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Ed Guthrie has
been the Executive Director of Opportunity Village for eleven
years. Opportunity Village provides vocational training,
employment, adult habilitation, and advocacy for over 600 people
with severe intellectual disabilities as well as other related
disabilities every year. Opportunity Village is the largest
community rehabilitation program in Nevada. Additionally,
Opportunity Village is one of the best loved organizations in
the state, having won the “Best of Las Vegas” award that is
presented by the readers of the largest newspaper in the state
for the past sixteen years.
Ed takes pride in
the fact that everyday the volunteers and staff at Opportunity
Village have the chance to improve the lives of hundreds of
people with severe disabilities and their families. Under his
leadership, Opportunity Village has grown to become one of the
top 5 custodial firms in southern Nevada. Opportunity Village
serves 500,000 meals each year to the servicemen at Nellis AFB
and owns the 2nd largest document destruction firm in Las Vegas.
Opportunity Village has also developed a number of leading edge
rehabilitation programs during the last ten years, including the
Job Discovery program (a school-to-work transition program), the
PRIDE program (a therapeutic day treatment program for people
with severe mental & physical disabilities) and a down-payment
assistance program to assist people with disabilities to
purchase their own homes.
Ed serves as the
Chairman of the Board of Directors for NISH (formerly National
Industries for the Severely Handicapped). NISH is a national
organization that works with 550+ community rehabilitation
programs to provide jobs on federal contracts to over 40,000
people with severe disabilities through the Javits-Wagner-O-Day
(JWOD) program. Prior to joining the NISH Board, Ed was the
Western Region representative of the National Council of Work
Centers and represented the 100+ community rehabilitation
programs in Nevada, California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Utah for
six years.
Ed is a strong
advocate for services for all people with disabilities in
Nevada. He was successful in spearheading the passage of a new
“state use” bill, similar to JWOD, that has dramatically
expanded employment opportunities for people with severe
disabilities on service contracts with state and local
government agencies. Governor Guinn appointed Ed to the Nevada
Governor’s Council for Rehabilitation and Employment of People
with Disabilities. Ed was also appointed Chair of the Nevada
Rates Task Force, which was tasked, by the Governor and the
Legislature, with performing a thorough review of all rates paid
for health and human services by the State and any political
subdivisions. Due in large part to Ed’s efforts, the Governor
proposed, and the Legislature passed a rate increase of 7% in
FY-2004 and 8% in FY-2005 for all community rehabilitation
programs and residential providers.
Ed has served as
the Chairman of the Older Americans/Disabilities Transportation
Advisory Committee for the Southern Nevada Regional
Transportation Commission (RTC), which advises the RTC on the
transportation needs of people with disabilities and seniors. He
has helped the RTC revise and improve the eligibility process
for paratransit services and has assisted the RTC in developing
an alternative to paratransit for people attending community
rehabilitation programs. Because of his efforts, thousands of
people with severe disabilities can access public transportation
and are no longer prisoners in their own homes.
Ed serves as a
member of the Nevada Special Needs Affordable Housing Task
Force, and the Advisory Committee for Fannie Mae’s Nevada
Partnership Office. He is also on the Nevada Community Health
Charities Board, and is a member of Las Vegas Southwest Rotary,
and a graduate of Leadership Las Vegas, Class of 1998.
Prior to coming
to Opportunity Village, Ed served as the Executive Director of
similar organizations in upstate New York and Maryland for
almost twenty years.
Ed met his lovely wife, Sheral, at the Mardi Gras
in New Orleans in 1973. They have a son, Jesse, who graduated
UNLV and a daughter, Erin, who graduated from the University of
Nevada - Reno . He loves hiking, reading, travel and UNLV sports
teams. |
