Speakers

Sadie Martinez | Access and Functional Needs Coordinator, Colorado State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Sadie is the Colorado State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management's Access and Functional Needs Coordinator and serves as the Access and Whole Community Inclusion Caucus Chair for the International Association for Emergency Management. She provides training across Colorado and the nation in her role using a solution-focused "how to" approach in Whole Community Inclusion Planning and Emergency Preparedness for those who are most affected as a result of disasters. This helps others learn to "seek to understand" and "what we don't know, because we don't know" using a "plan with" approach towards whole community inclusion. Sadie uses the CMIST resource framework, which creates a shared universal language that provides a whole-community inclusion approach to identify the actual resource needs of the community in Communication, Maintaining Health/Medical, Independence, Support Services and Safety, and Transportation resources, rather than a specific “special need” or vulnerability. This helps responders and agencies better understand what capabilities to acquire before, during, and after a disaster by approaching Access and Functional Needs from a resource perspective.

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June Issacson Kailes | Disability Policy Consultant

June Isaacson Kailes (www.jik.com) owns a disability policy consulting practice and is a pioneer, leader, and innovator in health care, emergency management, aging with disability, stakeholder engagement, and hospitality. The breadth and depth of her experience in disability, accessibility, and functional needs issues are widely known and respected as a writer, trainer, researcher, policy analyst, subject matter expert, and advocate. June concentrates on replacing the ambiguous aspects of disability etiquette, sensitivity, awareness, and legal compliance with maximum impact, practices, and measurable skill sets. June works with clients to build critical disability competencies and capabilities. She translates the laws and regulations into clear, actionable, detailed, and sustainable building blocks and tools that close service gaps, prevent civil rights violations, and remove barriers, inequities, and disparities. June uses the “how, who, what, where, when, and why, to get physical, programmatic, communication, and equipment access right! June has received many honors and awards, has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses, workshops, and seminars, and has over 200 publications.

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Melissa Marshall, JD | Director of Policy and Programs, The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies

Melissa has over 30 years experience managing disability rights programs, projects and organizations. She has a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, is admitted to the Bar in Connecticut, and has been training and providing technical assistance in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) locally and nationally since it’s passage. Melissa has also provided training and technical assistance in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other federal and state disability rights laws. She has a background in disability policy that is both broad and deep. Areas of particular interest include: equity for people with disabilities in disasters and public health emergencies; equity for people who identify as women with disabilities; employment for disabled people; closing congregate institutions for disabled people, including psychiatric institutions; equity for people found not guilty by reason of insanity; disability inclusive public health practices; ending outpatient for people with mental health conditions; and, mitigating disability-based bullying. Melissa has worked as the Executive Director of several disability-related non-profits, including a Center for Independent Living (CIL). Since 2017, she has been utilizing her expertise in ADA and other disability rights law and disability policy to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to disaster-related programs and services before, during, and after disasters and emergencies.

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Shari Myers | Disaster Operations Coordinator, The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies

Shari Myers is a nationally recognized expert on inclusive disaster services which integrate the access and functional needs of the whole community before, during and after emergencies. She is committed to advancing disability-led disaster preparedness, response and recovery, with a focus on civil rights protections and social justice.

Shari has been a disability rights advocate/self-advocate for over 32 years. She became a disaster responder when she and her family were impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They experienced firsthand the failure of federal, state and local emergency management to plan for the whole community. Shari was still recuperating from heart surgery, and suddenly had little to no access to healthcare when it was critically needed. She and her husband, Ron, a catastrophe insurance adjuster, worked alongside friends and neighbors, many of whom were also disabled, to support their community throughout response and recovery. Shari found her true calling at the crossroads of disability rights and disaster relief, a path from which she has since never strayed.

Shari continued to volunteer with local and, eventually, national disaster relief organizations. As a result, she was asked to join the American Red Cross as the organization's first National Disability Integration Coordinator and accepted the position in 2016. Shari immediately deployed to support disaster operations in response to historic flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Throughout her tenure, she deployed to many large disasters and managed multiple operations from the Red Cross Disaster Operations Coordinating Center.

Shari joins The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies after more than 6 years as National Disability Integration Coordinator for American Red Cross. She served as advisor to Red Cross Disaster Cycle Services, as well as Blood, Training and Certification, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Services, and Service to Military and Veteran Families. She led a group of volunteers to develop and manage a Disaster Cycle Services Disability Integration (DI) Program. DI cadre members assess and monitor for equitable and inclusive physical and programmatic access and effective communication throughout the response and recovery phases.

Shari has deployed in person or virtually managed over 150 disaster response operations, including hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, tornados, floods, border operations, mass casualty and mass fatality.

Panelist:

Susan Johnson | Illinois Department of Public Health, Office of Preparedness and Response

Sue is one of two Access and Functional Needs Planners with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Office of Preparedness & Response. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor with over 15 years of years as a Vocational Case Manager and Job Placement Provider. She has also served as a Volunteer Outreach Coordinator with the City of Independence (Missouri) Emergency Preparedness Department prior to joining IDPH.

 

Jae Jin Pak | Institute of Disability & Human Development at the University of Illinois Chicago and Co-Founder of Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition

Jae Jin Pak is a social justice advocate, educator, and ally with over 30 years of experience. 

He identifies as an Asian immigrant with disabilities. He has worked on issues of gender-based violence, anti-trafficking prevention, mental health, disability, immigration justice, and anti-oppression.  He has conducted thousands of hours of training with diverse communities and professionals nationally. His core values of collaboration and recognizing intersectionality has allowed him to build strong connections with diverse communities and providers. 

He is a co-founder of the Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition (Chicagoland DPOCC), which works to promote disability pride in communities of color. Chicagoland DPOCC brings awareness to the issues that face the  disabled, autistic, Deaf, and neurodivergent people of color.

Jae Jin is the Coordinator of Community Education for the Institute on Disability and Human Development and Self Advocacy Training Mentor for Illinois LEND at the University of IL Chicago (UIC).

He serves on the Quality Care Board, Access & Functional Needs Advisory Committee, Disability and Immigration Taskforce of IL, and The National Human Trafficking & Disability Working Group.  

He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and an IL LEND Fellow.

Kira Meskin | Progress Center for Independent Living and Chairperson of Illinois Emergency Management Agency's Access and Functional Needs Advisory Committee

Kira serves as a Community Reintegration Advocate at Progress Center for Independent Living, a disability-led organization that serves people with disabilities living in suburban Cook County. Her work there involves advocating alongside and on behalf of people who reside in nursing homes and long-term care facilities against their choice and helping them navigate Illinois’ transition programs to effectively move back into the community. She is also an Occupational Therapist, home modification specialist, and certified Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kira has been the primary co-leader of the coalition PPE for People with Disabilities, which is led by and for people with disabilities. As part of their advocacy efforts, they led the drafting and passing of a state bill that created the Access and Functional Needs Advisory Committee within Illinois’ Emergency Management Agency, which Kira is now the Chairperson of. Additionally, she is a member of the Arc of Illinois’ Public Policy Committee and The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies.

Rodney Garrott | FEMA Region 5

As the Region V Disability Integration Specialist Rodney provides technical assistance and advisory service to Region 5 emergency managers and community partners on disability integration and coordination. This is done through the development of strategies, tools, and

tactics that ensure the access and functional needs of people with disabilities are included in all aspects of disaster planning, response, and recovery. He has led disability inclusive emergency operations on multiple major disasters across the nation. Rodney has led exercises, presentations, classes, and workshops on inclusive emergency management and provided input for various regional and national level policies and directives. Rodney is the secretariat for FEMA’s Equity Community of Practice. Prior to FEMA Rodney has experience as clinical coordinator providing case management and residential support to people with access and functional needs.

Mary Casey-Lockyer | SpringLock Disaster Consulting

Mary Casey-Lockyer is currently a director for SpringLock Disaster Consulting. She
retired in 2023 from the Disaster Health Services Program Lead at the national
headquarters of the American Red Cross. For over twelve years, she fulfilled this role for
program development and continuous quality improvement for Disaster Health Services
program at national headquarters and managed a cadre of 2600 + Disaster Health Services volunteers. As a Disaster Health Services manager/chief with the Red Cross, she has been on twenty-two national deployments, including the 2018 Disaster Relief Operation in Saipan and multiple assignments supporting other Red Cross Disaster Relief Operations from national headquarters’ Disaster Operations Coordination Center (DOCC). Mary was assigned as Senior Medical Advisor to Red Cross-national disaster operations during 2020 until her retirement. Mary acted as the Red Cross liaison to the Secretary’s Operation Center at the Department of Health and Human Services and served on the board of Healthcare Ready. She has published many articles, most recently “Health-Care and Supportive Services in General Population Shelters” Aug. 2023 Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Mary received a Master in Homeland Security for Public Health Preparedness from Penn State University in 2010 and is an RN with critical care background.