CQL is excited to continue our Monthly Staff Spotlight series in 2025! This offers an opportunity for you to get to know our team even better. For our January article, we’re featuring Carli Friedman, CQL Director of Research!
Mary Kay Rizzolo, CQL President & CEO, was thrilled to nominate Carli for our Monthly Staff Spotlight. She shares, “I have had the privilege of working with Carli for over 15 years now. Carli is the most prolific writer I know and has a gift for translating complex statistical findings into information that organizations and people with disabilities can use in their day to day lives.” Mary Kay adds, “She does a wonderful job of making sure we are always looking inward to explore our attitudes and how they can influence the people and systems we are actively working to support. She is also one of the funniest people I know and my go to when I’m looking for a new show to watch.”
We’ve asked Carli a series of questions about her history, background, experiences with CQL, as well as some questions to get to know her better.
What is your position at CQL and what does that role encompass?
I am the Director of Research at CQL. My research focuses on ableism, personal outcomes / quality of life, HCBS, and social determinants of health. Basically, I spend a lot of time looking at numbers and words, and trying to make sense of them!
Why did you decide to get involved in the human services field?
In middle school I worked as a peer tutor with students with IDD in the special education classrooms. After that I knew I wanted to work with people with IDD but didn’t think becoming a special ed teacher was for me. So instead in I pursued psychology, until I found Disability Studies which was exactly the type of focus on disability that I was looking for.
What is your professional history, background, and experience?
In undergrad at the University of Delaware I studied psychology with minors in Disability Studies, women and gender studies, and educational studies. From there I got my MS and PhD in Disability Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and was an Illinois LEND fellow training in neurodevelopmental disabilities. While at UIC, I worked at the Institute on Disability and Human Development (IDHD) for someone you may know called Mary Kay Rizzolo.
At IDHD, we did research about Medicaid HCBS and community integration for people with IDD; Mary Kay served as one of my advisors and gave me great opportunities, including the particularly memorable task of cleaning out old records in the creepy basement of our building, which used to be an institution. After a postdoc position in community engagement and knowledge translation, somehow unperturbed by my basement cleaning assignment, I joined CQL, following Mary Kay who took over as president and CEO a few years before. I’ve now worked for CQL for 8 years.
What are three skills you have that help you in your work?
- Creative
- Introspective
- Hardworking
CQL Lightning Round!
You’re stranded alone on a desert island and have 3 books to keep you company. Which books are you reading until you’re rescued?
Pretty much anything by Octavia Butler
If you could choose one superpower, what would it be? What is the first thing you would do with your new power?
Teleportation; I’d travel constantly.
What is the first concert that you ever attended?
Hanson, only because I was out of town when the Spice Girls came (devastating!)
Name the TV show you could have on repeat 24/7, 365 days a year.
Golden Girls 👵🏻👵🏻👵🏻👵🏻
If you had to teach a class on one subject, what would it be and why?
Disability Studies for obvious reasons, or cooking – one of my favorite jobs was working for a place where we taught kids how to cook!
What was your first job?
I worked at a grocery store, bagging groceries, collecting grocery carts in 100+ degree Florida weather, and cleaning the public restroom.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Marine Biologist 🐬🪸
Do (or did) you play any instruments? If so, which ones?
I played the flute in elementary school!
What do you like to do for fun, in your free time?
Hiking 🥾
How many US states/territories have you been to? Which state was the most memorable?
32, Washington state
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About CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership
Since 1969, CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership has been a leader in working with human service organizations and systems to continuously define, measure, and improve quality of life and quality of services for youth, adults, and older adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities. CQL offers accreditation, training, certification, research, and consultation services to agencies that share our vision of dignity, opportunity, and community for all people.
Carli Friedman: January Monthly Staff Spotlight