Sue Swenson
Sue Swenson is the CEO of The Arc of the United States, the oldest and largest non-profit you have never heard of. The Arc provides $3 billion worth of advocacy, support, and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. She says, “It is ok that you have never heard of us: most people actively avoid thinking about developmental disabilities until it happens in their family, which is what happened to me, in fact.” Her son, Charlie, who is disabled, is 24 years old. He lives at home with his dad and mom; he has two brothers, who do not.
Swenson has worked as a marketer for business ethics, heart transplantation, and environmental consulting among other things. In 1996 she was a fellow in the U.S. Senate. She has also been executive director of the Kennedy Foundation. Her interests include literature (Shakespeare specifically), networking, systematic pluralism and the philosophy of Richard McKeon, politics, travel, movies, and cooking---the last especially for young men, who, as someone once said about another demographic, are so grateful.