1998 National Partners in Policymaking Conference; Region Seven and Kentucky Chapter Conferences of the American Association on Mental Retardation 1986-1998.
He holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky teaching courses on (1) non-traditional grant seeking and (2) aging and developmental disabilities.
In his "spare time", he teaches senior citizens how to surf the Internet and use e-mail to correspond with family and friends.
He develops and maintains Internet websites for for-profit and non-profit agencies.