#3-dyk- Tom Benziger
Post 3: July 27, 2021
Did you know…
that Thomas D. Benziger, E’71 and ‘94, has been appointed by 4 Illinois past Governors to serve on several State Councils and including the implementation of Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission and most recent after he has retired, moved to Wisconsin and was appointed by two Governors to serve both State Councils, Independent Living Council and State Rehabilitation Council.
Excerpts from Thomas:
Illinois
Gov. James R Thompson – Governor’s Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities (1977-1991) 1. Involved in many of Sub committees, evaluate grants submitted by 501c3, for profit organizations, agencies providing services for people with disabilities.
2. Involved with Family committee to develop effective training programs for parents who have disabled child(ren) 3. One time I was asked to work for one week in Washington DC to evaluate all Request for Proposals (RFP) by reviewing and grading, I wanted to make sure that Deaf consumers have equal access to services planned. Often at times, no budget for hiring interpreters, no TTY (at that time, etc.)
Gov. Jim Edgar - Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission (IDHHC)(1991-1992) 1. One of the first 11 to be appointed to IDHHC
2. I was elected to be the first Chairperson of IDHHC, and a lot of responsibilities that I had to take care of, finding office, ordering office supplies, procurement, phone lines, the latest advance of TTY machine (at that time) computers etc.
3. Develop job Description looking for IDHHC Director position, allowing the board to interview and give me the top two potential candidates and I will interview top two and give recommendation to the governor’s office 4. Developed retreat for the board to work on 3 and 5 year plans for the new director to achieve the goals for the State of Illinois.
5. Reminding that we were appointed by the governor to SERVE 102 COUNTIES and not just for our local county.
Gov. George Ryan IDHHC (1991-2003)
1. Develop Director’s evaluation papers
2. Run the meeting
3. My two terms were up and had 1 year grace period and re-appointed by Gov. Ryan to fill in another person’s term 4. Ex-offico attending subcommittee within IDHHC.
Gov. Rod Blagovich – IDHHC (2003-2007)
1. Board member until I moved to Wisconsin, no longer residing in Illinois.
Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker – Wisconsin Independent Living Council (WILC) and Wisconsin
Rehabilitation Council (WRC) (2011-2019)
Gov. Tony Evers WILC and WRC (2019-2020)
1. I represent Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind and Deaf + other disabilities.
2. Covering 72 counties
3. Advocate for more services and hiring more deaf VR Counselors (to-date none currently hired)