Career Development Program Workshop
Presented by
Asian Pacific State Employees Association (APSEA) &
Association of California State Employees with Disabilities (ACSED)
APSEA and ACSED invite you to our monthly workshops open to anyone interested in learning about career development and upward mobility.
Wednesday, Occdtober 29, 2025, 12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m.
RSVP! APSEA/ACSED October 2025 CDP Workshop
Session Title: Leading in Challenging Times: Using your Lived Experience to Build Skills and Abilities for Success
Session Speaker: Kim Rutledge, Director of the Department of Rehabilitation
RSVP NOW!
Session Overview: Being a leader during difficult times requires unique skills and abilities. Some of these come from formal education and training while others come through our life experiences. Director Rutledge, who was born with a significant physical disability and has been a wheelchair user since she was a toddler, will discuss how her lived disability experience informs her work. She will also discuss how various experiences which are often seen as barriers or challenges can actually help us build skills and abilities to lead and help us to become transformative leaders for positive change. Join this dynamic session to hear how you can leverage your life experiences, including ones that seemed to be difficult, to become a more effective leader in the face of policy and other challenges.
About the Speaker: Kim Rutledge, a nationally recognized leader in the disability community, was appointed Director of the California Department of Rehabilitation by Governor Newsom in January 2025. In this role, Rutledge leads the nation’s largest vocational rehabilitation and independent living programs, which advance employment and independence for people with disabilities. Rutledge has been with DOR since May 2022, when she joined the department as Deputy Director of the Office of Legislation and Communications. Previously, Rutledge held multiple positions at the California Department of Social Services, including policy branch chief for In-Home Supportive Services and program administrator for Adult Protective Services.
Before entering state government, she was Assistant Legislative Director at the United Domestic Workers of America, which represents nearly 200,000 In-Home Supportive Services providers throughout California. She was the Sweeney Graduate Intern on Disability Policy at the National Academy of Social Insurance in Washington, D.C., and a Graduate Policy Intern at the Disability Community Resource Center in Los Angeles.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor at several publications, including the Sacramento Bee and the Oakland Tribune.
She earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Social Welfare degree from the University of California-Los Angeles.
Registration Instructions:
In order to attend this workshop, you must pre-register by clicking on the “Workshop Registration Form” below by 5:00 on Friday, October 24, 2025. Please note that the system will not permit duplicate registrations. If you need to correct or update your registration, send an email to the address listed below.
Once you submit your registration, you will receive an email confirmation. Then, the day before the workshop you will receive another email containing the Zoom link. Should you experience difficulty registering using the form below or if you fail to receive the follow-up email with the Zoom link prior to the workshop, send an email to apseacdp@gmail.com
Registration is free of charge for those who are APSEA or ACSED members, and employees of the Department of Rehabilitation which co-sponsors the CDP workshops. DOR employees must provide a valid DOR email address to register free of charge.
Other attendees must pay a small fee to register. You may pay $5.60 online, which includes fees charged by PayPal.
If you are not a member but want to be able to attend these workshops free of charge, you can use the following links to join ACSED or APSEA before the registration deadline:
To join APSEA, please visit http://apsea.org/membership/
To join ACSED, please visit https://www.acsedonline.org/get-involved/