Mark Turley, Treasurer

This is a brief account of my professional, educational, and volunteer recent history. I worked for the US Navy for 20 years, retiring in 2005 after my vision became bad enough that I could no longer efficiently do my job. Unfortunately, I was not involved in any advocacy groups that could help in learning about accessibility and ADA accommodations. In 2007 I became involved with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and their philosophy has helped me immensely. I then served as the secretary for the Salt Lake Chapter and am now the President of the Salt Lake Chapter of the NFB of Utah and also serve on the state board of directors. I also went through training at DSBVI in 2009-10 which taught me invaluable non-visual skills to live a full, successful life. I am much more confident traveling independently in challenging areas and I still read braille every week. I am a current client of Vocational Rehabilitation. I am a student at the University of Utah studying for a Master’s degree in teaching. I have been able to maintain a 3.9 GPA and was fortunate enough to win two NFB scholarships and a U of U scholarship which was applied to my tuition, lowering the amount paid by Vocational Rehabilitation.