Autism Delaware announces new president and board members

Autism Delaware recently announced that Marcy Kempner, named one of The News Journal’s 50 Who Matter last year with her husband Artie, has been elected as the new president of the Autism Delaware Board of Directors.

One of the founding members of the now-statewide autism agency, Kempner is a former board vice president and secretary and the mother of three sons, Matt, Jack and Ethan, who has an autism spectrum disorder. “I am inspired every day by my son, Ethan, who just turned 17,” said Kempner. “I’m also driven by knowing that the work we do at Autism Delaware will be important for my other sons and their futures. I’m incredibly proud of the Autism Delaware staff and the work we do.”

Marie-Anne Aghazadian, Michael Graci and Artie Kempner have also joined the Autism Delaware Board of Directors as new or returning members. “We are so excited that Marcy, Marie-Anne, Mike, and Artie are on the board for 2012,” said Theda Ellis, executive director at Autism Delaware, “because we are in the process of expanding our services across the life span and the state, and we appreciate the combined experience and reach of these individuals.”

Aghazadian has been the executive director of the Parent Information Center of Delaware Inc., since 1989. Under Aghazadian’s leadership, PIC has emerged as Delaware’s largest and only organization providing information, education and support to families of children with a broad range of disabilities as well as to families who experience economic and cultural barriers to engaging in their children’s education.

Prior to her position at PIC, Aghazadian was president of the Autism Association of Delaware, which was instrumental in helping to establish the statewide Delaware Autism Program and the adult special populations program, a continuum of vocational and residential services for adults with autism and challenging behaviors. Aghazadian and her husband Vartan are parents of Stefan, who has autism, and of Megan, who works for the Charter Schools Foundation.

Appointed to complete the term of Autism Delaware’s departing board president, Michael Graci is the director of value-add and retirement marketing at BlackRock Inc. Graci returns to the Autism Delaware board, having sat previously from 2002 to 2010 and served as the board’s vice president. Graci and his wife Jane live in Newark with their three children, one of whom has an autism spectrum disorder.

Another founding member of Autism Delaware, Artie Kempner has made significant contributions to the statewide agency, helping to create the now-preeminent autism agency in Delaware. In 1997, Kempner served as the first president of the Autism Delaware Board of Directors and has sat on the board for 14 years. Kempner also chairs the annual Drive for Autism, a celebrity golf event that has raised $3.5 million for autism.

Using some of the drive’s proceeds as seed money in 2007, Autism Delaware was able to establish an adult services program that was nationally recognized as an effective program in 2010. Professionally, Kempner is a nine-time Emmy Award-winning director of the NFL and NASCAR on Fox. He is the father of three sons, Matt, Jack, and Ethan, who has an autism spectrum disorder.

For more information about Autism Delaware, go to www.delautism.org.