I've been with DRC since 2005.

My title is Senior Advocate Specialist, and I work for the Pathways to Work unit. I help clients who are receiving services from the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) or are looking to get services from them. I provide a lot of advice, work on cases, and work on case representation whenever we can.

I also serve as the Chair for the State Rehabilitation Council, which is a council for different stakeholders that are involved with the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), different vendors, and community organizations that do a lot of employment work for people with disabilities. So that’s been really neat to have an internal way of doing systemic advocacy and not just doing individual cases. It’s nice to talk with DOR leadership and other community advocates to talk about different systemic concerns and come up with recommendations. That’s been a really neat experience, and also, I’m really grateful that I was able to kind of fall into that, given my experience.

I was recommended by my manager to join the council. Once I was in that role, the council decided to nominate me to be the Chair, and I accepted. I've been the Chair for the past three years, and I think it's because I have a lot of experience with DOR and I know a lot of the rules and how it works, and I think people look up to me for that because I just have a lot of knowledge about the inner workings of DOR.

There's just so many different areas within the Department of Rehabilitation—different service areas that we can help in. I think the main issue areas are helping individuals get higher education services like getting their college paid for, or their graduate degrees paid for, or even doctorate degrees. That takes a lot of systemic efforts because the law before didn’t really support individuals advancing in their employment or getting support for higher education degrees.

However, because of our policy work and just pushing DOR to update their own policies with regard to training, they ended up changing the law to make it clearer. This change allows higher education approvals so people who want to maximize their employment can now go to DOR and get help with a master’s degree or a doctorate degree if they want. I feel like that was a pretty big accomplishment that I was a part of and was able to kind of see from start to now, and how it's positively affecting the DOR clients.

Yes, I do. I think my main drive would be my younger sister, her name’s Jessica, and she has a developmental disability, so she’s a client of the regional center in San Diego. She’s always received special education services. I was always really involved with her care, and my parents are wonderful advocates for her, but growing up, they didn’t have the best English, so I would help out a lot. In helping, I realized, wow, this is a big area of need. Like she has my mom, my dad, and she has me, and we all work together to help her, but not everyone has that kind of support. And so that led me to just become more interested in learning more about disability rights, and I gained an interest in wanting to help others who don’t have as much support.

 I went to see a comedy show recently where I saw Nikki Glaser. It was really, really good. 

Just feeling supported, having supervisors and managers that have always been supportive. I’ve always felt like it was a safe space for me. That’s part of the reason why I’ve been very active with our ERG’s (employee resource groups), I’m part of the 10-Plus Legends, and the Family Members with Disabilities ERG. I helped start the 10-Plus Legends and started the Family Members ERG on my own. They’re a good way for other employees to kind of feel like there's a sense of connection.

If there's a need to talk to someone or talk to people, I think that's helpful to first just be able to vent about things. And so, if there are friends or family that they can rely on just to have someone to talk to, I think that's probably like one of the main things: finding that support.

I would recommend taking advantage of all of the different training opportunities and things that we offer. If there's any opportunity for in-person things to try to really dive into all of the things DRC has to offer because I think that’s a really good way to meet others and get a full experience. Being connected and participating in all of our meetings, I think that really opens up other connections and opportunities.

Probably to learn how to save and invest early. Like money management skills.

Probably being assigned to be the Chair of the State Rehabilitation Council. That has really opened up a lot of opportunities and connections. I’ve learned how to be a leader, how to communicate, and how to be assertive.

Be kind to yourself and to others. I feel like the energy that you put out or put into things, you usually kind of get back. I always try to kind of carry myself in a way that others would want to approach me in the same way.

I think they would say I am patient, kind, and reliable.

Usually I go outside—I love hiking, backpacking, and going camping.