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2025 National APSE Board of Directors Pacific Northwest Candidate

CLICK to meet all nominees before the election ends on March 10.

Please describe your history/nature of involvement/interest in promoting competitive integrated employment in your state. Additionally, explain why you are passionate about competitive, integrated employment for people with disabilities:

I have been working at Wise, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding and sustaining employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, for about 18 years. Throughout my career here, I have acted in a variety of roles. These include job coaching, facilitating Person Centered Career Plans, planning large and small trainings and resource events for families, educators, service providers, and others who are interested in improving businesses and the lives of everyone by creating a workforce that values the contributions of every individual.

Coordinating events and trainings is still a part of my daily role, along with training and facilitation, managing government contracts and consulting with schools and local employment service providers to support their efforts in connecting people to support and resources. I leverage my creativity and curiosity in my work by thinking of what has not been considered or a new way to accomplish a goal. Everything I do in my role is related in some way to finding and sharing information and resources to get people with disabilities into valued roles in the workforce. My current projects are often connected to supporting the transition from school to work through facilitation of community meetings and helping guide students and families through system navigation in partnership with schools, government partners and service providers. One of my greatest strengths is my ability to listen to complex discussions and simplify the issues into something that can be addressed with action and workable next steps. I love to connect and build relationships in collaboration with others. Being part of APSE for the past 15 years has had an ongoing positive impact on my connections to the supported employment industry nationwide and I am proud to be able to say I am friends with APSE members from across the country. Being connected to a national community of tireless advocates who believe in Competitive Integrated Employment has been integral to my career growth and development.

In addition to my experience in training, event planning and contract management, I have extensive experience in meeting facilitation and strategic planning, having supported Wise and National APSE, and Washington APSE and many other entities in these areas. I was a founding member of our local APSE Chapter in Washington State (est. in 2011) and have served as Vice President and President on the Chapter Board as well as in the role of Regional Delegate for the PNW / Western Region.

What best represents your position/lived experience?

Person with a Disability; Family Member of a Person with a Disability; Service Provider or Manager; Trainer and Consultant

What skills, knowledge, or lived experience do you have that will contribute to strengthening and growing the financial health of APSE and promoting its mission to advance employment and self-sufficiency for all people with disabilities?

In my current role I am a member of the leadership team of Wise, a nonprofit organization providing training and technical assistance to promote equitable employment for people with disabilities. As a member of this team, I support the development and management of our overall organizational budget along with being personally responsible for managing multiple government contracts requiring complex tracking of staffing, invoicing, and maintaining compliance. Many of the contracts I support have several project budgets and deliverables to manage within the contract I have developed and implemented conference and event budgets with positive results many times throughout my career at Wise. I have also supported the management of the Washington State APSE Chapter budget and accounting while serving on the State Chapter Board for 8 years. In my current role on the National Board of APSE, I serve on the Finance Committee and I am excited to continue this work if selected for a 2nd term.

What relevance does/should APSE and its chapters/members have in national and state conversations regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion?

APSE has grown to be a recognized name in the national policy community and has the opportunity to gain even more recognition in the coming years as equity and diversity initiatives are being scrutinized and re-evaluated on a daily basis by government entities and corporations. I see APSE Chapters as the avenue to organize local communities and take action that makes a difference in improving employment opportunities for job seekers with disabilities because every state has a different culture, administration, and goals to achieve. National APSE is the hub to all of the Chapters who are focused on engaging with their members and provides valuable support, resources, and leadership that will ensure that Chapters are promoting the values of Employment First policies and practices while meeting the needs of the members in their home states. Supporting APSE Chapters to address the specific and unique needs in their communities that will promote Competitive, Integrated Employment opportunities for people with disabilities is what the Regional Delegates Council is designed to do, and our council is dedicated to supporting and nurturing the relationships between State Chapters and the National APSE Board. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is woven into this effort and I believe it should and will continue to be at the core of the mission of APSE.

Discuss how you will represent the needs of the chapters in your region and work to strengthen APSE’s chapter structure.

As the only member of the National Board currently representing the Western Region, I am passionate about bringing the perspectives of the chapters in my region to the Regional Delegates Council and the National Board at Large. Serving on the Delegates Council is a role perfectly suited for my natural strengths and experiences. During the last 15 years of being enthusiastically involved in the APSE community I helped build the first Washington State APSE Chapter as a founding board member and co-created the first Pacific Northwest Employment Forum in a partnership with Oregon APSE and Washington APSE that has continued to grow and improve for over 10 years. The PNWEF has since become an excellent conference for providers of employment services to share their latest achievements and learn from each other about best practices in employment. For the last 3 years during my National Board term, I have enjoyed getting to know chapter members and leaders from my home state of Washington as well as Oregon, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Alaska. We have a regular group of chapter leaders who meet in a casual and generative discussion once a month on Zoom, sharing ideas about what each chapters is doing to engage their members, and how they partner with local community members and state governments. As their Delegate, I find ways to strategize or support their efforts through connections and referrals to support from National APSE and by bringing information from the Regional Delegates Council to my region. I have observed firsthand that each state has different strengths and challenges to address in their Employment First journey and I thoroughly enjoy learning about the unique needs of each chapter.

Biography

Jaimie Laitinen has spent the past 18 years working for Wise providing technical assistance and training to promote employment for all people with disabilities. During her time at Wise, she has enjoyed a wide range of roles and experiences in working toward getting people with disabilities into the workforce. In her current role at Wise, she specializes in contract and project management, working with employment service providers, schools and other agency partners in supporting individuals and their families in their journey to find the right job. She is also a trainer in the Wise Online Academy ACRE Series and has presented at national and local conferences on School to Work and Transition, Person Centered Planning, Organizational Culture and Development, as well as strategies on recruitment, training and retention of staff in this industry. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for National APSE as the Western Regional Delegate. Her passion for this field is nurtured by being part of a determined community which shares the belief that each person has value to contribute and that everyone can work.