Mary Anderson Hartley is a parent advocate and a disability systems-change professional who started her professional career in 2007, working with Nancy Murray at Achieva on the Disability Healthcare Initiative, a stakeholder effort to increase access to health care for people with disabilities. As a parent advocate, she started volunteering on the Pittsburgh Local Task Force on the Right to Education. Prior to returning to Achieva as the President of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh, Mary was the Executive Director of the PEAL (Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership) Center. For almost 20 years, she has engaged advocates and organizations to target the fix for broken policy and practice - solving issues through advocacy and legislation and identifying and developing unique programs that increase inclusion. Working with the United Way of Allegheny County’s 21 and Able Initiative, she helped to bridge the divide between youth and adult systems so that students with disabilities can transition more successfully to adulthood in employment, housing, and supportive services. Most notably, she directed #IWantToWork, a self-advocacy social media campaign, increasing employment and financial freedom through three successive efforts that resulted in legislative wins. As a consultant, she also served as Project Director for the Western Pennsylvania Disability History and Action Consortium (WPDHAC). Governor Wolf appointed Hartley to serve on the Employment First Oversight Commission, where she was the inaugural Chair. She is the 2023 recipient of the Richard Meritzer (Pittsburgh) City-(Allegheny) County Task Force on Disabilities/Reel Abilities Award and, in 2018, received Achieva’s Excellence in Advocacy Award. Governor Wolf appointed Hartley to serve on the Employment First Oversight Commission, where she was the inaugural Chair. She has served on the Board of Disability Rights Pennsylvania and is past Chair of UPMC’s Disability Resource Council. Mary lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, Bob, and has two adult children, Jack and Grace.
Lu Randall has a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from Wright State University, and a bachelor of science in Art Education, concentrations in Art Therapy and Creative Studies from SUNY College at Buffalo. Early in her career she worked with people who had moderate to severe physical disabilities and traumatic brain injuries directing an adult day center. She landed solidly in the
autism world in 1994 as a mobile therapist in the Pennsylvania Wraparound system. Working in family homes and community settings informed her practice and helped develop her practical knowledge base related to autism spectrum disorders and family living. With colleagues she co-founded the Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville, PA, educating high school students in community-based, real work, nontraditional instruction addressing PA state standards and their IEP goals. Ms Randall was a key player in the design of the Pittsburgh International Airport Sensory Room, a one million dollar, award winning project designed to facilitate air travel for people with neurological disabilities of all ages and ability levels. She has led the Autism Connection of PA since 2010, and speaks extensively on all areas of autism life, including education, employment, healthcare, victims services, jail and prison advocacy, and law enforcement officer continuing education. She is a member of the Office of Developmental Programs Information Sharing and Advisory Committee, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Victim Services Advisory Council, the Allegheny County Autism in the Courts Workgroup, the PA Provider Oversight subcommittee, and the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She loves to cultivate native plants, monarch butterflies, friendships, and draw, hike, bike, and sleep.
Achieva's advocates have empathy deriving from their personal experiences. Each advocate has a family member with a disability which has cultivated the perservance and knowledge needed to support others.
Our Achieva advocate has been a true blessing to me and both my children. She has taught me so much about the IEP process and has given me the support my kids and I needed. I wish I had called sooner!! I can't thank her enough for all she does.
Our advocate was able to guide me step by step as to everything I needed to do to get help for my daughter. Before stopping to see her I had no idea to where to even begin. I am soo grateful for her knowledge and graceful personality.