DALE PICARD

CO-FOUNDER  & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dale@ecad1.org

Dale comes from a large farming family in the northern part of Maine. When he was nineteen, he left for Connecticut with a high school friend and found work in the iron industry. He also found his soon-to-be bride, Lu. They were soon married and had two daughters while traveling for Dale’s iron work.  Four years later, Dale and Lu came back to Connecticut and began working for his brother-in-law’s highly successful software company. While Lu loved her position managing the warehouse and distribution, Dale dreamed of having his own business. In the years to follow, Dale would own and operate two very successful delis in the Granby, CT area and start his own landscaping business. However, when Lu’s father came to live with them, her passion for educating both children and dogs to help people living with disabilities became his own. In 1995, Dale began converting their home in Torrington, CT into kennels and office space, repurposing materials from the existing structures. He did this, not knowing that his hand-built space would transform into the volunteer and awareness hub that is the present-day Laura J. Niles Breeding and Volunteer Center. Dale has made ECAD his supreme labor of love, and continues to do so each day.

LU PICARD

CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
Lu@ecad1.org

Prior to founding ECAD, Lu helped several businesses in their startup efforts and gained experience in business and administration. Though a native of Connecticut, Lu has also lived in Arizona and traveled the country extensively.  When Lu’s widowed father suffered a debilitating stroke in 1992 and came to live with them, she quickly recognized that he was becoming more depressed and angry, as he had to rely on someone else for his every move. Lu has a gift of being able to assess the possibilities, the potential of a situation. So, she looked at her Dad, and she looked at the family dog, Jules (short for Juliet.) The leash was in her hand. She pulled, Jules pulled, natural to both woman and dog. Within a short time, Lu had educated Jules to respond to her Dad’s tug by pulling him up to his feet. Then they would walk together. Or maybe Jules would retrieve a favorite magazine or just lie nearby, inseparable from Lu’s dad. To complete the picture that was forming in Lu’s mind, she found that her daughter, who had a learning disability, had no trouble in training Jules to do more and more things that would help her grandfather. In fact, the process was therapeutic and a great confidence builder. The stroke suffered by her father and the frustration her youngest daughter was feeling, drove Lu to find solutions.  And, ECAD was born out of that drive, passion and need.  Lu and her husband, Dale worked tirelessly researching, networking, following lead after lead to build ECAD into the organization it is now.  Lu sees every placement as a remarkable success for the Client, the student-educator and the organization.

LESLIE JOHNSON

DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
Leslie@ecad1.org

Leslie was introduced to the organization many years before her work with ECAD began.  While attending Quinnipiac University and majoring in Public Relations, she approached her classmate (Carrie Picard) to do an internship with ECAD as part of her coursework.  ECAD was just beginning then, but she saw the “immeasurable potential and worth in its mission”.  Ten years later, in 2012, when she returned to Connecticut after living in rural New Mexico for some time she re-introduced herself to the organization by volunteering for the Marketing, Development & Communications Department. A few short months later, she took on a full-time staff position in order to dedicate more time to furthering ECAD’s mission.  She loves that her work “contributes to improving the quality of life for both the Clients and the student-trainers” as well as her own.

CARRIE PICARD

DIR. MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Carrie@ecad1.org

Carrie is the eldest daughter of Co-Founders Lu and Dale Picard.  So, ECAD is in her blood.  She has lived every step of the organization. After graduating from Quinnipiac University with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business, she moved to Boston, MA to accept an opportunity at the corporate headquarters of Stop & Shop, a company she was employed by for ten years.  In 2010, she was ready for a career change and there was no better choice than to join the family business! Carrie started out in the Marketing Department and the rest is history. She transitioned into her current position as Director of Marketing & Communications over a year ago and has helped ECAD expand even more. She enjoys, “seeing my parents’ passion becoming my own and being dually vested in the organization not only to further their dream but to further my own of being an advocate for people living with disabilities”.