'Advocate, friend and champion': Longtime Franklin County disability board leader retiring

Jed Morison wove in and out of the crowd, posing for selfies, shaking hands, making small talk and sharing grins with people he’s known for years.

Many wanted to show him their T-shirts printed with a sketched outline of his face — complete with glasses and mustache — on it.

Morison, 75, was at a Special Olympics fall banquet in October, shortly after his retirement as superintendent and CEO of the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities was announced.

Though he’s led the state’s largest such board for 23 years, Morison’s career in public service, almost entirely serving those with disabilities in Franklin County, has spanned more than 50 years.

His last year working as a public servant ends Dec. 31.

In November, Dot Yeager, who has worked at the board as chief financial officer and chief business officer for 21 years, was appointed as its next leader.

Over the years, Morison has seen sweeping changes to disability services locally and nationally and has helped give people with disabilities a voice on their own lives and the community.

When he first started as an instructor at the Columbus Developmental Center in 1971, most adults with disabilities lived in residential centers, not in the community, and they often couldn't get jobs, Morison said.

In the 1970s, about 2,500 people lived at the Columbus Development Center. Now about 119 folks reside at the West Side center, according to the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities.

“That was kind of my first real education to what’s going on,” he said of working at a school on the center's grounds as an adaptive physical education teacher.

Soon after, adults with disabilities started transferring out of institutions like the center, and today many have jobs, live in less-restrictive settings with one or two others, and contribute to their communities in varied ways.

Morison has had a front-row seat to what he calls that “interesting transformation” in services for people with disabilities. He served as assistant superintendent of the county board from 1977-2000 and has led the agency ever since.

“It’s been like a civil rights movement for folks with developmental disabilities in my view,” he said of the last several decades. “As we look at what we had, what was happening back then, and where we are today, there are things we can still do to improve, but … it was just very different.”

A love for working with people with developmental disabilities

Morison stayed in his position and worked with people with developmental disabilities for so long because he loves it, he said. The board's 650 employees serve about 20,000 people per year.

He gets to support and learn from people every day, he said.

“When you get to know people, you understand the value that everybody has and you start to appreciate we all have gifts and contributions we can make regardless of our abilities,” he said.

Many of the people in the community appreciate Morison, too.

Christine Brown has known Morison for more than 20 years, and the two worked together to help give a voice to others with developmental disabilities.

In 2010, the 43-year-old worked with Morison to start a self-advocacy advisory council at the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

“Everybody deserves to have a voice at the table with the superintendent,” Brown said. “If individuals (with disabilities) didn’t exist, county boards wouldn’t exist and this job economy wouldn’t exist, so our voice matters because we’re the asset of the job.”

She’s enjoyed working with Morison, who also helped her set up legislative days so people with developmental disabilities could speak with legislators about issues important to them.

Employment in the community

A big emphasis during Morison’s tenure has been helping individuals with developmental disabilities get jobs.

For years, the county board provided job training, employment and other services directly to people with developmental disabilities through ARC Industries, a sheltered workshop that became its own nonprofit in 2017.

Now, that training largely takes place in the community.

“People have really embraced supporting folks who have challenges in one way or another, and that's been very refreshing to me,” Morison said.

Not all states provide services for people with developmental disabilities through county boards, but Morison is glad Ohio does.

The advantage to county boards of developmental disabilities is that they personalize the services for people and each community decides what support they’ll provide and fund through levies, he said.

A workforce shortage plagues the field

The field remains challenged by a workforce shortage, which is affecting those who work directly with individuals with disabilities nationally as well, due in part to low pay through Medicaid.

Morison said he hopes his successor will continue work on that issue; keep the board's funding and staffing stable; help more people get jobs in the community; and keep raising awareness about what the organization does.

"I think there will continue to be efforts to help employers recognize that there are some really talented folks that can work in various businesses with proper training and supports," Morison said.

Back at the banquet Morison posed with Ryan Phillips, director of Franklin County Special Olympics, and others holding big cardboard cutouts of Morison's face. Phillips engineered the shirts and cutouts to celebrate Morison's career and support of the Special Olympics locally.

Earlier in his career, Morison spent three years working as director of the Ohio Special Olympics, and today "he’s probably one of our staunchest advocates,” Phillips said.

“The bigger picture of his commitment and his stewardship goes beyond what a lot of people see," Phillips said, as Morison greeted participants by name, commenting on their involvement.

At a recent event celebrating Morison’s career, Adam Helbling, a friend of Morison's, talked about how he has changed his life.

“I think most of us can think back to the day we met Jed,” said Helbling, who is quadriplegic and has gotten funding to speak to school children about disabilities with Morison's help. “Jed changes lives in unimaginable ways.”

Morison’s goal is for all people to be viewed as equals, Helbling said.

“He has made us believe that our disabilities are invisible and that we are not defined by our disabilities,” Helbling said. “He has been an advocate, friend and champion for people with disabilities. Jed has fought so hard for all of us, and he has made fighters and advocates out of all of us.”

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Longtime Franklin County disabilities board head Jed Morison retires