Building Her Personal Passion Into a Career

Monica Reha grew up watching her parents with disabilities navigate the world.

“My mom is blind, and my dad had low vision and was hard of hearing,” says Monica.

With five brothers, Monica recalls a traditional — albeit a little chaotic — upbringing in a large family.

“But it was different because our parents had disabilities. My brothers and I saw the challenges they faced in keeping employment or finding work when they were unemployed.”

Monica recalls a difficult time when her dad was out of work for a year.

“He was highly qualified for some of these things he was applying for, but he would go into interviews and they would see his thick glasses and his hearing aid and think, ‘This guy’s not going to be able to do this work.’”

Monica’s father eventually found work, but the family had to move to a new city.

“There were a lot of things that I saw that made employment, that made everyday life, difficult for them,” Monica says.

A communications major in college, Monica says she “didn’t intend to become an accessibility champion for my career.”

“But I always raised my hand and asked, ‘Is this the right thing for people with disabilities?’”

Monica joined Edward Jones about three years ago but has been leading disability inclusion teams for 17 years. Although she was able to make some meaningful changes at her previous employer, she says Edward Jones is different.

“I’ve never had to sell the importance of disability inclusion at this firm,” says Monica. “What sets Edward Jones apart is that the idea of making sure the experiences we create, whether digital or physical, are accessible for people with disabilities has never been an idea that I’ve had to push. It’s simply complete common sense to everybody I’ve come across.”

This became clear to Monica from her first day at Edward Jones. Her onboarding required scheduling meet-and-greets with leaders and general partners from across the firm.

“I came from a culture at my previous employer where people were so busy that you could always tell they didn’t have time for those types of meetings and were just counting the minutes until they could move on to their next big important thing,” she recalls.

Based on that experience, Monica found herself “almost apologizing” as she asked to schedule time with firm leaders.

“What was completely amazing to me is that they were all saying, ‘Don’t apologize; this is the best part of my job.’ And even more astonishing, when I told them about the disability inclusion work I was leading, they all said, ‘This is so important.’”

She shared another “aha moment” that underscored for her the importance of her work to firm leaders. Monica received an interoffice envelope from Edward Jones Managing Partner Penny Pennington. It contained an article about AI and accessibility and a note to Monica to “keep up the good work!”

“I was floored,” says Monica. “Just the fact that disability inclusion is on the mind of our managing partner — it’s amazing to me.”

As a mother of four children, two of whom have non-apparent disabilities, and the daughter of parents with disabilities, Monica says her work is meaningful — and personal.

“I love that I get to do it, and I love that I get to do it here for a firm that really takes it seriously,” she says.

“Disability inclusion is part of the culture. It’s part of what we do every day. It’s not a check-the-box for compliance sort of thing. It really fits into how we approach our daily business.”