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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 19, 1995

        PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES FOUR MEMBERS TO THE PRESIDENT'S 
                    COMMITTEE ON MENTAL RETARDATION

     The President today announced his intent to appoint the following

individuals to the President's Committee on Mental Retardation:

Steven M. Eidelman of Maryland has been the Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation in Washington, D.C. since January of 1993. Previously, he was the Deputy Secretary for Mental Retardation for the Department of Public Welfare in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is the Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) and a past Board Member of the National Association of State Mental Retardation Program Directors. Mr. Eidelman is a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. of New York is the founder and President of Reaching Up, a non-profit organization that supports the higher education and career advancement of direct care workers in the disability field. Through the Consortium for the Study of Disabilities at the City University of New York and the Kennedy Fellows Program, Reaching Up has provided scholarships, career mentoring, and specialized college training to thousands of dedicated direct care workers throughout New York State. Mr. Kennedy served for several years as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Robin Hood Foundation, as well as an Associate Trustee of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation. He is a graduate of Brown University and New York University Law School.

Barbara Yoshioka Wheeler of California is Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. She also serves as Director of Training in Nursing at the University Affiliated Program at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, Project Director of the California Personal Assistance Services Project and the Self-Advocacy Project and as an Evaluation Consultant to the Black Infant Health Programs in the California Department of Health Services. Dr. Wheeler obtained a B.S. in Nursing from the University of California at San Francisco, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sheryl White-Scott of New York is the Director of Adult Health Services at the Westchester Institute for Human Development and an Assistant Professor for the Department of Medicine at New York Medical College. From 1989 to 1993, she was the Director of the Developmental Disabilities Fellowship Program at the Montefiore Medical Center. She is a Diplomat to the American Board of Internal Medicine and has New York State Medical Licensure. Dr. White-Scott has made 20 presentations on topics related to developmental disabilities. She is a member of the American College of Physicians and the American Association on Mental Retardation.

The President's Committee on Mental Retardation provides such advice and assistance in the area of mental retardation as the President or Secretary of Health and Human Services may request, and makes annual reports to the President concerning mental retardation.

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