Kerry Neenan, Board Member

Kerry Neenan grew up in western Massachusetts and attended a small regional public school. She was a first generation college student in her family and attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, graduating summa cum laude with a BA in English Writing and Communications. Shortly after graduating, Kerry moved to Salem in 2004 where she met her husband Tom. In 2015, Kerry and Tom had a daughter, Maeve, who was born with Down syndrome. 

Since Maeve was born, Kerry has sought to be an advocate and ally to the disability community in many ways. She knew about Maeve's diagnosis prenatally and connected with the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress (MDSC) for support, which is where her volunteer work started. Over the past 7 years, Kerry has been a First Call Parent volunteer and represented the First Call program at MDSC events, helps host the New Family Socials, served on the Buddy Walk Committee for 3 years to assist in planning their largest fundraising event in October, assists families of elementary aged children with questions about special education processes and regulations as a Education Resource Parent Volunteer, and has been part of the First Call and Medical Outreach Advisory Council ensuring that materials given to new parents is up to date and that local hospitals have information from the MDSC about their various forms of support. 

In addition to her work with the MDSC, Kerry has also focused her volunteer efforts in Salem. She is Chair of the Special Education Parents Advisory Council (SEPAC) for parents of kids in Salem Public Schools. In this role, she works regularly with school administration to discuss parent concerns, look at budget priorities related to special education, advocate for inclusion in all aspects of SPS school activities, and provide educational events and resources to parents of children on IEP's or 504s. In 2019, Kerry was appointed to the Salem Disabilities Commission. At the time, Kerry was the only person on the Commission representing children with disabilities. Since joining, Kerry has helped to organize training for the Salem Police Department, assisted the Unified Sports team in requesting funding from the Commission, and pushed for the city to prioritize accessibility at the city's playgrounds and in the design of new city projects and renovations. Kerry also serves as the Disability Liaison to the Salem Human Rights Coalition. Through this role she has expanded her efforts to support other marginalized groups in Salem, not just those with disabilities. She has assisted with fundraising events and participates in activities for Pride Month, Black History Month, and more.

Because of her volunteer efforts in Salem and in the Down syndrome/disability community, Kerry took a position with Northeast Arc in December 2022 as a Community Resource Specialist for the Northshore. In this newly established role, Kerry works concurrently with Northeast Arc and the Northshore office of the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), looking to find and fill in gaps for support for those with disabilities in our communities. Kerry works individually with Service Coordinators at DDS or families directly to provide information on existing resources in the community and works with community organizations to be more welcoming and accessible to those with disabilities. In the summer of 2023, Kerry received funding to create adaptive toolkits for 8 local libraries. Kerry assembled kits that included noise dampening headphones, visual timers, adaptive art supplies, and more and then met with each library to gift them the toolkit and discuss ideas and strategies for more inclusion in programming and access within each library. Kerry has also planned meetup events for families, hosted an art reception at the DDS Northshore office, creates an extensive monthly community events calendar for Northshore families, planned a respite event for parents/caretakers dealing with dementia with their disabled adult children, and most recently organized a voting education and registration drive event for adults with intellectual disabilities.