Blog

2025 National APSE Board of Directors At-Large 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 believe unwaveringly that employment is for everyone. People should be able to pursue their employment goals unhindered by any unjust prescription of what life should look like. Society has a tremendous and belated work to do in our hearts and minds to welcome people with disabilities into all spaces, including the workforce. Now more than ever.

I am tenaciously committed to advancing access to competitive, inclusive employment for career seekers with disabilities. I am passionate about CIE because it’s intrinsic to who I am. As my own employment journey and pursuit of purpose and belonging has unfolded, I discovered, through the help of others, that my calling is to interrupt narratives of injustice and support people to follow their dreams. Everything that has happened in my life has led me to this field, including being recruited into this work almost 7 years ago. This field found me after I moved to Colorado in 2018, when a family friend, a then Employment Specialist, thought I would be a good fit in the same role. And I never looked back.

Here are some of the ways I have been involved in elevating Employment First here in Colorado as well as nationally:

– I started as an Employment Specialist, directly supporting people on their employment journeys.

– I was a manager of a Supported Employment Team where my Director and I collaborated on transforming the service delivery culture to align with Employment First Principles and competitive, integrated employment.

– While a manager, I developed a Supported Employment Handbook to support new and tenured Employment Support Professionals alike.

– I have been accepted or invited to present on topics including Provider Transformation, Onboarding for Employment Support Professionals, Employment First, Inclusive Interviewing, Neurodiversity, Effective Calendar Planning, and Delivering High Quality Employment Services.

– I drafted and submitted a public comment on the Employment of Workers with Disabilities under 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

– I was selected to participate in the National APSE Emerging Leaders in Employment Services Professional Development Program. I also continued to support the program by presenting to cohorts after I graduated.

– I co-lead the coordination of the 2024 Colorado Employment First Summit, a collaboration between COEF and Colorado APSE that enjoyed multi-state attendance.

– As part of my role as Colorado APSE co-president, I helped lead efforts to develop an Excellence in Employment First Recognition program and Request for Financial Support opportunity for Coloradans to fund projects aligned with Employment First.

– As a Curriculum Developer and Trainer at COEF, I provide Supported Employment Training to professionals in the field and have also been a co-trainer on curricula for Direct Support Professionals, Youth and Families, Digital Literacy, and Inclusive Employers.

– I have served on the Advisory Team for two cycles of the National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) here in Colorado.

What best represents your position/lived experience?

Person with a Disability; University Staff; Training/Technical Assistance/Advocacy Organization

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?

I will offer diverse expertise and experiences to the National APSE Board:

• Communications: I am a prolific writer, and I have an extensive background in communications and dissemination. This includes social media content development, email marketing, resource design (flyers, infographics, etc), video production, branding, public comments/engagement, etc. I use innovative platforms like MailChimp, Canva, Vyond, Flipsnack, MX Speech, Descript, and Davinci.
• Resourcefulness: I excel in identifying and using the assets available to solve a problem, create a product, or generate solutions. I will make the magic happen.
• Fundraising: I have experience with fundraising and developing sponsorships packages.
• Professionalization of the Field: As a Curriculum Developer and Trainer, one of my biggest passions is the professionalization of our field and professional development. I have a bold vision for the trajectory of professional development in the Supported Employment Field. I have experience in designing and developing training, curricula, and professional development programming.
• Organization: I am an incredibly organized person who can process tangible and intangible content and efficiently integrate them into outlines and systems. I can see patterns, categorize, and opportunities emerge as information is presented to me.
• Neurodiversity: This is perhaps the proudest experience I can offer the National Board and APSE community. All of the skills, knowledge, and experience I have shared are an outpouring of my unique AuDHD brain.

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

National APSE, State Chapters, and Members belong in all spaces where equity, diversity, and inclusion are infused in conversations. If disability and employment are left out of equity, diversity, and inclusion conversations, then we are doing it wrong. If we aren’t invested in these conversations, then what’s the point? It’s why we exist. Disability is an undeniable and inseparable component of equity, diversity, and inclusion. APSE exists to interrupt the narrative that disability is an afterthought, if thought of at all, and strives to cultivate a future where the contributions of people with disabilities to our workforce are valued authentically. Nothing about us without us. Let’s make some good trouble shall we?

Biography

Vikki Ortiz is an AuDHD (Autism and ADHD) professional with a vision for all people with disabilities to fully realize, pursue, and accomplish their employment goals. She believes that employment is for everyone.

Vikki is a Credentialed Employment Support Professional (CESP) and a graduate of both APSE’s Emerging Leaders in Employment First professional development program and the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities Leadership Institute. Her educational background is in Human Development and Family Studies with an M.S. in Family Studies. She has 7 years of experience in the field of Supported Employment and over 16 years of experience in management and training.

Vikki serves as a Curriculum Developer and Trainer with the Colorado Office of Employment First (COEF). In her role, she is the Lead Supported Employment Trainer on COEF’s nationally recognized ACRE Curriculum and the Communications Lead for COEF, managing email marketing, social media presence, and developing the vast major of COEF’s multimedia content and resource materials.

Vikki also serves as a Co-President of the Colorado Chapter of the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE) and the Chair of the Chapter’s Communications Committee. She has presented locally and nationally on Supported Employment and Employment First and provided consultation, mentorship, and technical assistance to organizations.

Outside of work, Vikki enjoys adventuring with her husband, Michael, and her daughter, Isabella. She loves being a homebody and adventurer all at once – camping, reading, hiking, DIY-ing, photography, and traveling to new places.

She is a wordsmith and one of the quotes she lives by is, “What you do not change, you are choosing.” So, let’s choose boldly and bravely.