Community Leadership

PPSV attorneys are active members in their communities. Some examples of our work-related community involvement are:

• Stan Freeman serves on the Board of Directors of National Student Partnerships, as the Founder of the Burning Tree Elementary School Educational Foundation, and has coached youth baseball for twelve years.
• Joel Hamme is President-Elect Delegate to the American Health Lawyers Association. He will become President of the Association in July 2008. Mr. Hamme has long served the AHLA, recently as Secretary, Executive Committee Member, Board of Directors Member, Finance Committee Chair, Treasurer, Chair of the Practice Groups Committee, and Chair of the program on long term care law, a post which he held for 10 years.
• John Kemp currently serves as a member of the nonprofit Boards of Directors for several organizations, including: the United States International Council on Disabilities; the National Rehabilitation Hospital of Washington, DC; and The Abilities Fund. Mr. Kemp served as a presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability for six years ending in early 2002. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), serving as its Chairman for three years; Independent Sector, serving nine years and as its Vice Chairman; the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), of which he is a co-founder. Mr. Kemp has also served as Chief Executive Officer of United Cerebral Palsy Associations, VSA Arts and Half the Planet Foundation, and serves in that capacity for Disability Service Providers of America, a lobbying trade association. He has served as General Counsel and Vice President - Development for the National Easter Seal Society and managed Kemp & Young, a law firm that advised companies on state and federal civil rights, employment and education laws and policies regarding persons with disabilities.
• Mary Susan Philp serves as Chair of the Arlington County Commission on Aging, which advises the County Board and Agency on Aging regarding issues affecting older persons.  In 2005-2006, she headed the Commission's Medicare Education Committee and was actively involved in Medicare Part D outreach and counselling. 
• Jim Pyles serves on the Board of the Maryland National Capitol Homecare Association and on the Board of the American Association Home Care Physicians. This is pro bono work.
• Bob Saner serves as general counsel to the National Organization on Disability, is a Director for the United Way in Kent County, Maryland, and is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Kent School, also in Kent County.
• Bobby Silverstein is Director of the Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy.The Center conducts research and analysis of complex public policy issues affecting individuals with disabilities and their families.