Posted on April 28, 2021
**As we are still in the process of finalizing our conference, all of the speaker line-ups are tentative**
ADAO Virtual 16th Annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference
“Where Knowledge and Action Unite”
September 17-18, 2021
2021 Conference Info | Honorees and Keynote Speakers | Registration | Agenda | Friday “Art, Advocacy, and Shared Stories” Film Festival | Saturday Academic Conference | Saturday Awards and Recognition Ceremony | Sponsors | Exhibitors |Media | Meet the Speakers Blog Series | Previous Conferences |
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to present the weekly series “Meet the Speakers and Honorees,” which will highlight esteemed participants of our highly anticipated 16th Annual International Asbestos Awareness & Prevention Conference! The ADAO conference, which will take place virtually on September 17-18th, 2021, combines expert opinions, victims’ stories, and new technological advancements from nearly 10 countries across the globe into one united voice raising awareness about asbestos. ADAO is the only U.S. nonprofit that organizes annual conferences dedicated solely to preventing asbestos exposure and eliminating asbestos-caused diseases.
Friday Film Festival “Art, Advocacy, and Shared Stories”: Jill Cagle, Kim Cecchini, Ellen Costa, Zack Johnson, Laura and Bob Kuzmick, Daniel Lambo, Connor B. Lewis, Paolo Monico, Barbara McQueen (Invited), and Dr. L. Christine Oliver. 
***
Jill Cagle is a performer and Mesothelioma Widow. She is the surviving spouse of Mesothelioma Warrior Robbie Cagle, who lost his 6-year battle with Peritoneal Mesothelioma on 9-11-11 at the age of 46. She is a mother and now grandmother of 3. She is a Christian and her faith in God truly sustains her. She is the lead singer in the Band Backstreet and plays the Fiddle. She makes primitive crafts and candles and she loves to ride her Harley and feel the wind in her hair. She has been associated with ADAO since 2007 and has now started an annual Motorcycle Ride, “Ridin the Wind with Rob”; which includes a 110-mile ride, dinner, silent auction, raffles and t-shirt sales to raise funds for awareness and ultimately a CURE of Mesothelioma. Jill and Rob marched on Capitol Hill in 2010 to help get Illinois to sign the National Asbestos Awareness Day Bill and also met with the DOD. She is committed to doing whatever it takes to get this killer 100 % banned. She is truly honored and proud to be a part of this organization.
Kim Cecchini, ADAO Board Member, has been involved with the organization since its founding in 2004. She is a senior communications strategist, with more than 25 years of experience managing diverse PR and corporate communications programs for a wide variety of high-growth companies, specializing in technology and the federal sector. She currently resides in Raleigh, NC.
Ellen Costa is a Strategy Consultant at Wells Fargo Home Lending and ADAO Board Member. Ellen has been a volunteer with ADAO since 2012 and is honored to be of service to this very special organization; its mission, founders and supporters. Professionally, she has been in the financial services industry for over 25 years and has served firms in marketing, communications, product management and strategic planning. Her current position at Wells Fargo Home Lending is as a strategy consultant in the financial reform regulatory environment. Inspired by Linda Reinstein’s commitment and passion in making change, influencing political policy and advocating for practical issues on a global level, lead to her involvement with the organization. The awareness, family support and leadership ADAO provides in creating the change needed in this world is truly powerful. Most importantly, she believes in Linda Reinstein and is truly privileged to serve the mission of ADAO.
Zack Johnson is a filmmaker and adventurer from Alton, Illinois. Since a young age he has always had a video camera in his hand but he never thought it would take him anywhere. A natural storyteller, Zack is always looking to give and get a good laugh – he realized a video camera was another way to make that happen. A simple guy who wants and needs for very little just lives his life to be a story worth listening to in the end. He is a friend of nature and finds great peace when hunting, fishing, and trapping – most often with his dog, Doc.
Robert and Laura Kuzmick met in 1999 while working in the same office building for Montgomery County, PA as Social Service professionals. Bob has over 25 years of experience working with delinquent youth and is currently a Supervisor with the Montgomery County Juvenile Probation Department. Laura has worked in the Family Court Divisions of both Montgomery and Bucks Counties in Pennsylvania. Bob and Laura were married in 2001 and bought their home in Ambler, PA in 2002, where they did extensive renovations. After realizing that much of the materials in their home contained asbestos, Bob began to research the dangers of asbestos and reached out to ADAO for information and support. Bob and Laura have since committed themselves to promoting awareness of asbestos in the home and have volunteered their time with local and national ADAO events.
Daniel Lambo is a Belgian film director. He creates films on themes as human rights, social inequality and poverty. Lambo’s first feature film, Miss Homeless (2010), was written, produced, directed, filmed and edited entirely by himself. This docu-fiction about homeless people in Brussels premiered in twelve different countries on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Dry Branches of Iran (2012) deals with censorship during the Green Revolution in Iran and De Figurant (2016) takes on racial stereotypes with a story about a drug dealer who has acting ambitions. In his latest feature, the documentary Breathless, Lambo investigates the delocalization of the asbestos industry to developing countries.
Conor B. Lewis, After Lewis obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts, he began his career in digital media at an agency in St. Louis, Missouri. Here he cut his teeth, shooting productions for large national and international corporations. After several years spent in agency life, Lewis was recruited by a large metropolitan St. Louis firm, to manage their in-house creative team. This move created the flexibility to shoot “Dirty Laundry”, the 2018 asbestos documentary. Lewis grew up in St. Louis, Missouri where he resides today with his wife Molly, his daughter Elizabeth and his dog George. He spends his free time riding bikes and on his other “full time job” as a painter.
Barbara Minty McQueen is the widow of American film star Steve McQueen, and is a former model and photographer. She is also the author of Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, which documents the three-and-a-half-year relationship between the two and includes candid photographs from 1977 to 1980. McQueen has hosted several art exhibits of her work with shows in London, Tokyo, San Francisco, Nashville, Phoenix and Idaho, where she resides.
Paolo Monico has been running an enduring and successful career in directing commercials and music videos for the past 20 years. He writes, directs and produces short films and web content through his NY-based production company and he is currently developing “The Suit,” a limited series based on “The Mother,” his award-winning short film inspired by the mystery surrounding the death of his father, Sandro, who passed away in 2002 from mesothelioma. Born and raised in Italy, in 2006 Paolo moved to the US, became an American citizen and a proud member of the Directors Guild of America.
Christine Oliver, MD, MPH, MS is an adjunct professor in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Health in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON. She is a consultant to Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). Dr. Oliver has an occupational and environmental medicine consulting practice in Brookline, MA. She was formerly an associate clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Division) at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Oliver’s primary specialty is occupational and environmental medicine, with an emphasis on occupational lung disease. Dr. Oliver is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini and has done research and published in the area of occupational lung disease, with a focus on asbestos-related disease. She has lectured frequently on this topic, including more recently the determination of risk for asbestos-related lung cancer. Dr. Oliver has testified before Congress and OSHA on issues related to asbestos and other workplace exposures. She has also testified as a medical expert on behalf and at the request of asbestos victims and their families.
***
In Unity,
Linda