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Helping Others

JORDAN STEAD / AMAZON

Former Detroiter works to bring
Amazon jobs to those with disabilities.

Senior
Beauty
Queen

Rae McIntosh
has never let age
“surrender her fun.”

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rae McIntosh

I

Dan Robin on the
Amazon campus in Seattle

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

D

an Robin works for Amazon,
where his job is to help the
company employ people with
disabilities.
The Metro Detroit native, who has
lived in Seattle for nearly four years, was
drawn to his current line of work from
a young age — he grew up in a family
with a parent who developed mental
and physical disabilities as the result of a
brain tumor.
“It was always in the back of my head:
‘How do you create as much impact
as possible for these folks?’” he says.
Building opportunities and fighting for
justice on this front is a civil rights issue,
he says, adding he hopes to help move
the needle on the disability unemploy-
ment rate.
As of 2016 data from the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the unemployment
rate for people with a disability is 10.5
percent, compared to 4.6 percent for
people without a disability.
Today, in his role in corporate human
resources at Amazon, he’s helping
orchestrate recruitment, training, evalu-
ation and assessment that will transition
more people with disabilities into jobs
within the company. Amazon tested the
model in 2015 with a small cohort, and
this year has hundreds of hires at nearly
two dozen locations across the country.
It’s a good move for business, Robin
says, as the hires over-performed in their
roles.
“I take that experience growing up
and say, ‘How do we charge through this
and change expectations?’ If you look
at the world as supply and demand, you
have these companies who don’t have,
I don’t think, high enough expectations
for people with disabilities,” he says.
Dave Niekerk, who worked in human

14

December 28 • 2017

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resources for Amazon for some 17 years
before retiring last year, met Robin a few
years back when Robin worked for the
Northwest Center, which places people
with disabilities in jobs, including at the
time with Amazon’s reception desks. The
two met and discussed how to facilitate
more such positions within Amazon.
Their initiative grew successfully,
Niekerk recalls, and when a job opening
came up, Robin joined Amazon.
“What I most enjoy about Dan is
that he is relentless in his advocacy for
people with disabilities, and his ability
to connect with others, to be able to get
them to understand the possibilities,”
Niekerk says.
With Amazon creating so many
new jobs across the country right now,
Niekerk says, “This could really be a
game-changer for employing people
with disabilities, and Dan could be at the
forefront of that.”
Robin, who attended University of
Michigan for his bachelor’s degree in
political science and his master’s degree
in social work, moved to Downtown
Detroit from Ann Arbor in 2010. He was
active in — and lived across the street
from — the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue.
There, he met Dennis Blender, an
organizational psychologist and Ph.D.
Their paths crossed again at a workforce
development-focused leadership acad-
emy.
“Dan is really bright, very energetic,
very enthusiastic and very committed
to helping others,” Blender said. “And
he is on a path to do whatever he can
to change the world for those in need,”
particularly those with developmental
challenges. •

t’s never too late to be a beauty
queen. Just ask Rae McIntosh, the
70-years-young winner of the 30th
annual Ms. Senior Michigan pageant.
When McIntosh decided to enter
the competition at the suggestion of a
friend and former pageant winner, she
thought it would be a “fun diversion.”
She did not expect to come home
with a crown.
“I wanted to win, but I was trying
to be realistic about my chances,” said
McIntosh, who lives in Beverly Hills
with her husband, David.
When she was announced as the
winner of the pageant, held last sum-
mer at the Older Persons’ Commission
in Rochester, she was elated.
“It was amazing, really exciting. It’s a
real huge high when they choose you,”
said McIntosh, who grew up in Oak
Park with sister, Lenie, and her par-
ents, the late Al and Pearl Shapiro.
The six contestants were judged on
four criteria: a private interview with
the judges, a talent performance, a
35-second presentation on their phi-
losophy of life and poise — their ability
to exude confidence and grace while
wearing an evening gown and reciting
their personal philosophies. There was
also a choreographed opening number,
where each contestant had the oppor-
tunity to introduce herself.
For her talent presentation,
McIntosh sang her favorite song, “Pure
Imagination” from the musical Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Her
philosophy speech embodied her gen-
eral attitude about life.
“Retirement isn’t the end of anything;
it’s the beginning of freedom,” she said.
McIntosh, who majored in speech
and theater at Wayne State University,
is no stranger to the stage. Since college,
she has performed frequently in local
theater productions and some films; her
first audition, in the late 1950s, resulted
in a part in a University of Michigan
student film called A Little Past Nine.
Her most recent and one of her favorite
theater roles was Eleanor in The Lion
in Winter, performed by the Dearborn
Players Guild last March.

McIntosh also spent time in
California, where she landed parts in a
couple of indie films, an internet series
and an internet commercial.
She entered her first beauty pageant
when she was 17, placing as runner-up
in the Miss Oak Park contest, a Miss
America preliminary competition. After
that, she stayed away from the pageant
circuit until this year.
“The most competitive thing I did
was audition for shows,” she said. “It’s
extremely competitive, keeps you on
your toes.”
Being crowned Ms. Senior Michigan
entitled McIntosh to compete in the
Ms. Senior America Pageant, held last
month in Atlantic City. She was accom-
panied by her husband, David, her
sister, Lenie Bershad of West Bloomfield
and her daughter, Elizabeth, a hair and
make-up stylist in Shelby Township,
who made sure McIntosh was runway
ready throughout the rigorous four-day
competition.
McIntosh described the national pag-
eant as “extremely intense” and glitzier
than the Michigan event.
“I’ve never seen more sequins and
rhinestones,” she said.
Despite the glitter, McIntosh found
the other contestants down-to-earth
and mutually supportive.
“The women were lovely; there wasn’t
a diva in the bunch,” she said. “They
were very vital; none of them looked
their age. I think that’s important for
people to know about seniors. Just
because you turn a certain age, doesn’t
mean you have to surrender your fun or
your coolness.”
As the reigning Ms. Senior Michigan,
McIntosh has enjoyed participating in
local parades, a car show and Senior
Day at the Detroit Zoo.
“When you wear your crown and
banner, people want to know what your
story is,” she says, “and I’ve found it
enjoyable to talk to strangers. That’s not
something I’ve done before. I enjoy it
very much and, instead of ruing my lost
youth, it’s made me more appreciative
about being a senior.” •