ABOUT KATHRYN
Kathryn Weit was a mother, an advocate, a mentor, and a matriarch of a movement.
Starting her career as a reading teacher, Kathryn’s life flipped upside down when her son Colin was diagnosed with significant Intellectual and Developmental Disability in 1981.
After attempting to navigate a broken system to access essential services for her son, Kathryn changed careers.
Kathryn was on a mission to ensure individuals with I/DD and their families in Oregon had a voice. As one of the first parent lobbyists in the state, Kathryn became part of a frustrated group of parents known as the “Mothers from Hell.” Their strategy was to bring anger with levity and awareness to the issues surrounding the DD community. They developed a reputation in the state as a force to be reckoned with.
Kathryn continued to funnel that passion into action, taking on a job as an activist, policy analyst, and lobbyist at the state capitol in Salem. Commuting from Portland every day, Kathryn became a well-respected pillar of the capitol community. While short in stature, Kathryn could command a room. Admired on both sides of the aisle for her straight-talking, no nonsense approach, Kathryn was never considered a partisan lobbyist. “Disability occurs within all families,” she was known to say. She fought tirelessly on both a state and federal level, advocating for and crafting legislation to protect essential services for families and children with I/DD. During her more than twenty years at the Oregon state capitol, she served as a frequent advisor to governors and mentored many past and current Oregon politicians.
Kathryn worked on behalf of countless organizations including the Arc of Multnomah County and Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities. She created the Oregon Family Support Council, and established policies that would end the ‘waitlist’ for essential services. She was instrumental in creating Oregon Respite, a program that was adopted across the nation to support families to access respite care.
Kathryn led efforts to open Oregon’s Medicaid waivers to children with significant medical needs and behavior support needs allowing them to receive support in their own homes. Worked to ensure that Oregon children who were medically fragile could access in-home nursing and live in their family home rather than a nursing home.Kathryn ran Partners in Policy, and was instrumental in the closing of Oregon’s largest institution, Fairview. She played an integral role in the development of brokerage services in Oregon, allowing the I/DD community to have a voice in their futures.
Kathryn spent her life working to encourage people to tell their stories. She knew this was a movement of many and that, although powerful, her story was just one. She fought tirelessly for equaity, justice, and inclusion for all Oregonians.