Ruby Moore

Meeting of March 15, 2011 - Employment of People with Mental Disabilities

Ruby Moore is the Executive Director of the Georgia Advocacy Office, the designated Protection and Advocacy System for People with Disabilities in Georgia. Moore is nationally known for her work in the disability field over the past 35 years, particularly in the areas of employment, augmentative communication, and the design and implementation of supports necessary for people with significant disabilities to live, work, play, and go to school in the community.

Her experience includes growing up with family members with disabilities, working in both institutional and community settings, running provider organizations, working within and outside government bureaucracies, individual and systemic advocacy, directly supporting individuals to obtain employment, housing, and other supports necessary to live in the community, and working to improve local, state and national disability policy.

Moore has over 30 years of experience helping people wrongly considered "unemployable" due to their disabilities to get jobs (and build careers). She was one of the architects of the national supported employment initiative and was one of a small group of people working on early national technical assistance grants to the states for their statewide change grants. She ran an employment institute in MA, and was an employment provider for 16 years. She helped to set up statewide employment institutes and technical assistance centers in NH and CT. Moore also ran a federally-funded model demonstration program securing high quality employment for people with dual sensory impairments ("deaf-blindness") in New England, replicated the project in California, and provided technical assistance across the United States and in several other countries. Moore hosts a statewide employment initiative in GA.