To Table of Contents ended up leaving Georgetown with a French degree with a minor in economics . I was kind of a lost soul in the sense that I didn ' t really know what I wanted to do when I grew up .
Do you think your time at Georgetown helped you prepare to be an advocate for the community ? I got an internship with my congressman , who was running for Senate . When I got to his office , I finally felt like I belong [ ed ] somewhere . It [ was ] like , this feels good , I like these people [ and ] this work . They were fun and dedicated Iowans . It was the first time in my Georgetown career that I was like , I could do this . I liked it so much that I ended up working two days a week .
I graduated at the end of May 1985 and started working in the senator ' s office in July as the receptionist . Ten hours a day I answered the telephone . It was absolutely fascinating because it was during the middle of a farmer crisis . We talked to desperate farmers all day long , or old [ er ] people who just needed somebody to talk to . It was a great learning experience .
By the time 1987 came along , Senator Harkin was chair of the Subcommittee on The Handicapped . We changed the name to the Subcommittee on Disability Policy . Senator Harkin was the Chief Sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act . I was back up staff to Bobby Silverstein , our staff director . That was certainly an experience of a lifetime , to be able to work on culturebearing change . I got to meet all the different aspects of the disability community . I met with lots of different people within the business community .
Senator Harkin and Katy Neas
When I left Capitol Hill , I had a series of jobs . The most profound one was working at Easterseals where I was for almost 23 years , and I did public policy on behalf of kids with disabilities and their families , early education , K-12 . Over the course of those 23 years , I went from one of the lobbyists to running the office .
Had I not had that job on the Hill , I never would have been