Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Murfee-DeConcini.
Hi Keith, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The podcast Disability Empowerment Now began its recording at the end of 2021 and launched in early 2022. During the third season, in 2023, it became a video cast featuring people across the disability community. Now, with over sixty episodes, I am amazed that this idea was in my head just a few years ago, and I had no idea I could pull it off. It’s hard work, but I work with an amazing team of young professionals to put it all together every week, and the guests that I get to interview just empower me to bring my passion and commitment to every episode! I was born in the 1980s with mild Cerebral Palsy, and I couldn’t speak until age seven. I was a curious child, and that curious nature fuels every episode I have on Disability Empowerment Now. I seek to show that disability can and does affect everyone in some way, shape, or form, and it is nothing to hide from or be afraid of. People with disabilities live life with as much passion and determination as their non-disabled peers, if not more, by design of our lived experiences. My name is Keith Murfee-DeConcini, and while I am the current voice and face of Disability Empowerment Now, I am constantly collaborating to show how diverse the disability community is and always has been.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It is only possible with the team I work with and alongside. It was designed as an interview show, so having guests at every show was always how it was envisioned. It is a constant work in progress that adapts, changes, and evolves with every new season. We take in feedback, refine it, and propel our creative passions to make the project even better, more insightful, and more empowering throughout the seasons. The team that works alongside me is as passionate as I am about the project and the impact of its message, and that’s extremely important!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have gotten to interview some incredible people like Dr. Temple Grandlin, former politicians, Tony Coelho, Dennis DeConcini, Jennifer Longdon, Ron Barber, business leaders, Tucson Children Clinics’ CEO Jared Perkins, Disability Rights Arizona’s J.J. Rico, Disability Rights California’s Andy Imparato, actors with disabilities, (Daniel Woodburn, Anita Hollander, Kurt Yaeger, Steve Way, Tobias Forrest) among others. I feel very grateful that I’m able to interview people in and surrounding the disability community and highlight the passion that they bring to their work and to the communities that they live in. Awards like Tucson’s 40, Under 40, and Marquis’s Who’s Who have recognized the work that my team and I do, but hearing how much an episode means to someone or how it changed their view about disability means more to me than any award. The passion fuels the work, and the work continues. The work can only be done because of the people who work alongside me to bring the project to life every week, and I am incredibly grateful to them.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
There are too many to list; I will end up forgetting someone if I try to list them all. My parents, Elizabeth Murfee DeConcini and Dino DeConcini, are the two I would be without. Elizabeth is a writer and was a nonprofit consultant once upon a time, and Dino is also a writer and was a lawyer and an educational consultant. They were both involved in politics and fostered a strong sense of helping others wherever possible. Communication was pivotal in my household growing up, being curious, talking things through, and figuring things out. My mother wanted to earn a Master’s in nonprofit management, but she had me instead. I got that degree honoring my mother and her passion for forward change. Working on that degree led me back home to my second degree in disability studies, eventually leading to Disability Empowerment Now. Without my mother’s passion and instilling a passion for writing and my curious nature about other people and hearing their stories about what makes them who they are and why they do what they do, none of this would be remotely possible. So, my mother is the one who ignited the dream, and every successful thing I do can be traced back to her because of the passion, determination, and empowerment she has fostered in me, and that continues to this day.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.disabilityempowermentnow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disabilityempowermentnow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/disabilityempowermentnow
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/disabilityempowermentnow/
- Twitter: @DisabEmpowerNow
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DisabilityEmpowermentNow
- Other: https://disability-empowerment-now.castos.com/; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disability-empowerment-now/id1619717032
