Our Story
Why the capital L and S in InLeadS?
The capital L and S in our name is a nod of gratitude to our friend and colleague, the late Dr. Shelley Dumas of the University of Texas, mom, and trainer extraordinaire. Shelley coined our name, originally Innovations in Leadership and Supports, and the InLeadS acronym, many years ago. Shelley, and her daughter Katherine, who communicates in many ways other than speech, taught us all so much about learning to listen and observing behavior to understand communication. Many people say it, but Shelley and Katherine helped the world see that behavior is communication. Shelley died in early 2021 and keeping the name InLeadS is one way we can honor her work, so people and families feel heard.
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How did we get here?
Leigh Ann Kingsbury, MPA, Gerontologist, Principal Consultant, founded InLeadS Consulting as a part-time independent consultancy in disability services and person centered practices in 1998, and moved to a full-time venture in 2021. Leigh Ann's areas of expertise and passion are focused around policy and practice in disability and aging services, broadly described as facilitation and planning – with individuals with disabilities who use services and supports, older adults, families, organizations, and governmental entities.
Leigh Ann worked with Michael Smull and Suzie Burke Harrison in the late 1980s to develop Essential Lifestyle Plans (ELP) for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities leaving state institutions, along with others with labels of challenging behavior. ELP was one the original formal person centered planning modalities, and it remains the crux of the work in Person Centered Thinking© training and planning.
In the early 2000s, Leigh Ann explored existing processes for helping with disabilities engage in advance care planning, and discovered a gaping hole in structured processes and planning. In partnership with Quality Trust, she developed People Planning Ahead: A Guide to Communicating Healthcare and End of Life Wishes, published by AAIDD in 2009. Today, Leigh Ann, and colleague Mary Beth Lepkowsky of Helen Sanderson Associates USA use their experiences in person centered planning and advance care planning to support facilitators in: Person Centered Approaches to Healthcare Decision Making. Leigh Ann's passion remains using person centered practices to help people remain in control of their lives, up to, and including all the way through the end of their lives.
