Special screening of CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION
Tuesday, October 27, 5:00pm
UC Davis Campus (Building TBD)
James LeBrecht has over 45 years of experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, filmmaker, author and disability rights activist. LeBrecht co-directed and co-produced, with Nicole Newnham, the 2021 Oscar nominated feature length documentary, Crip Camp. Crip Camp received the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for feature length documentary and the 2021 Independent Spirit award for Best Feature Documentary.
Jim began his career in the theater in 1978, working as the resident sound designer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for 10 years. His theatrical sound design work took him to many, well known theaters, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse and ACT in San Francisco. In 1989 he found a home at the legendary Saul Zaentz Film Center where he started out as an apprentice and worked his way up the ladder to become a sound designer, mixer and sound supervisor.
In 1996, LeBrecht founded Berkeley Sound Artists, an audio postproduction house. He quickly found a home in the documentary and independent film community. His film credits include Minding the Gap, The Island President, The Waiting Room, Audrie and Daisy and, of course, Crip Camp.
Jim co-authored Sound and Music for the Theatre: the art and technique of design. Now in its 5th edition, the book is used as a textbook all over the world.
Jim’s work as an activist began in high school and continued at UC, San Diego, where he helped found the Disabled Students Union. Jim is a former board member at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, which works for the rights of the disabled through education, legislation and litigation. Most recently (March 2025), Jim directed the film Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a documentary about the activism that took place to pass the ADA.
Some of LeBrecht’s additional accomplishments include co-founding FWD-Doc, an organization that supports documentary filmmakers with disabilities and being a character consultant for Pixar Animation Studios for 2 of their films. He has been a mentor at the SFFILM’s FilmHouse residency fellowship for 3 years.Jim is honored to be a member of the Disability Futures Fellowship, an initiative of the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Watch Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on YouTube
Denise M. Rozell, JD (Maryland) is the former Director of Policy Innovation at AUCD focusing primarily on
policy issues affecting transition age youth, including inclusive postsecondary education. Prior to joining AUCD, she spent fifteen years as Assistant Vice President for State Government Relations with Easter Seals. Denise was the primary resource to Easter Seals 75 affiliates in building capacity to increase awareness of and support for Easter Seals in state government. Prior to that, Denise was the Executive Director of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, an international membership organization for the professionals serving individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Denise holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a juris doctorate from the School of Law at the University of California in Berkeley.
Stephanie Smith Lee is the Co-Director of Policy and Advocacy at National Down Syndrome Congress
(NDSC), where she previously served as Interim Executive Director, Senior Policy Advisor, and Vice President. With more than thirty-five years of experience in disability rights and public policy, Ms. Lee has held senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and on the Senate HELP Committee, as well as serving as Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education. In that role, she directed the development, implementation, and evaluation of the federal special education law, IDEA, overseeing billions in grants to states and national activities programs.
Since her daughter Laura was born with Down syndrome in 1982, Ms. Lee has been a leading national advocate for inclusive education, employment, and community living. She led the successful effort to amend the Higher Education Act (HEA) to include students with intellectual disability, securing federal financial aid and support for model programs and the national coordinating center. She continues that work as Co-Chair of the Inclusive Higher Education Committee and as Past Chair of the National Coordinating Center Accreditation Workgroup, and currently serves as Board President of the Inclusive Higher Education Accreditation Council.
Her career highlights include key roles in the reauthorizations of IDEA 1997 and IDEA 2004, leadership on bipartisan initiatives such as the ABLE Act and Ticket to Work, and serving as a Senate appointee to the national Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel. Ms. Lee has trained thousands of grassroots advocates, built successful state and national coalitions, and delivered more than 300 presentations on disability rights, education, employment, and civil rights.
She has received numerous honors, including the “I.D.E.A. Hero Award” from The Arc of the United States, the “Distinguished Service to Education Award” from George Mason University, and the “National Leadership Award” from the State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Students with Intellectual Disability.