Sheri Farinha

Chair

Sheri Farinha is a nationally known civil rights advocate on behalf of deaf and hard of hearing people in the areas of education, employment, and telecommunication. She has been the CEO for NorCal Services for Deaf & Hard of Hearing for more than 30 years. Sheri graduated from Cal State University, Northridge with both her BA and MA, her MA in Special Education. However, her career choices led her to become a life-long education advocate. She is a well-known activist who argued that the LRE ("least restrictive environment") policy had the opposite effect on deaf students who were isolated when placed in local public setting without support services and specialized instruction by certified teachers of the Deaf. Sheri continues to advocate against such blanket inclusion policies that can escalate harm to learning. 

As the Director of LEAD-K (Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids) national campaign for policy changes for 0-5yr old Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants and toddlers, she advocated for states’ accountability to ensure Deaf children are kindergarten ready when they arrive to school. The first such legislation passed in California in 2015 which became a model for other states. The new California law required the California Department of Education to disseminate information about language milestones, assess and track language development of Deaf children under 5 years old and publish aggregated language outcomes data in an annual report. To date, 23 States passed their own LEAD-K bills with ACLU’s partnership.  

Since 2020, Sheri is serving the Principal Investigator of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) federal grant program, LEAD-K Family Services at NorCal providing Early Start Referrals for families with infants who have been identified as deaf or hard of hearing through the California Newborn Hearing Screening program. LEAD-K Family Services connect families to support including early intervention with the goal of ensuring every Deaf child have early exposure to language.

Sheri’s legislative experience includes testifying before Congress on access, educational and employment issues for deaf and hard of hearing people and assisting legislation in California to establish onsite Deaf and Hard of Hearing support of Division of Labor at the Employment Development Department and the budget augmentation to Department of Social Services line item for the Deaf Access Programs in California. 

Sheri’s advocacy for access to 9-1-1 began in 1991 when she filed a complaint against Los Angeles Police Department with the U.S. Department of Justice for their failure to respond to her 911 TTY call.  The resulting 1994 settlement between LAPD and the U.S. Department of Justice was instrumental in the DOJ enforcement of 911 TTY access in 150 cities under Attorney General Janet Reno's leadership. Sheri continued her advocacy for access to 911 when she was appointed by the FCC to the Emergency Access Advisory Committee in 2011. In California, she assisted with the passage of SB 1211 that required all PSAPs to deploy text-to-911 service by January 1, 2021. 

Sheri is responsible for facilitating the creation of the state’s Disaster Response Interpreter (DRI) curriculum working with the late Richard Devylder who was the Director of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. The DRI curriculum has become a statewide standard for ensuring that the Deaf people have access to information during natural disasters by training and preparing qualified interpreters to interpret during disasters. Having DRI interpreters available and present for news conferences was significant in ensuring that Deaf people have access to information during the pandemic and the recent natural disasters.   

Sheri is a task master and a team collaborator with the ability to bring different stakeholders from the Deaf and Disabled communities with representatives from government programs and entities to the table to discuss best ways to achieve effective communication and access for all.  Sheri has received multiple awards and recognition for her advocacy and leadership, locally, statewide, and nationally.  

Keris Jän Myrick

Vice Chair

Keris Jän Myrick is a leading mental health advocate and executive, known for her innovative and inclusive approach to mental health reform and the public disclosure of her personal story (as featured in the New York Times series: Lives Restored). She has over 15 years of experience in mental health services innovations, transformation, and peer workforce development.

Keris is known for her collaborative style and innovative “whole person” approach to mental health. She is the Vice President of Partnerships at Inseparable, the policy liaison for The National Association of Peer Supporters (N.A.P.S.) and on the Mental Health of America board of directors. She is the developer and host of the podcast “Unapologetically Black Unicorns” focusing on mental health, race equity and lived experience.

Keris was formerly the Chief of Peer and Allied Health Professions for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and has served as the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs for the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the United States Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and was the Board President of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She is a Co-Editor of the Journal of Psychiatric Services “Lived Experience and Leadership” column and has authored numerous peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Keris has a MS in organizational psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University and an MBA from Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Kathleen Barajas

Treasurer

Kathleen Barajas is a Disability Rights Advocate, an accountant, and President/Founder of Project AIR. She has an Associate of Arts degree in Business Administration, an Associate of Arts degree in Media Arts, a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, and an Advanced Certificate in Accounting. She also recently earned a Certificate of Completion from Disability Voices United for their Emerging Leaders Program. 

Kathleen was born with cerebral palsy and has been a Disability Rights Advocate since 2010. She has become more actively engaged in the disability community throughout the years, including serving on various committees such as LAX’s Disability Access and Accommodation Advisory Committee, the Department of Rehabilitation’s Assistive Technology Advisory Committee, PASC’s Registry Review Committee, and the State Council on Developmental Disabilities’ Regional Advisory Committee. 

From 2018 to 2020, she served as the President, Newsletter Editor, and Web Mistress of Californians for Disability Rights, which was the oldest and largest membership organization of persons with disabilities in California. From 2020-2022, she was appointed to the State Independent Living Council, where she served as Vice-Chair of both their Communication and Collaboration and State Plan for Independent Living Committees, along with being their representative on the Cal Able Board. She currently serves on Los Angeles Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee, where she is the First Vice Chair.

Kathleen received the Access Award from Los Angeles County Commission on Disability, District 5, and the Community Service Award from Disabled Resource Center, Long Beach. She was also crowned Ms. Wheelchair California in 2016 and won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ms. Wheelchair America 2017 Pageant in Michigan. During this time, she was honored to speak on various disability issues as a Disability Rights Advocate throughout California. 

Kathleen is excited about serving on the Board of Directors to be a strong voice for individuals with significant disabilities, especially those who use augmentative communication and require long-term services and supports. She takes pride in working on issues that improve accessibility in our communities, improve our needed services, and serve as a spokesperson throughout the Los Angeles area.

Mariza Ochoa de Anzar

Secretary

Mariza Ochoa is working towards obtaining a Bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific to become a Spanish literature teacher. She was the winner of the Jan Good Award in 2019.

She is a former president of "Fuerzas Unidas," empowering families with children who have a disability through education and advocacy. Since 2017, she has been a member of California's Gamaliel organization, fighting for equal opportunity for all communities.

She advocates for families with children with disabilities, fighting for social justice and equal rights in housing, migration, and education for those where not knowing the language impedes learning about their rights. She focuses on barriers to education and comprehensive development.

Mariza lives in Stockton and is the mother of a 10-year-old boy diagnosed with autism, apraxia, and ADHD.

"I am very excited to belong to the Board of Directors of DRC because they fight for children and families to have a better life."

Tony Borrego

Tony Borrego is a seasoned strategic legal advisor. Tony has a unique set of skills based on his practiced of corporate law for 24 years together with significant finance experience as a partner in a Los Angeles based boutique investment banking firm and as a private equity professional at American Capital, Ltd., a publicly traded private equity firm and global asset manager that had over $60 billion in assets under management.

Tony began his legal career at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where over 9 years at the firm he successfully represented many Fortune 500 clients, global private equity firms and middle market business owners in various transactional matters with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, finance transactions and international transactions.

Approaching every client matter with an emphasis on finding practical solutions, Tony has an impressive track record, advising clients on over 200 transactions with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $20 billion.

In 2016, Tony founded Spring Street Business Law PC, a transactional focused law firm serving entrepreneurs, business owners and investors at all stages of the business life cycle.

Tony was appointed to the California Insurance Guarantee Association (also known as "CIGA") Board of Governors by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. CIGA has over $4 Billion in assets under management. CIGA has three separate funds organized by line of business that cover (1) workers' compensation claims, (2) homeowners and automobile claims (including personal injury), and (3) all other claims (e.g., products liability and commercial).

Tony was previously the President of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation that operates under contract with California’s Department of Developmental Services in accordance with the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act. ELARC is one of 21 regional centers in California that serve children and adults with developmental disabilities. ELARC has approximately $270 million in revenue annually.

Alison Brunner

Alison Brunner is the CEO of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, a leading nonprofit that uses the law to address social injustices like poverty, inequity, discrimination, and child abuse and neglect. The Law Foundation provides free legal services to over 10,000 low-income people annually in three areas of critical need – housing, health, and children – in addition to engaging in a wide-range of systems change work.

As a disability and housing rights attorney, Alison has fought for access to justice and equity for all members of our community for almost 25 years. She obtained her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and juris doctor degree from Santa Clara University Law School.

Lauren Clark

Lauren Clark holds a Ph.D. in nursing and is a Professor of Nursing at UCLA, where she holds the Shaprio Family Endowed Chair in Developmental Disability Studies. She’s also the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the School of Nursing. Over her twenty-five-year career, she served on various academic and professional leadership groups, committees, and taskforces at local, national, and international levels. She served on professional editorial boards for the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Qualitative Health Research, and Global Qualitative Nursing Research. And she also served on the Ethics Committees of two large national professional groups, the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Nursing. 

Lauren is also an elected Fellow of the Society of Applied Anthropology, the American Academy of Nursing, the Western Academy of Nursing, and the Transcultural Nursing Society. She is serving her second term on the Board of Governors of the Western Institute of Nursing (2023-24 as President-Elect, 2024-26 as President, then 2026-27 as Past President). 

Lauren is the mother of two children with developmental disabilities and has advocated for their rights in education, employment, transportation, healthcare, and community life.

Lauren describes why serving on Disability Rights California’s Board of Directors is important to her, saying, “The mission of the DRC is aligned with my personal and professional passions, and I’m honored to join the Board to assure that Californians with disabilities enjoy equal rights, dignity, choice, independence and freedom from abuse, neglect, and discrimination. As a Board member, I would like to add a focus on health and healthcare, beginning with healthcare provider education and accountability. In nursing, we know that health is more than the absence of abuse, neglect, and discrimination, and includes exercising choice and independence to thrive in safe and supportive environments.” 

Jasmine E. Harris

Jasmine E. Harris is a law and inequality legal scholar with expertise in disability law, antidiscrimination law, and evidence. Her work addresses law’s capacity to define and advance social norms of inclusion. Her evidence scholarship explores topics such as the application of critical theories to evidentiary rules, principles, and doctrine.

Her recent academic articles have or will appear in such leading law reviews and journals as the Columbia Law Review, New York University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, among others. Harris also co-edits a preeminent evidence treatise, McCormick on Evidence, and is currently working on a co-edited book, Critical Evidence La

Harris also writes frequently about disability and equality law for popular audiences. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Magazine, and Tribune Wire, in addition to academic blogs such as the American Constitution Society’s Expert Forum and the Harvard Law School Petrie-Flom Center’s Bill of Health. She is regularly quoted in media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Forbes, CNBC, National Public Radio, PBS NewsHour, Chronicle of Higher Education, Guardian, Harper’s BAZAAR, and USA Today.

A range of federal and state lawmakers and legal advocates regularly seek Harris’s opinion on issues of legislative and policy reforms related to disability laws and civil litigation. Harris is a member of the inaugural Steering Committee tasked with developing a National Smithsonian Museum of Disability History and Culture. She also serves on the Board of Directors for The Arc of the United States, one of the largest national disability rights organizations, and as Chair of the Legal Advocacy Subcommittee to advise the organization on impact litigation. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Harris was appointed by the United States Chief Judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to serve as Co-Reporter for Third Circuit’s Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions.

Harris is a recipient of the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in Teaching at Penn Carey Law and has received recognition for her teaching and mentorship of students at other universities.

Harris graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in Latin American & Caribbean Studies. She received her juris doctorate from Yale Law and clerked for the late Honorable Harold Baer, Jr., United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. She has worked in both private and public interest law. Harris practiced in the areas of complex commercial litigation, securities, and government investigations as a Senior Associate with WilmerHale. She also worked as a staff attorney at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization, where she assisted grassroots advocacy campaigns to advance racial justice in education and address the school to prison pipeline through legal, policy, and strategic communications efforts.

Caroline Jackson

Caroline Jackson is senior counsel at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP. She works on complex litigation and pre-litigation matters, including class actions, with a particular focus on the rights of people with disabilities. She has significant experience, both at the trial and appellate levels, pursuing ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims on behalf of deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Caroline is a graduate of Stanford Law School, and holds a Master’s degree in Education Policy from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, a Bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard University, and an Associate’s degree in sign language interpreting from Sinclair Community College. She was awarded the Skadden Fellowship to work at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) where she remained as a litigator until joining RBGG. 

While at NAD, she also co-taught the Civil Rights of Persons with Disabilities clinic at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. In addition, Caroline is fluent in American Sign Language and obtained the National Interpreter Certification in 2007.

Imari S. Nuyen-Kariotis

Imari S. Nuyen-Kariotis is a life-long disability rights advocate, having both professional and personal connections to the disability community and disability policy researcher, focusing on federal, state, and local issues related to housing, transportation, public access, and emergency management. Imari went to college to become a Paralegal. Imari is a primary caregiver and is the Chair of the Imperial County Political Council where we are advocating for and responding to the rights and needs of people with disabilities and seniors, their caretakers and empowering the community-wide resilience, and optimizing outcomes for all.

Imari is a multiple disabled women (intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities) who has Autism and Bipolar Disorder. Imari is a bi-sexual activist of color, with grassroots organizing experience on the local, state, and national levels. To help ensure those in marginalized communities, especially those who are multiply marginalized, are heard. Imari has dedicated her life advocating to end the institutional bias, and making systems change that allows all people with disabilities to have the right to live in the community with the services and supports needed to live independently- just as her daughter Caurel has been able to for the past 29+ years. Caurel is autistic, epileptic, aproxic (she does not speak), and bipolar.

Imari is also a Domestic Violence survivor and mental health advocate with lived experience. She currently lives in Salton City California a very remote area that is also a big part of her disability work for rural communities with her family: her second husband John Kariotis Jr, son Anthony Nuyen, daughter Caurel Nuyen and my youngest son Seth Gray. Imari’s love for life, outgoing personality, passion for music and art, love of sci-fi, and acting, not caring who is watching or what they are saying and just being herself. Her marriage to John Kariotis Jr has been an inspiration for what a relationship can be. You see the love they have for each other and how humor is such a big part of making it last.

Imari has worked many disasters, from historic flooding, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, and up to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Imari’s expertise lies in integrating leadership, design, and organization. For over nearly two decades of disability community-focused disaster response, she has proven to be particularly adept at problem-solving and understanding the principles and requirements for leading in disability rights community organizing, disability-led disaster response, and empowering community resilience and optimizing outcomes for all locally, statewide, nationwide, and across the world. In developing this body of knowledge, it has earned her reputation as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) in disaster services for people with disabilities.

Imari joined the board of Disability Rights California in 2019 and sits on the Executive, Finance, DRC Ad Hoc Governance, Principles Ad Hoc, Bylaws Committee, and Co-Chair of PAIMI (Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act) Advisory Council. The Council members give advice about services for people with mental health disabilities. We review PAIMI goals and priorities. We assist with the annual PAIMI Program Performance Review process.

Imari is also involved in various Non-Profits and advocacy groups there’s DRUUMM, EqUUal Access, Disability Integrations Solutions and Riverside Dickens Festival to name a few. Imari Kariotis is an embodiment of the philosophy: “Nothing About Us Without Us” -“I want to advance Disability Rights California’s mission by being able to use my expansive knowledge in organizing, disaster response, and disability rights to ensure the disabled community is in the forefront and never an afterthought.”

In her nonexistent free time, Imari loves to act, to go on car trips with her husband, play with her three cats, and her Queensland Healer Creamy, create art, poetry, howl at the moon and be there for her community.

Jillian Parramore

Jillian Parramore has a B.A. in Applied Arts and Sciences Liberal Studies, emphasizing Elementary Education and Bachelor's in Child Development with a credential.

Jillian has taught early childhood, elementary, middle school, and university level for the past ten years. For the past six years, Jillian has been training special education departments on inclusive education in school districts throughout Southern California. She also provides health education for her community through People First of California. She also volunteers for Beyond Awareness Celebration events in school districts. Jillian participated in TEDxChula Vista to discuss inclusion in society through her lived experience with Cerebral Palsy and living on the Autism spectrum. The video can be found here. 

Jillian and her partner live together with their three rescue dogs, including Starbuck, a 21-year-old chihuahua.

"Serving on the Board of Directors for DRC is important to me because it gives me the opportunity to serve my community in California and to create a more inclusive society for those with disabilities in this beautiful state that I call home."

Kavya Parthiban

Kavya Parthiban joined DREDF as a Skadden Fellow/Staff Attorney* in the Fall 2022. Kavya will focus on supporting parents with disabilities whose families are impacted by the child welfare/foster care system.

Kavya’s interest in disability justice began while working with youth in the foster care system who were at risk/labeled as commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). While working with unhoused youth and foster youth for a few years in the Bay Area, she found that the dependency system did not properly accommodate and discriminated against many families with disabilities leading to instability and unfair treatment. Her experience seeing foster care consistently disregard and mistreat youth and parents with disabilities while keeping these families separated despite their attempts to stay together inspired her to pursue law to provide comprehensive support to low-income disabled families. Kavya went to UCLA School of Law, where she earned her J.D. with a specialization in Public Interest and Critical Race Studies in 2022. She comes to DREDF excited to better support families at risk of/ currently involved with the Bay Area dependency system to advocate against family separation using disability nondiscrimination laws.

Anthony “Tony” Sauer

Anthony received a Master’s degree in Management and Disability Services from the University of San Francisco. He also served as a Fellow at Sierra Health Foundation and University of Southern California (USC) School of Policy, Planning and Development’s Health Leadership Program.

He began his advocacy career as the Executive Director FREED Center for Independent Living and then later as the Director of the California Department of Rehabilitation. Anthony is a long-time disability rights activist and has been a paraplegic for more than 40 years. He has been involved with many organizations and boards, including the State Administrators of Vocation Rehabilitation’s Human Resource Development Committee and the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers.

For more than 25 years, Anthony has worked in some capacity next to Disability Rights California (DRC) and has always respected DRC's efforts and passion. He has four daughters, two grandchildren, enjoys woodworking and used to be a motorcycle racer and mechanic. He lives with his wife, Katherine, in Grass Valley, California.

Debbie Toth

Debbie Toth believes that a person should never age out of the ability to experience joy. She is the President & CEO of Choice in Aging where she develops and provides leadership for community-based social and health solutions that bring independence and dignity to elders and adults with disabilities. Under Debbie’s leadership at Choice in Aging, she has expanded it to include the Multipurpose Senior Services Program for Contra Costa, Napa and Solano Counties; the California Community Transitions project in Contra Costa, Solano and Sacramento Counties; and the Prevention and Early Access for Seniors mental health program in Solano. In 2017 Debbie realized her dream of adding intergenerational programming to CiA when Choice in Learning Montessori preschool was integrated into the Pleasant Hill Campus.

Debbie was appointed to California’s Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Committee and most recently served on the Governor's Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee, shaping the blueprint to create a California for ALL. Through advocacy, policy shaping, and relentless grassroots organizing, Debbie hopes to see a long-term care continuum that allows people to age with community in place. Debbie fell in love with the aging population in high school while working at the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s independent senior housing and has spent more than half her life ensuring that dignity, joy and independence are cornerstones of aging. She has been honored with numerous awards for her work and advocacy, including Woman of the Year in 2015 in Susan Bonilla’s Assembly District 14. She is a graduate of UC Irvine and uses her degree in Sociology and Political Science regularly.

Debbie is the mother of three children, grandmother of chickens, cats, reptiles and amphibians and loves her two fishermen at home. She is a tireless advocate for seniors, persons with disabilities, and the underserved.

Angela M. Vázquez

Angela M. Vázquez has spent nearly a decade in public policy, coalition-building, and activism on behalf of children and families. Her work has been centered on ensuring the well-being of marginalized youth from birth through young adulthood, especially as their life opportunities are impacted by their race/ethnicity, trauma, and poverty. Angela has spent the last decade in education and child welfare public policy, convening local and statewide education and child welfare stakeholders, facilitating policy development and implementation discussions for children in foster care as a Policy Analyst at Advancement Project and as the Associate Director for FosterEd California. Currently, Angela is a Policy Director at The Children's Partnership, covering a portfolio that includes mental health and child well-being. In 2020, she was appointed to California's Citizens Redistricting Commission, an independent body tasked with redrawing California's elections boundaries that made historic efforts to preserve communities of interest and established a "gold standard in citizen-led redistricting." In 2020, Angela became ill with COVID-19 and has since developed Long COVID - a condition marked by prolonged, disabling symptoms experienced by up to 1/3 of COVID-19 patients. Through several grassroots organizing efforts, including as President of Body Politic, a health justice organization and home to one of the first global Long COVID support groups, Angela is leveraging her skills in leading intersectional children's well-being advocacy to advocate with and on behalf of other disabled people of color.

Angela received her Masters Degree in Social Work with Honors in Community Organizing, Planning, and Administration from the University of Southern California after graduating cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with a BA in Psychology.

Wesley Witherspoon

Wesley Witherspoon has been a Project Coordinator at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since 2006 and is a member of the Community Emergency Response Team and works as a Disability Consultant for Jay Nolan Community Services. Wesley serves as a representative with self-advocates and their networks and the programs and activities of the University of Southern California’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (USC UCEDD). He represents the USC UCEDD at local meetings as requested by the Director. In addition, he is the representative for the USC UCEDD for the Self-Advocacy Statewide Network. Wesley served on the State Council of Developmental Disabilities as the chair of the Employment First Committee.  

He also serves on the Community Voter Outreach Committee for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for voting and on the Voter Accessibility Advisory Committee for voting in Los Angeles County. Wesley is committed to the full inclusion of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. He volunteers with the City of Culver City, the Special Olympics Summer Games, and the Festival of Books at USC. 

Wesley likes to read, exercise, travel, and volunteer. Wesley’s favorite movie is “Hoosiers” because the underdog wins against good competition.