Experts List

The following is a list of sources with expertise in a range of disability issues. They have agreed to respond to reporters’ questions and make themselves available for interviews.

Stephanie Alves

 

Steve Doig

  • Title: Knight Chair in Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Arizona State University
  • Expertise: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability civil rights issues; the legalization of assisted suicide (opposed by DREDF)
  • Location: Phoenix, AZ
  • Email: steve.doig@asu.edu
  • Website:  Arizona State University Faculty Bio

 

Betsy Furler, MS, CCC-SLP

  • Title: Founder, For All Abilities; navigating the intersection of business and disabilities; expert in technology solutions for people with disabilities
  • Organization: For All Abilities
  • Expertise: Expertise: Tech solutions for people with disabilities, speech pathology, augmentative communication, works with app developers and tech companies that want to improve the accessibility of their products, consultant for films with characters with disabilities.
  • Location: Houston, TX
  • Email: betsy@forallabilities.com
  • Website: rwjms.umdjn.edu/boggscenter/

 

Regine Gilbert

  • Title: Senior User Experience Designer; Adjunct Professor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering
  • Expertise: User Experience Design; Web Accessibility; Digital Storytelling; Accessibility and Mixed Realities; Human Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Location: New York, NY
  • Phone: (646) 512-2650
  • Email: reginemgilbert@gmail.com
  • Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginegilbert/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/reg_inee

 

Marilyn Golden

  • Title: Policy Analyst
  • Organization: Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
  • Expertise: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability civil rights issues; the legalization of assisted suicide (opposed by DREDF)
  • Location: Berkeley, CA
  • Phone: (510) 549-9339
  • Fax: (510) 549-9449
  • Email: mgolden@dredf.org
  • Website: www.dredf.org

 

Shannon McCracken

  • Title: Vice President of Government Relations
  • Organization: ANCOR, a nonprofit trade association representing 1,400+ providers of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD)
  • Expertise: Advocate and federal lobbyist with expertise in Medicaid, managed care, federal agency regulations, and a range of other policy issues facing I/DD service providers. Previously served as a provider, owned her own case management company and worked in advocacy at the state level in Kentucky.
  • Location: Washington, D.C.
  • Phone: (703) 535.7850
  • Email: smccracken@ancor.org
  • Website: www.ancor.org

 

Tamie Hopp

  • Title: Director of Government Relations & Advocacy
  • Organization: VOR – This national organization advocates for a range of living and service options for people with disabilities, including institutional options.
  • Expertise: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as interpreted by the Olmstead v. L.C. decision and other federal disability laws; the impact of deinstitutionalization; state trends. Contacts with family advocates, attorneys and others in involved in disability advocacy across the country.
  • Phone: 877-399-4VOR
  • Email: info@vor.net
  • Website: www.vor.net/
  • Twitter: www.twitter.com/tamiehopp

 

Erin Hoppe

  • Title: Executive Director
  • Organization: VSA Ohio
  • Expertise: Disability and the arts
  • Phone: 614-241-5325
  • Email: ehoppe@vsao.org
  • Website: www.vsao.org

Jill Houghton

  • Title: CEO and President
  • Organization: Organization: Disability:IN, the leading non-profit resource for corporate disability inclusion worldwide. More than 200 corporate partners look to Disability:IN for guidance on disability inclusion, including recruitment and outreach, supplier diversity and accessibility.
  • Expertise: Expertise: How Fortune 500-1000 companies have advanced their disabilities inclusive policies and programs, with guidance from their industry peers within the Disability:IN network as well as Disability:IN resources.
    Disability:IN co-leads the Disability Equality Index with the American Association of People with Disabilities, used by over 200 corporate partners for performance benchmarking to determine “The Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion”. For workforce development, Disability:IN’s NextGen Program helps build the talent pipeline for young leaders with disabilities. Finally, Disability:IN is the leading certifier of disability-owned business enterprises and is widely accepted by the public and private sectors..
  • Location: Remote.
  • To request an interview please contact Elaine Kubik, Director of Marketing and Communications. (elaine@disabilityin.org)
  • Website: www.disabilityin.org/staff-member/jill-houghton/
  • LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-houghton-0324024/
  • Twitter: www.twitter.com/jillhoughton

Heidi Johnson-Wright

  • Title: Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator
  • Organization: Miami-Dade County; University of Miami
  • Expertise: Title II ADA Compliance (both programmatic and facilities); issues involving people with physical disabilities, especially wheelchair users; disability issues involving local governments; issues involving architecture and disabilities.
  • Location: Miami Beach, FL
  • Phone: 786-564-5160
  • E-mail: hjohnsonwright@yahoo.com

 

Valerie Karr

  • Title: Director for Research Programs
  • Organization: Victor Pineda Foundation
  • Expertise: Child education and public awareness strategies and campaigning, with a strong clinical background in special education and a track record of effective advocacy both nationally and internationally in the area of disability rights.
  • Location: Garden City, NY
  • Phone: (516) 877-4091
  • Email: vkarr@adelphi.edu
    Website: www.pinedafoundation.org

 

Jay Klein

  • Title: Associate Clinical Professor in the Arizona State University School of Social Work in the College for Public Programs
  • Expertise: Leader and educator in efforts to include people with disabilities in community life and help translate professional practices into everyday realities for all people.
  • Email: jay.klein@asu.edu

 

Simi Linton, Ph.D.

  • Title: Writer, filmmaker and disability/arts consultant
  • Expertise: disability and the arts, disability studies as a field of inquiry, conventions of language, disability activism and disability rights.  The author of Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, and the memoirMy Body Politic, and a producer and director of the forthcoming documentary film Invitation to Dance. 
  • Location: New York, NY
  • Phone: (646) 281-1504
  • Email: simi4@yahoo.com
  • Website: www.similinton.com

 

Tony Lombardo

  • Title: Multiple Sclerosis survivor
  • Organization: Let’s Hear Your Story (LHYS), a community blog about conquering life’s obstacles
  • Expertise: Author of On Both Sides of The Fence: How to Successfully Lead a Fulfilling Life Despite the Presence of Any Physical Challenge with Craig Schwab. Enjoys public speaking. Counts his mom, a breast cancer survivor, and Robert R. Ingram, a Medal of Honor recipient, as mentors.
  • Location: New Jersey
  • Phone: (609) 660-1529
  • Email: justttt@verizon.net
  • Website: http://www.letshearyourstory.org/

 

Tim McGuire

  • Title: Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University
  • Expertise: Parenting of a child with disabilities, disability and spirituality, disability and ethics.
  • Email: tim.mcguire@asu.edu

 

Barbara Merrill

  • Title: Chief Executive Officer
  • Organization: ANCOR, a nonprofit trade association representing 1,400+ providers of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD)
  • Expertise: Former attorney and elected official with expertise in disability policy and long-term supports and services for people with I/DD.
  • Location: Alexandria, VA
  • Phone: (703) 535-7850
  • Email: bmerrill@ancor.org
  • Website: https://www.ancor.org/

 

John Morris

  • Title: Travel Accessibility Expert
  • Organization: WheelchairTravel.org
  • Expertise: John is a triple amputee and travel writer who uses a power wheelchair to explore destinations around the world. His website provides guides for navigating accessibility challenges while traveling with a disability.
  • Location: Orlando, FL
  • Phone: (850) 273-1212
  • Email: john@wheelchairtravel.org
  • Website: https://wheelchairtravel.org/

 

Susan Parish

  • Title: Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Disability and Director, Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
  • Also the Director of the Doctoral Progam in Social Policy at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
  • Expertise: Children with autism, disability policy, poverty policy, health of children and adults with disabilities, racial disparities in health care access, poverty and disability.
  • Location: Waltham, MA
  • Phone: (781) 736-3928
  • Email: slp@brandeis.edu

 

Victor Pineda

  • Title: President
  • Organization: Victor Pineda Foundation
  • Expertise: Nationally recognized expert on disability policy. Founded California’s first Disability Media Center. Has worked for the U.S. Department of the Treasury in evaluating development policy and foreign aid.
  • Location: Los Angeles, CA
  • Phone: 310-467-4556
  • E-Mail:  victor@pinedafoundation.org

 

David M. Perry

 

Irene Richard

  • Title: Movement disorder neurologist and researcher, and an investigating senior medical adviser to the Michael J. Fox Foundation
  • Organization: University of Rochester
  • Expertise: Parkinson’s Disease, and its mental and emotional aspects
  • Location: Rochester, NY
  • Phone: 585-275-7937
  • E-Mail: irene_richard@urmc.rochester.edu

 

Shelly Rosenfeld

  • Title: Co-director, Cancer Legal Resource Center, a program of the Disability Rights Legal Center
  • Website: cancerlegalresources.com
  • Expertise: Rosenfeld is an attorney and co-director of the Disability Rights Legal Center’s Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. She provides legal resources to people with cancer-related legal issues, health care professionals, and caregivers nationwide, and leads presentations on a variety of topics related to legal rights for people with cancer. Ms. Rosenfeld previously worked as a TV anchor and reporter.
  • Location: Los Angeles, CA
  • Phone: 562.452.3182
  • E-Mail: SR@drlcenter.org

 

Darrell Shandrow

  • Expertise: Blindness, accessibility, technology, IT, software.
  • Organization: Blind Access Journal
  • Website: blindaccessjournal.com
  • Email: darrell@blindaccessjournal.com
  • Location: Tempe, Arizona

 

Eleanor Smith

  • Title: Director
  • Organization: Concrete Change
  • Expertise: Basic access in all new houses, i.e. Forming and implementing policy to change the new house construction norm from the current lack of any access features to routine inclusion of basic access in all new houses.  This movement is variously known as ‘Inclusive  Home Design’ ‘Visibility’ or ‘Basic Home Access’ It emphasizes the access features most important for people with mobility impairments to visit or reside in a house – at least one zero-step entrance, ample interior doors widths and access to a bathroom.
  • Location: 600 Dancing Fox Road, Decatur, GA 300320
  • Phone: 404-378-7455
  • E-mail: concretechange@mindspring.com
  • Website: http://www.ConcreteChange.org/

 

Paul Thompson

  • Title: Professor of Neurology
  • Organization: University of California-Los Angeles
  • Expertise: Schizophrenia research
  • Location: Los Angeles, CA
  • Phone: 310-206-2101
  • E-Mail: Thompson@loni.ucla.edu

 

Nadine Vogel

  • Title: CEO, Springboard Consulting, a global company working with corporations, governments and agencies around the world to mainstream disability in global workforces, workplaces and marketplaces.
  • Expertise: Workforce and workplace issues, including talent Acquisition, employment, learning and development, compliance, accommodations, disclosure, business resource groups, and physical and web accessibility.  Also marketplace issues such as branding, creative, communications, media, outreach, events and accessibility in relation to the acquisition and retention of customers with disabilities and their families.
  • Location: Mendham, N.J.
  • Phone: 973-813-7260
  • Email: Nadine@consultspringboard.com
  • Website: http://consultspringboard.com/nadine-o-vogel-bio/
  • LinkedIn: Nadine Vogel, MBA, CSP, CSPGlobal
  • Twitter: @NadineVogel

 

Christina Vorndran

  • Title: Senior Clinical Director, Developmental Disabilities Programs
  • Bancroft (non-profit organization focusing on children with disabilities)
  • Expertise: Vorndran is a board-certified behavior analyst and a New Jersey certified school psychologist, with particular expertise in children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
  • Location: Haddonfield, NJ
  • Phone: 856-524-7032
  • E-Mail: vorndran@rowan.edu