Speakers and Dialogue Leaders: Mark Starford
Mark Starford is the founding director and key consultant of The SCILS Group since 1977, a national nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to full and inclusive community participation of children with developmental disabilities and their families. In 1995, Mark created the Board Resource Center to provide best practice leadership facilitation for community organizations, the private and public sector, and government agencies. Under Mark’s leadership, both organizations provide strategic consultation, interactive training, development of person-centered systems, and have developed a comprehensive library of accessible publications and digital tools that make complex easy to access and apply. BRC and Mark are known for making complex ideas simple using plain language training methods, adaptations, graphic and media tools. Mark has provided workshops, facilitation support, adapted materials, publications and media presentations to consumer advocacy groups in California and Canada, California Regional Centers, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, school districts and more than thirty nonprofit and state agencies. Mark’s work for people with developmental disabilities began as a Montessori teacher in 1972 and founder of a nonpublic school in Texas that demonstrated the effectiveness of inclusive teaching. The school was among the first to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in 1986 as exemplary for effectively creating a “real community of learners.”
