Anthony “Tony” P. Sauer, paralyzed from the waist down after a motorcycle accident when he was 18, was appointed Department of Rehabilitation director in 2007.

Sauer founded a cabinet making business in 1979 and operated in until 1992. He joined the FREED Center for Independent Living in 1990 and became executive director in 1994. Shortly before leaving FREED in 2001, Sauer earned a master’s degree in management and disability services from the University of San Francisco.

From 2001 to 2003, Sauer worked as the Department of Rehabilitation’s director of external affairs. He then became executive director of the Nevada-Sierra Regional In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority, where he managed recruiting and training of more than 1,000 workers. He left in 2007 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him DOR director.

Sauer has served as chair of the Health and Human Services Agency Olmstead Advisory Committee’s assessment and transition workgroup.  He is a member of the California Association of Public Authorities Legislative Committee and a former Building Standards Commission member. Sauer was also a co-chair of the Communications and Information Technology Workgroup, which operated under the California Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Task Force.

Sauer, who lives in Grass Valley, California, was a fellow in the Health Leadership Program at the Sierra Health Foundation and University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.  He also is a graduate of the Independent Living Center Mid-Management Training Program that Cornell University offers.

Sauer retained his post as DOR director when Governor Jerry Brown took office in 2011 and left in 2014.

Director’s Statement (DOR website)

Anthony Sauer Honored for Work on Behalf of People Living With Disabilities (by Ryan Rauzon, California Progress Report)

Grand Pooba at DOR (LinkedIn)