Kelvin Crosby: 0:06

Welcome to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast. We're not waiting for change, we're investing in it. Join us as we speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders that are focused on creating a more accessible world.

Kelvin Crosby: 0:32

Hey, so good to see you, even though I can't see you. It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood, and I'm so excited that you're here at Investing in Accessibility. I'm your host, Kelvin Crosby, and I got my co-host, Chris Maher. How you doing, man?

Chris Maher: 0:48

I'm good, Kelvin. Good to see you. Good to be with you, buddy.

Kelvin Crosby: 0:51

Yeah. I'm excited. I've been doing good. It's just one day at a time, right? Sometimes we fall and we just get back up, sweep off the dust, and just keep on moving, right?

Chris Maher: 1:03

That's what it's all about, my friend.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:04

Exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm excited about today's guest. And honestly, I think this is gonna be full of laughter because we got somebody that's related to you on today's show, and honestly, I don't think you realize what's coming.

Chris Maher: 1:25

I think you're correct with that statement. Because in the pre-show prep you two were already hitting it off and I think trouble might be coming my way.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:37

Hey, I like this.

Chris Maher: 1:38

Good trouble. Good trouble.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:40

Yeah. I mean, like in the previous episode, I tried to figure out what you looked like, but I guess I failed on that idea. So I mean, next thing you know, let's just see what about what did your daughter think you looked like? That's a million dollar question. You know, I got a question about that. Oh man. So, anyways, why don't you introduce us to our guest today?

Chris Maher: 2:05

You got it. Thanks, Kelvin. So, our guest today, which is a a big treat for me, and I'm so excited for her to be with us, and Kelvin, for you to get to know her a bit. But our guest today is my oldest daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte Maher. Welcome to the podcast.

Charlotte Maher: 2:21

Thanks, Dad. Happy to be here and Kelvin, it's great to finally meet you.

Kelvin Crosby: 2:25

You too. I tell you, it's weird to hear dad on this platform. It is kind of cool though. I'm like, that could work. All right. Hey everybody, did you guys know that we can call him dad now? So put in the comments and say, hey dad. You know?

Chris Maher: 2:45

Kelvin, you can't call me dad. You can like call me uh cousin. I mean, or maybe uncle, because I am a bit older than you.

Kelvin Crosby: 2:55

Well, I mean, at least it's not a great uncle, then that would make you really old.

Chris Maher: 2:59

Yeah, exactly. Very old. Thank thank you.

Kelvin Crosby: 3:04

Oh, man. All right. Well, let's get on the right train instead of going derailed.

Chris Maher: 3:10

So let me do a little setup here. So our listeners that you've been with, if you've been with us from the beginning, you hear me talk about my family and specifically my two daughters pretty regularly. There's an earlier episode where I get into that in quite a bit of detail. But my wife and I have raised two amazing daughters, both of whom live with disabilities. My youngest, Olivia, has uh intellectual and developmental disabilities. And my oldest, Charlotte, who is with us today, was born with a physical disability. And the technical term for it is polymicrogyrea, and that manifests itself as a form of spastic hemiplegia. So Charlotte has had a weakness on her left side, her arm and her leg ever since she was born. And we're going to get into that today and a lot of other stuff about her lived experience with disability and you know how she, Kelvin, as you were saying earlier, how how she has showed incredible resilience and adaptability over the years and uh get into how that's driven her career. She just graduated from college this past May and graduated on a Sunday and started working on Monday, which we were very proud of. And we're gonna get into all of that. So, Charlotte, welcome to the show.

Charlotte Maher: 4:22

Thank you guys for having me. I, ever since dad, Christopher, started Samaritan Partners a couple years back, and I saw that that first line that talked about our family. I said, I'm gonna weasel my way into this someday, just you wait. And so I'm glad that that day is finally here.

Chris Maher: 4:40

So Charlotte, talk. Why don't we just start with your childhood? We you and I we had dinner the other night. I was in DC for a conference, and that's where Charlotte's living, and we had dinner, and we're doing a little prep for this conversation, and we've got some stories that we're probably gonna get into.

Kelvin Crosby: 4:57

I mean, and some juicy ones too. I mean, yeah, everybody juicy ones.

Chris Maher: 5:00

I Yeah, some pretty juicy ones where I think you guys will get a good laugh at uh at my expense. But but Charlotte, let's start with your childhood and kind of your earliest memories, the physical disability on your on your left side.

Charlotte Maher: 5:17

Sure. My very earliest experiences are are more so the memories from you and mom, to be totally honest. And so the journeys of the neurologists and the scans and the really trying to pin down what it might be. And so all the baby pictures have my left hand in that tight ball. So there were certainly some signs very early on, and it took quite a few years to sort of get those answers. But I'm very grateful that you guys went down all those avenues and and sort of followed the paths to sort of get those answers and then get me the resources that that came after those diagnoses. But on a personal level, I remember doing lots of therapies, and I was not the best patient, as some of these stories coming up are going to highlight. But I feel very lucky to have been born into a family that that understood very early on that engaging in some of those therapies and some of those, even in the experimental stages, and engaging in some of those newer technologies would be the best thing for me. And so I was in PT from the time I was walking every week all the way through to I think through eighth grade, roughly. And so really trying to get those gross motor skills up and my balance and my gait and my walking. I did OT in school, though not for for that long, because my right hand was able to sort of stay on par with my peers and and sort of pick up the the excess for my left side, and so I didn't really struggle in school very much, and I feel very fortunate for that to be the case and so on and so forth, and and some of the stories will certainly get into some of the details. Kelvin, what's up, Kelvin?

Kelvin Crosby: 7:00

It's interesting you explain that your earlier memories is through your parents' stories. And I tell a story that's really interesting, it is that my parents they had to make a decision to make me a hearing child or a deaf child. I mean, I was in the middle. I was either gonna be hard of hearing or deaf. Like there was not gonna be one or the other. And that life decision ended up turning me to be a hearing child. And whether that's wrong or right, that's not the question. I 'd be curious to ask you, Chris, on this question is how did you and your wife kind of start making some of those decisions for Charlotte as she started growing up? Because honestly, this is a topic that I think so many people forget. As parents, we make decisions early on for our kids, whether it's right or wrong. I'm not really here to have that conversation. Really what I'm trying to bring out is like how do you guys come to the decision to help Charlotte the way you guys chose to do that?

Chris Maher: 8:15

Yeah, it's a really good question. I think it it all comes from you just want your child to be as independent and autonomous and self-sufficient as possible. And so from probably the time she was about six months old, and we really started to realize that her left hand, her left arm, and specifically her hand, and her left leg and specifically her foot, something just wasn't right. And so it was, as Charlotte said, a lot of doctor appointments. We got in, we went up to the you know, children's hospital up in Boston, we went to neurologist group in in at Yale, New Haven. We it took a while to figure it out. There was, as Charlotte said, lots of tests, CAT scans and MRIs and all that stuff, and and then they finally identified it and and you know, told us that she has a form of hemiplegia. It did not, you know, affect her cognitively. So as they say, she's typical cognitively. She's above typical in my mind, but she was this was something that was was even with all the physical therapy and exercises, her left side was never going to be as strong as her right side. But we wanted to do as much as we could to help her be ufunctional on that side so it wouldn't impact her everyday life. And so it was hard because we made the decision to do you know OT and PT in school and out of school. Charlotte wore one of the it's called an AFO brace, it's like a plastic brace with a hinge on it at the ankle. She started wearing one of those. Charlotte, I think you were maybe between one and two years old and wore that until, when did you have the surgery on your leg? Was that seventh grade?

Charlotte Maher: 9:58

Surgery was August going into seventh grade.

Chris Maher: 10:01

Going to seventh grade.

Charlotte Maher: 10:01

So going into seventh grade there. Yeah.

Chris Maher: 10:03

Yeah. And so, you know, from a very early age, Charlotte was wearing a brace on her leg. And and then there was another aspect of of her health that they told us wasn't connected, but I'm convinced it was. But her eyesight was affected, so she had kind of a wandering slash crossed eye. There were a couple of surgeries to help with that, but we also did a lot of eye therapy because in second grade her her teacher told us that she's reading these books because she's got this crazy memory, but but she's not comprehending what she's reading. She's just memorizing the words, and she recommended vision therapy, which is in some corners of the world with Ophthalmologists, that's a little confrontational. But fortunately, my mother has worked in a school system for the better part of the last 50 years and had heard from teachers in her school system that vision therapy actually has had great success. And so Char, you did what, three or four years of eye therapy or vision therapy, which which required doing exercises at night at home, and us forcing her to, and you know, she'd rather be off playing games. So it was a lot. It was a lot for a child between the ages of probably you know two and thirteen, fourteen.

Kelvin Crosby: 11:16

I guess Charlotte, kind of talk about that surgery that you had in seventh grade. We can honestly that that decision to go have that surgery at that point, right when you go into junior high, that's not an easy time just for any human being. But that had to go through that at that point.

Charlotte Maher: 11:35

Yeah, sure. And and to to answer some of Calvin's question as well on the making tough choices, I think many of my needs were gross engage in and to try and work on than some that might have cultural implications like being hard of hearing, or others like that. And so I think that that sort of takes away some of the difficulty in that, you know, if this is gonna help my kid walk or run or or be mobile in adulthood or or even late adulthood as as mobility starts to decline for people. Like I think that that is that's a a reasonable decision and one that I'm very glad that my mom and dad were were stark defenders of of trying to engage in as much as we could. And so the surgery, the surgery was a fascia release surgery in my calf muscles, and so one of the symptoms of my spastic muscles in my left leg was my inability to properly heel strike on every step, and so lots of supination, so walking on my toes and and tripping, and my dad will talk about my skin knees, I'm sure, all throughout my childhood, but that was really to sort of release those muscles in my calf to make it easier for me to walk in a safer way. The timing, I actually don't know about the timing, Dad. I think it was sort of just we had tried the physical therapy and then the home exercises, and it it sort of had reached as far as it was probably gonna get, and we trusted the doctor that I had had my whole life and do to this day. And I and I'm glad that we went through it. And it was tough.

Chris Maher: 13:16

Yeah, and I think also, Char, the the result of it was there was a very good chance you wouldn't have to wear the AFO brace on your leg anymore, which I think was was important to you.

Charlotte Maher: 13:28

Yeah, and I I was about to be 12, and so I don't remember some of the details of those conversations, but dad saying it was about the the ankle foot brace, ankle foot orthotic is what AFO stands for. That makes sense to me. I remember that being one of the things that that set me apart physically. So of course I have some some structural differences, but that was sort of more tangible to my peers than than just my limp. That sort of put a label on it for people. And so at one point I was very concerned with with sort of fixing, you know, quote unquote fixing that or improving that as best we could.

Kelvin Crosby: 14:07

Yeah. What's interesting is is and I'm I'm glad you're talking about this because honestly, so many people like it's all about building life choices and decisions and like how did you do that and then what's the result of that? And and I think what's really interesting is that as you started I'm curious and I don't know the rest of the story is what started becoming where did your confidence start becoming and through this, because you didn't get to where you are without building that confidence. And I think the previous episode with Cara, like we talked about having a disability and making sure we're confident in who we are as a person with disability. And I'm curious, like as you grew up and having the dad that you have, 'cause I've been around him and heard his stories and like what would that look like for you? I mean and the question is are you still working through that?

Charlotte Maher: 15:09

Yeah, that's a really, that's a really excellent question, actually. That's a little bit of a brain racker to your point there at the end. I think it's a continuous process. There's always, there's always, and this is true for everybody, there's always things that we see in ourselves that even if others might not see those in us, they're always sore spots for us, and there's always things that we think could be better or improved upon or whatever that is for people. And so the short answer is it's it's a continuous process that that I do my best to engage in every day. But the the longer answer is I think one foundational element that was really important, just on like a natural level, was that I had a really supportive family. And so, not just my parents and my sister, but my grandparents and cousins, and like there was never at least at least at home, if not elsewhere, things were completely normal and acceptable just as they were, and if not commendable and special and like a superpower, that resilience aspect and and other awesome adjectives like it. And so it was always a supportive environment, and I think that that is super important for a young kid who may or may not be able to understand and intellectualize everything going on, and so having the adults and in that kid's life be able to sort of sort of create the environment to support all of that as the kid develops, like that was absolutely wonderful to have growing up.

Chris Maher: 16:40

And if I can jump in there. The person primarily responsible for creating that environment around Charlotte was her mom, my wife Stephanie. She she took on the bulk of the responsibility with all of the doctors and the therapies and figuring this out. And then once we were, you know, kind of developing a plan, not only for Charlotte, because around the time we kind of figured a lot of this stuff out for Charlotte, her younger sister arrived. And, you know, she came into this world with with not a physical challenge or disability, but intellectual and developmental challenges. And so, yeah, my wife, Stephanie, Charlotte's mom, gets the bulk of the credit on how well our daughter has turned out. But you know, she was really a driving force behind what Charlotte just described, for sure. And I think that Char, you know, when she was at a very young age, and Kelvin, we talk about this with like all of our guests, right? People with disabilities inherently are great problem solvers. They're resilient, they're adaptable, they can be a bit strong-headed, and they deal with obstacles every day. And so Charlotte was showing all of that, all of those traits at a very young age. I mean, you know, when kids are what, a couple of years old and they're learning how to put on their shoes and socks, like that was a really, like things we take for granted, that was really hard for Charlotte because of her left hand. And, you know, I'd try to jump in and help her, and boy, oh boy, would she snap at me and be like, no, no, I'm gonna do it myself, which I loved, like I loved. Like it was, you know, and then I was, you know, running around finding, you know, rubber shoelaces so she wouldn't have to actually, they would look like shoelaces, but she could just slip her feet in. When we started playing T-ball and the left hand, she was kind of like Jim Abbott, who was this famous major league pitcher who had a limb difference, like he was missing his right hand, and he did this thing where he would put his glove on one hand and then kind of take it off and do this whole exchange with the ball. A very good friend of mine, Char, you might not, we talked about this the other day, but a great dear friend of mine, Rob Schatzel, who I've known since since kindergarten, he went and got a friend who's like in the sporting goods industry to make a mitt for Charlotte that you could put on your right or left hand. It was almost like a double web. And so we were like, talk about like assistive technologies at a very young age, as simple as a shoelace or a baseball glove, obviously a thing like an AFO brace. But at a very young age, like she was trying all those things to allow her to be more independent with how she was navigating her her situation. But what she also said earlier about that left foot boy, she'd catch that toe and man. I think all of elementary school, I don't know of a kid who had more scrapes and bruises on her elbows and knees from falling down so much. But as you said, Kelvin, she would just dust herself off, get back up, and keep going.

Kelvin Crosby: 19:36

Well, and I think what's interesting is the journey, right? And and I think this is also the entrepreneur journey. Because so much entrepreneurship, and I think that's why a lot of the mo really successful people with disabilities are the ones that are running these big companies. Because we we can we can fall, dust it off, keep keep going. And I think this is really interesting. But I I there's something I heard about a camp. And I want to get into this. So it had the word restraints in it.

Chris Maher: 20:16

Oh, I'm like I'm like shuddering to think about this. So as we talked earlier, we were going to neurologists and therapists and getting her into studies and because I think a lot of children, polymicrogyria manifests itself more in like the full Palesia, like both sides, and hers, I think was a little bit rare on the left side, and I'm probably not getting this completely right. Her mother would have a better explanation, but several groups that we came across were like, hey, we'd really like to include your daughter in a study and track her over time. And this one group that was, I think I think it was out of Columbia Presbyterian in New York City, they recommended they're like, you know, we've seen some positive results in restraint.

Charlotte Maher: 21:05

I would like to give a caveat, but that is not the official name for this whole study.

Kelvin Crosby: 21:14

I mean, I I hey I I was just letting this lay out of lay.

Chris Maher: 21:19

What's the name of it?

Charlotte Maher: 21:21

The official name for this type of therapy is constraint-induced movement therapy. Continue to call it restraint, whatever, but I would just like to caveat that the real words are a little bit kinder to folks.

Kelvin Crosby: 21:35

Hey, well, you're dad's the one that talked about it, and I was just laying it on the table.

Chris Maher: 21:40

Well, let me describe it, and I think our listeners will agree with my description of it. So, I think you were around four or five years old at the time. And this group recommended, hey, it's a study, but it's also, we think this is going to help, And what you do is for a couple weeks, you bring her in and they call it camp, and they're doing fun activities and playing games. But what they do is they essentially would strap her, strap her good arm to her body while she was there and force her to use her weak hand. And like when we heard, I'm like, oh, okay, that sounds like a good idea. You know, hopefully it'll you know get her some better dexterity and some strength. And so I was working in New York City at the time. So my wife and I were tag teaming and alternating between driving her in and dropping her off. And sometimes my, you know, I might take her in, my wife would bring her, you know, drop her, pick her up, etc. So that first week of camp, my wife did the first day. And then I was taking Charlotte in the next day. My wife, my wife said to me before we left, she goes, Hey, I just want to give you a heads up. Charlotte's probably gonna get upset. She may cry a little bit when you drop her off with this group, but don't worry about it. Just like drop her off, say goodbye, and get out of there. And then she'll settle down and it'll be fine. I'm like, okay, fine. And I don't think I was really, it wasn't really registering with me. So we get into the city, we I park the car, we're walking into the building, and as we get in the elevator, she starts to kind of like grab my hand and my arm and starts, you know, clutching me. And I'm like, hmm, what's going on here? So I can tell she's getting a little nervous. And then we go downstairs into kind of the bowels of this like academic building and walk down a long hall. And as we get closer to the door of the room she's going into, she starts, she's getting upset and she's starting to cry. And when we walk into the room and say hello to everybody, then she's like, Daddy, don't leave me. I want to go home with you. I want to go home. And I've got my wife in my ear saying, just just leave her, she's gonna be fine, and and just walk out. But she's really upset, and the people there were incredibly nice, and they're like, Mr. Maher, don't worry, we've got her. Well, I proceed to leave the room, and by the time I get to the elevator, I'm bawling. And I call my wife in the elevator, and she picks up, and I'm like, first thing I say is, I'm going back for my little girl, I'm not leaving her there. As I'm crying in the elevator, I'm like, I'm going back, I'm going back. And so my wife says, Listen, just go outside, take a walk around the block. I will call them. I'm sure she's fine. Now, like, I'm like, nope, she was really upset. I'm not leaving her. Um so my one quarters of the way around the block, my wife calls me back and she's like, she's fine, she's having fun, she's not crying and upset anymore. But that's my memory of restraint camp, and it was not a good one.

Kelvin Crosby: 24:42

So, what was your memory, if you have any of restraint camp?

Charlotte Maher: 24:47

Well, Kelvin, just imagine 35-year-old Chris on the streets in New York, like weeping to himself.

Chris Maher: 24:55

Oh, that's true. I did, I did leave that out. At the time it was the early 2000's.

Charlotte Maher: 25:00

Like what like full suit heading to his big office job.

Chris Maher: 25:04

I'm in a suit and a tie, and I'm walking around this building bawling, and like the people in the street were like, what is up with this guy? Who was this grown man in a suit and tie, like crying as he's walking in the streets? Yeah, sorry. Thanks for bringing that up, Char.

Charlotte Maher: 25:17

You're welcome.

Kelvin Crosby: 25:20

I see, I knew I was gonna enjoy this episode. I mean, I mean, I was just like, all right. But I mean, hey, I feel like there's a lot of that going on in New York City. A lot of tears and people in suits and ties. Oh man.

Charlotte Maher: 25:38

Um there's certainly no shortage of moments of my dad supporting me like that, even in his own silly ways.

Chris Maher: 25:47

Yeah. Yeah.

Kelvin Crosby: 25:49

I can see your dad doing some really goofy things. I mean, like maybe even doing a backflip for to raise funds, or I don't know, who knows.

Chris Maher: 25:59

That's our role as dads to embarrass our kids, right?

Kelvin Crosby: 26:02

Oh, yeah, well, I do , I do the same thing with my son.

Chris Maher: 26:05

There's another element of Charlotte's childhood and specifically high school, combined with everything else that I think really feeds into the direction she took academically as well as you know, career-wise. But to, you know, to add a little more to what she was going through, she she also had a pretty bad case of scoliosis in high school and had to wear a plastic brace.

Charlotte Maher: 26:26

Don't giggle.

Chris Maher: 26:28

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Well, it's just you know, but but so she had to wear a plastic brace, this bulky plastic brace for two and a half years in high school. And it's just, you know, and did it with no complaining, with that same positive attitude and resilience and grit that she had from a very, very young age. And so, Charlotte, I don't know if you want to speak to that at all.

Charlotte Maher: 26:53

Sure.

Chris Maher: 26:53

And then kind of the course of study that you you followed in college.

Charlotte Maher: 26:57

Yeah, sure. Well, on the the scoliosis part, which much like my eyes, they tried to say was not a part of of the whole micropolygyria part, although I'm pretty sure it it must be related somehow. But to dad's point of the no complaints, I think that by then that was maybe the the sixth, seventh, eighth sort of thing that I had to find a way to to incorporate into my life, and honestly, one of the easier ones at that. And so I think that with things like restraint and physical therapy and the brace and all of that, the the bottom line is trying to find the ways to incorporate it into your life that work for you while still sort of adhering to like what the science says will be useful and and helpful and all of those things. And so the braces were very warm, is the the biggest downside, but wear 16 hours a day out of the 24. So I was able to incorporate it into the sleeping and school regimen relatively easily, and so I'd go from around bedtime, you know, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night, to about after school, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, whatever ended up being 16 hours for that day. And then I would get to take it off for after school activities, the evening, dinner, like that relaxation and decompression time. And that's what worked for me. And so I had to go, I had to be willing to wear it during the school day, but it gave me some of that quality of life in those afternoons, which were the best time to be a kid and hang out with your friends and those sorts of things. And so finding the ways that those things can sort of work into your life.

Kelvin Crosby: 28:41

Yeah. Let me ask you this, and I know this was uh one big issue for me, was accepting accommodations for the struggle. Like at the beginning, like as you saw it, it it was starting to help you. But at the beginning, like were you like completely resistant? Like, no, we're not going here. Cause I know for me, when they told me I was going blind, and the next thing you know, they're saying, Here's a cane, here's this. I'm like, Oh I just got my driver's license. Like, you ain't gonna stop me and next thing you know, I'm realizing I'm rejecting all these services because I didn't feel like I needed them. But if I didn't have those services, I wouldn't have made some of the moves that I had later on in life. So I'm guess curious for you , and honestly, we got two different challenges. But I'm just curious, like how did you work through that and I gotta do this to make make me stronger, help me get over this and move on to the next step.

Charlotte Maher: 29:52

Yeah, that's a great question. There was certainly some complaining along the way. Dad loves to tell the best version of the story. And the, you know, the being the strong girl all the time. But there was certainly some some "yeah why" and being very resistive and sort of being unable to at certain times accept doing it now for gain later, even if you can't quite see it. I was a big like science, intellectual, cause and effect kind of kid. And so that was a big struggle at certain points for me. And so a wonderful physical therapist, my parents sort of fielded that a lot of that abuse at certain points when I was really struggling to sort of understand the true why of why all these things were going on. But I think, this is a really good question. I think there's a level of, for me at the very least, and everyone's very different, but for me, the things that were low resistance, and so the things that were easy to incorporate for me, so the AFOs, the back braces, certain ones of the therapies, I had some that I preferred more than others. The ones that were lower resistance and easier to sort of just suck up and incorporate and get over with and do, I didn't struggle very much with. And so a lot of that was the school stuff and the braces and that sort of thing. Whereas the ones that, to your point, with the the cane and the the driver's license and not wanting to sort of do certain things or give up certain things that you would sort of just gained access to, there was certainly some resistance to spending a half an hour a day doing eye exercises and leg exercises and hand exercises, mostly out of sort of naivety and being a kid and not understanding that that is the thing that would sort of give me the skills and the mobility that would give me the things that I wanted. It would give me the results that I really wanted that I was missing at the time. And so a lot of it just came with maturity, I think.

Kelvin Crosby: 31:49

I mean, I think uh we can keep going down this path, but really what I'm also really interested in into learning more is like what led you on the path that you decided to choose because to get to where you are today in the emergency side, you didn't get there by chance. You got there for a reason. So I'm curious what that story is.

Charlotte Maher: 32:12

Sure, absolutely. I think a lot of it is just sort of being in the right place at the right time and and sort of being exposed to different interests and having a chance to explore those interests at an age where you're sort of still developing. And so the interest in medicine, which I would say is still pretty strong, came about when I was right around the age of 16, so sophomore year of high school for me. And it was right around the time where Gray's Anatomy was really big and some of those medical shows, and all my friends were watching them, so I watched them too, and it just sort of it opened up a world that like middle school education doesn't really expose you to, and so it was it was really just a finding a new interest that was pretty sustained and pretty intense. And then when I went to GW, I was able to get my EMT certification and sort of put some of that interest into practice, and so for the entirety of my sophomore through senior year, I was on an ambulance for the school, and I did a ton of hours doing that, and it really engaged in what I sort of consider to be like my the four pillars and the four qualities that I consider to be really true to myself and that sort of transcends discipline or area of expertise, let's go with. And so that's really like opportunities to sort of engage in continuous learning and always learning more and expanding knowledge and expertise and experience and opportunity. This is sort of two-in-one, but to sort of teach er and mentor and be a role model and pass on that expertise to people, to be a leader, and so to sort of be a role model in a leadership type of way, and sort of be something that someone could formulate their own methods or things after, and then connection to the community. And so, like that came from everything about my family and my life growing up. And if we talk about Liv, we'll talk about the Buddy program and getting involved in special needs and functional needs sports and those kinds of things. And so, really being involved in the community and connection to the community, like I would consider that on top of some of those other things to be truly important to me beyond money or degrees or prestige or or whatever that might be. And so the EMT really gave me all of those things. And at GW, the EMT program is overseen by the emergency management department, and emergency management is, it's, the funny line is that we are tactical project managers, and so we write policy procedure, we coordinate people, we bring people together, and we are a resource during emergencies, sort of as subject matter expertise is sort of floating in the background. And I was lucky to land a student position working with them with a wonderful team and a kind boss who really cares about showing people the field because it's not super well known, and really giving students an opportunity to see where their interests lie. And I was fortunate enough to turn that into a full-time position upon my graduation and have been very, very happy with that opportunity and everything that's come with it.

Kelvin Crosby: 35:30

Alright, so some people are gonna ask this question, so I'm gonna ask it and tell me Kelvin you need the thing is a little bit straighter, but we'll see. But as you were in, so you talked about being an EMT, how does that work with your challenges with your left side? How did you overcome that? Honestly, you had to do that somehow. What accommodations did you apply into that?

Charlotte Maher: 35:56

Yeah, that's a great question. There is, I found a way and I didn't use a lot of accommodations. That was my my personal path through. But there were certainly things, there were certainly times where I felt that it was holding me back, or it was a bottleneck, or a choke point, or or had I had full strength and full mobility that the situation would be better for me, or I would feel stronger, or or things along that lines. And so things like there were times, well, let me go back. I think the the biggest thing that that helped me get through and and protected me from A, from needing certain accommodations, and B from from being or allowed me to do it all together was that EMT and and and things in the medical field in general are very teamwork-based. And so you're never alone. And so to have one or two or three other people with you who can hold the rope and and pick up some of the slack, and you know, the chain is stronger together, and all of those sorts of metaphors and things. And so if we had a heavier patient and I knew that, you know, the stretcher that we had had the handle to lift and lower on the left side. And so the accommodation that I or the modification that I did on my own was that I would I would not be the person on the handle because I could I didn't have the grip strength to pull under those kinds of those kinds of constraints. And so like there were some easy ways to sort of position myself or to use that teamwork to to get around it. And then there were other times where you have to make your own modifications, and so there are certain skills that you're supposed to do things with both hands at the same time and compare. So you'll you'll feel the person's pulse on both wrists, and you'll compare to make sure that it's the same on both sides, for example. And either a teammate would do that part for me, or my accommodation would be to do one immediately after the other and simply compare them the best that I possibly could. But because of that teamwork environment, I could always sort of pass to that partner and and keep that standard of care getting to those patients by working in that collaborative team.

Kelvin Crosby: 38:11

I mean, it's so, it's such a beautiful like way you kind of work through that. And I think that goes to kind of the the grit and really like I got this in building that confidence and then you're realize, all right, these are my limitations, but I can do this. And I think that's really really, impressive.

Chris Maher: 38:32

I think that you know something that Charlotte and I would talk about when she was younger, when she'd have those moments where you kind of, the kind of the it's not fair, you know, comment would come up and I would say to her you're right, it's not but it's who you are and it's reality, and so there are gonna be situations where you're gonna have to work harder. Right? And that gets back to just as you said, the grit that she's had ever since she was a younger kid, and and much of her life in a lot of situations, she's just had to work harder than everybody else to figure it out. And it wasn't about saying, Oh, give me help. She stubborn and was like, no, I'm gonna figure this out. And so it was working harder and it is developing that grit and that resilience. And oh, by the way, humble brag by the dad, she became a crew chief for her EMS group and also got licensed to drive the ambulance, and so just a great example of , yeah hey, I may have a a limitation or a disability, but I'm gonna work harder than everybody else and figure it out. And that's uh and that's true for many lived experiences of people with disabilities, right?

Kelvin Crosby: 39:44

I'm curious now as you've gone through this emergency side of things, what are you starting to see are the needs of accessibility, of getting access to emergency for people with disabilities, as you have worked in it and now starting to be more an active role in it? Like what are you starting to see in that space?

Charlotte Maher: 40:08

Yeah, that's a great question. I am actually this week about to wrap up a pretty significant training series through FEMA, considered the the FEMA Emergency Management Basic Academy. And so it's 180 hours worth of the core necessities, and something that is massively emphasized is access and functional needs and special populations, and how do we consider the people who you know don't fit the typical mold, or you know, all the different ways you could describe that. And so, really, in the the the bottom line is how do we care for the whole community, how do we engage with the whole community? That is the these are the like the fundamental principles of FEMA planning and and the best practices in our field. And A, I think that's really beautiful because it's true, and so I'm really glad that those best practices reflect the the nuances of our world and try to account for those people as best we can. The difficulties are are certainly still plentiful. I think that resources vary from place to place, and so urban environments and also, of course, political affiliation has a role, but we'll go with start with urban environments have a higher density of resources and typically people, and so more money gets funneled to those to those areas, and the infrastructure is therefore better. And so I am lucky to practice in a very urban environment that that cares for all of its people and has really strong infrastructure, and that includes for language barrier having translations for emergency messaging available for the plant, you know, the plenty of languages of the people that live in our area. Or, you know, I work at a university, and so specifically for us, we have students with with access needs and mobility needs. And so we manage the school manages a list of individuals who have identified as needing some extra support. And during an emergency, we are able to scan the list of individuals in an impacted area and make sure that those certain that certain subset of individuals get some extra attention and get some extra resources and that they're accounted for and safe. And so it really comes down to in the planning stage when you're writing policy and you're writing a budget and deciding what to invest in and what kind of technologies are important for your compute community. It's really, it really comes down to having representation and collaboration and making sure that you pull. I'm trying to think back to the training I did last week. They call them community champions. So the champion for the hard of hearing community or the the mobility needs community or or or you know it's really their champions on behalf of some of our community subsections, and so put pulling in as many of those people as you can and being cognizant of their culture and their language and their terms and what works for them and what doesn't, and really just doing your best to incorporate all of that as best as you possibly can.

Chris Maher: 43:23

It's really neat how as you talk through that Char, another thing that we talk about a lot on this podcast is universal or inclusive design. And so are the policy and procedures that you design, which is fantastic to hear.

Kelvin Crosby: 43:36

Charlotte, what do you see in the future for emergency needs for for people with disabilities and where do you see is the biggest need like for FEMA or natural disasters to help or whether we could do that with technology or other strategies, what do you see is the biggest need in this day age?

Chris Maher: 44:06

Yeah, Charlotte, your boss, whose name also happens to be Chris, like what does your group talk about in terms of that stuff that Kelvin just mentioned? And I'd be really interested to know, like what are those technologies? AI, you guys do a lot of coordination with the surrounding universities and Washington and I think the government, right? Because you're so close to the capital. But yeah, that's a really good question, Kelvin. Like, sure, what do you guys talk about?

Charlotte Maher: 44:32

That's huge. That question is everything. And so the the future of our field and the future of technology and the future of people and human geography and where we're gonna be and where we're gonna be living, and what does transportation look like, that is the thing. I think it really comes down to building systems. And so we're never gonna be able to plan for everything. We're never gonna be able to have a plan for what we , hazard planning is what it's called. You'll never have a plan in your back pocket for every single thing that could happen to your area. It's just not realistic. And so, A, we write hazard agnostic plans is what they're called. And so plans that focus on protecting people, property, business, the economy, all the things that keep people safe and functioning, housing, all of those things, critical infrastructure. Planning for those things regardless of what it is that's causing a disruption. And so if the electricity goes out or there's a flood, or in a lot of ways, they're all the same, and they all need the same things. They might need different specialists to actually get to the root of the problem and sort of fix the root of the problem, but our people need the same things. They're called community lifelines, and so everyone needs housing and shelter and food and an ability to stay connected to their people and all of those things. And so our systems are built to account for those things, regardless of what is happening to us, and then we adjust as necessary to you know the multitude of things, you know, a meteor could drop tomorrow, and then what are you know, what are we gonna do? And so it really comes down to building good systems, investing in good technology, maintaining collaboration as best as we can with as much of our population and our community as we can. And so I'm very thankful to be in DC who focuses a lot on that collaboration. And so when something happens, big or small, in the district, as Dad said, we can all come together in one space, and everybody's got a champion. And so there's a representative from every type of infrastructure, there's a representative on behalf of the universities and the Red Cross and all of these organizations who take care of us, they all get to be in this room and be a part of getting us through and recovering from whatever it is. And so I think more than trying to foresee what's coming and what people are gonna need, it's to be as connected to people as possible and to build systems that work for our people and make sure that we can connect with everybody. And so communications is also the biggest thing. Now you got me rambling on my this is.

Chris Maher: 47:27

I tell you waht, I feel, I am comforted and feel much better about the future, having heard all that.

Kelvin Crosby: 47:32

I'm like, I'm like, she's articulating this. I'm like, yeah!

Charlotte Maher: 47:35

The core three functions of emergency and emergency planning and preparedness and resilience, all the buzzwords that everybody loves are the real words that we use every day, are public information, coordination with our partners, and planning. And so if we can protect those things, those three things and build systems to get information to absolutely everybody through closed captioning and you know ASL captioning and whatever technology is bringing us next for that, to get language to as many people, emergency language, to as many people as we can, that we plan for these things and we have at least some consideration of what we're gonna do when that meteor drops, and that we can collaborate with each other to really try to support the community as best as we possibly can and then recover and come back together and be in a good place once again.

Chris Maher: 48:30

Well, it's Kelvin, we've talked about this on the show, but I think, Charlotte, you summed it up very nicely, and and I've used this phrase a few times, and I really believe it. I think that we're at a moment in time, probably the the best moment in time where if we work together, as you were just saying, Charlotte, we have a chance to create a world that's not just better for some of us, but better for all of us. And it's good to know that you're working on that, my friend. Love you, kiddo.

Charlotte Maher: 49:00

I love you too, Dad. And you too, Kelvin.

Kelvin Crosby: 49:03

I'm like, oh, we getting a mushi gushi now. Do we need to pull out some mushrooms? Oh man. Well, I'll sign us out today. Charlotte, it's been an honor having you on the Investing in Accessibility Podcast. If people wanted to reach out to you, how would they get a hold of you?

Charlotte Maher: 49:24

That's a great question. What do people usually say?

Chris Maher: 49:29

LinkedIn.

Charlotte Maher: 49:30

Well, I got LinkedIn.

Chris Maher: 49:31

And then what about any links to the work that you folks do at the GW Office of Emergency Management that you could include?

Charlotte Maher: 49:39

That's a great question. The the campus safety at GW website, it's safety.gwu.edu. It's pretty GW specific, but there's some good templates and things up there for emergency planning and resources and communications plans. And so one of ours is, you know, if your cell phone stops working, how are you gonna call your mom three states away? And the answer is not quite interstate applicable, but it's "runners" is the official term. And so you have people with papers who run back and forth communicating with messages and things.

Chris Maher: 50:09

We'll put those links in the show notes.

Charlotte Maher: 50:13

Yeah. Any resources with FEMA, any way you can support FEMA. FEMA genuinely does a lot of work for a lot of people who otherwise would not have access to resources and recovery and response and you know, all the stories from hurricanes and other disasters like it. Those are those are our people for real.

Chris Maher: 50:30

All right, Charlotte. Thank you for coming on the show today. I love you, kiddo.

Charlotte Maher: 50:34

I love you, Dad.

Chris Maher: 50:35

Very proud of you.

Charlotte Maher: 50:36

Thanks. Have me back. We'll talk about Liv.

Kelvin Crosby: 50:40

All right, well, that wraps up Investing in Accessibility. As I always say, go live beyond your challenges, and we'll see you in two weeks. Thank you for listening to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast, where we invest in change for accessibility, not wait for change. If you want to follow us, you can find us on YouTube or LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners. If you would like to invest in Samaritan Partners, email Chris at chris@samaritanpartners.com. If you'd like to learn more about us, go to www.samaritanpartners.com. You can take the first step in investing in change by giving us five stars and sharing this podcast with everybody that you know so we can spread the word so that we can give access to all by Investing in Accessibility.