Linda Abbott, TNG Risk Management Solutions (she/her)

Friday, November 4th, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Linda Abbott is a Consultant at TNG whose areas of expertise include behavioral intervention teams, college mental health, case management, and victim advocacy. Abbott has over 15 years’ experience in a variety of roles including administration and student support. Most recently, Abbott served as Assistant Dean for Health and Wellness at Eckerd College where she had administrative oversight of counseling, case management, advocacy, and health services. Prior to her role as Assistant Dean, she served as Executive Director of Outreach, Counseling and Health Services and Director of Outreach Services, where she chaired the Intervention Team. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Florida, a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Mississippi, and has treated individuals and couples in private practice. Prior to her tenure at Eckerd College, Abbott served as the inaugural Violence Prevention Coordinator at the University of Mississippi where she developed and implemented the university’s first violence prevention program and launched a campus-wide violence prevention initiative. Abbott holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Mississippi and a M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Trevecca Nazarene University..

Phoebe Daurio, Open Oregon Educational Resources (she/her)

Wednesday, November 2nd, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Phoebe Daurio (she/her) is the Open Education Grant Project Manager for Open Oregon Educational Resources, a program of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission in Oregon. Her expertise includes teaching communication skills, facilitating student engagement, and managing projects. Phoebe loves learning, planning, analyzing, and thinking about systems. Her primary role at Open Oregon Educational Resources is to manage the federal grant awarded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) in the U.S. Department of Education. This project supports the development of openly-licensed, targeted pathway materials with an equity lens for Criminal Justice courses. Phoebe is excited to combine her classroom instruction and program management experience in this work with Oregon instructors, OER experts, and the great team at Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Mel Deleon, Portland Community College (she/her)

Wednesday, November 2nd, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Mel Deleon is the current ASL interpreting and transcribing coordinator at PCC. She has been interpreting for over 25 years. While working for the Oregon Judicial Department and Mobility International, USA she utilized using Deaf interpreters regularly.

Lauri Evans, University of Oregon (she/her)

Wednesday, November 2nd, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Lauri Evans is currently the ORAHEAD conference liaison. She has been an Access Advisor at Accessible Education Center at the University of Oregon for three years. Previous to her position at UO , she worked at a University in Northern California for 22 years. She loves living here in Oregon with her family, guide dog, rescue dog, two cats, and a parakeet. She really enjoys being a part of ORAHEAD.

Jewls Griesmeyer-Krentz, Linfield University (she/her)

Jewls is the Associate Director of Learning Support Services at Linfield University School of Nursing where she oversees disability services, academic coaching, and tutoring. She enjoys finding creative and collaborative ways to promote equity and inclusion for students and university communities. Before joining Linfield in 2022, she had been an Access Counselor and Consultant at the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at Portland State University (PSU) for over nine years. Jewls serves on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Affiliate of the Association of Higher Disability and serves as a mentor for the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) Start Academy for new(er) disability services professionals. She is a frequent presenter at both regional and national conferences. Jewls received her Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling from PSU in 2008 and is a PhD candidate in Adult and Higher Education at Oregon State University. Her doctoral work focuses on international and immigrant students with disabilities, disability identity, and intersectionality. Jewls is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC).

Jeff Larson, Linfield University (he/him)

Jeff is the Director for Learning Support Services at Linfield University and currently serves at the Past President for ORAHEAD. Prior to Linfield, he held positions with the Accessible Education Center at the University of Oregon and with Bushnell University. He has spent his entire professional career working in higher education and has a passion for student inclusion and success. He received a master’s degree in school counseling from Bushnell University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Linfield University.

Michelle Melles, New Day Films (he/him)

Michelle Melles (she/her) is a Canadian-American filmmaker, producer, story editor, and writer based in Toronto. A fierce believer that the personal is in dialogue with the political and that multidimensional storytelling has the power to transform our world, Michelle Melles has been creating social issues documentaries for over twenty years.

Stacey Rainey, Western Oregon University (she/her)

Thursday, November 3rd, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Stacey Rainey currently services as the Assistant Director, Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services at Western Oregon University. For the past (almost) 10 years, Stacey has managed and coordinated post-secondary interpreters to serve WOU's Deaf/Hard of Hearing/DeafBlind student and community member population. WOU currently has five full time staff interpreters and 15 - 20 part-time/hourly interpreters. Stacey is also an RID Nationally Certified interpreter with over 20 years experience. In her free time, Stacey loves to spend time with her family, read books, watch movies and listen to music.

Jen Dugger Spalding, Portland State University (she/her)

Thursday, November 3rd, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Jen Dugger Spalding (she/her) has been the Director of the Disability Resource Center at Portland State University for nearly ten years. Jen is a “nondisabled for now”, queer, cis, white woman who is passionate about doing the work of disability services through a social justice framework. As a white person from Ferguson, MO, Jen was clear for a number of years that racial justice and anti-racism work was lacking and an obvious gap in our service provision. However, as the white supervisor of an entirely white team, Jen was never sure of where to begin doing this work. The summer of 2020 provided the push to get started. Jen is no expert but is doing her best to move racial justice forward in as many places as possible. Jen is also a new mom and loves spend time with baby Emersyn (born 2.22.22!), her wife Sarah, and her dog Sharky.

Stacie Taniguchi, Portland State University (she/her)

Thursday, November 3rd, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

After spending her career in higher education working directly to support BIPOC students in cultural centers at multiple institutions, Stacie began working as the Assistant Director in disability services in the fall of 2020 with the hopes of bringing an intentionally intersectional lens to the work of supporting and advocating for disabled students. While she carries her own experiences of being both disabled and a person of color, Stacie is learning ways to weave together the compliance portion of disability work on a college campus, with the need for actionable, direct change that will positively impact service for BIPOC, disabled students.

RT Tougas, Portland State University (they/them)

RT Tougas is an Access Counselor and Consultant in the Disability Resource Center. They have been at PSU since August of 2019 and they love being part of the DRC team. In terms of gender, RT identifies as nonbinary and queer. RT is fortunate to work collaborating with disabled students, faculty, and staff to increase accessibility and equity. RT earned a PhD at University of Oregon and was a university instructor before working in higher education disability services. At PSU, RT serves on the STEP program advisory committee and served on the 2020 WRC Sexual Assault Action and Awareness Month events committee.

Veronica Vold, Open Oregon Educational Resources (she/her)

Wednesday, November 2nd, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Veronica Vold (she/her) is the Open Education Instructional Designer for Open Oregon Educational Resources, a program of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission in Oregon. In this role, she provides equity-minded instructional design services to OER grant teams and campus partners from Oregon’s 24 public colleges and universities. In addition, Veronica facilitates a statewide community of practice for instructional design colleagues interested in open education. Veronica is energized by daily consultations with colleagues and working groups on OER and open pedagogy. In the 2022-23 academic year, she plans to build openly licensed assets to support open pedagogy and accessibility workflows across the state and will coordinate a speaker series on designing for justice.

Katie Wolf, University of Oregon (she/her)

Thursday, November 3rd, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Katie Wolf (she/her) is the Assistant Director of the Accessible Education Center at the University of Oregon. She has worked in various roles in disability services for over 8 years and is passionate about student access and inclusion. She holds a master’s in social work from San Diego State University and bachelor’s degrees in Women and Gender Studies and Political Science from the University of Oregon.