Livable Communities: Advisory Committee

The Livable Communities Advisory Committee is composed of 17 individuals. Members represent a wide variety of personal, professional and geographic backgrounds, as well as diversity in age, gender, ethnicity and disability. Some have a record of leadership in local consumer groups. A few were invited because of their expressed interest, without group affiliation, because the unaffiliated perspective is also important. Only one sighted professional is a member, because of her knowledge and advocacy on community access from an O&M perspective. All but one committee member has a personal experience of blindness or visual impairment, or that of his or her child.

The Advisory Committee Members

Catherine Barja is the Vice-President of the Specialized Transit System Committee and the first female and first legally blind person appointed to the Tampa, Florida City Council. She is active in numerous local disability advocacy groups, including the Hillsboro County Citizens for Disabilities and the Tampa chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. Ms. Barja is a legally blind senior citizen.

Janet Barlow is self-employed as a consultant and researcher on several national research projects on Accessible Pedestrian Signals and access to intersections for individuals who are visually impaired or blind. She is a graduate of Florida State University with a Master's Degree in Special Education, Visual Disabilities, and is a certified Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist. She worked for 15 years at the Center for the Visually Impaired, Atlanta, Georgia, as an O&M specialist, then as Manager of Rehabilitation Services. She is chair of the Environmental Access Committee of the Orientation and Mobility division of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired and serves on the U.S. Access Board's Public Rights of Way Access Advisory Committee.

Lucy Birbiglia is a social worker and Executive Director of the Queens Independent Living Center, in Queens, New York. She has also worked at Catholic Charities Community and Residential Services, and Rochester, New York's Center for Independent Living. She has been active in disability advocacy as a member of the Rochester Radio Reading Service, Disabled in Action, and Disability Network of New York City. Ms. Birbiglia is blind and a long cane user. She has lived in many different settings, from rural to metropolitan.

Helaine Blumenthal is an undergraduate student in History and English Literature at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She is a recipient of the Lighthouse International Career Incentive Award, and was a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search for her project on mathematics education for people who are blind or visually impaired. Ms. Blumenthal graduated in the top 1% of her class at the Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York. She is visually impaired.

Don Brown is Founder/Principal of Access Work Systems, an employment training and consulting group specializing in disability program management and expert consultation on the ADA. Mr. Brown has over 10 years experience in human resources and disability services administration with San Francisco State University and the City of Berkeley. He is a member of the National Association of ADA Coordinators, Association of Higher Education and Disability, and the East Bay Para Transit Consortium. Mr. Brown is blind.

Kim Charlson is Director, Braille and Talking Book Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts. She is a recognized national and international expert on library services for people with disabilities, Braille literacy, adaptive technology and information access. She is an active consumer advocate, having held senior positions in advocacy organizations including chair of both the Massachusetts Braille Literacy Council and the Accessible Voting Task Force for Massachusetts, treasurer of Guide Dog Users of Massachusetts, and a former chair of the American Council of the Blind's Board of Publication. She has worked with Accessible Arts as an awareness trainer for cultural access centers such as theaters and museums. Ms. Charlson is blind and uses a guide dog.

Anisio Correia is Vice President of Program Services, The Iris Network, Portland, Maine. He supervises program services offered statewide for consumers who are blind or visually impaired, including rehabilitation and social services, assistive technology, and residence programs. Mr. Correia has worked in the rehabilitation and human service fields for over 25 years, participating in the creation of new programs to reach underserved populations at organizations such as VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Center for Independent Living. He is blind and a long cane user. He has lived and worked in Lisbon, Portugal; Arkansas; Pennsylvania; Maine; and New York.

Mary Lou Dickerson is a State Representative from Seattle, Washington and has chaired the Juvenile Justice and Family Law Committee in the House of Representatives. She has a background in journalism and social work, and authored the book Small Victories, published by AFB Press in 2000. Ms. Dickerson has been visually impaired since birth.

Doug Halverson is a businessman and a self-proclaimed advocate for the visually impaired. He is the parent of a child with macular degeneration, and is the local area representative of the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (NAPVI). Mr. Halverson has first-hand experience in education issues for blind or visually impaired children since his son went through local public schools until grade nine, and now attends the South Dakota School for the Blind.

J. J. Jackson is a human resources consultant who lives in East Lansing, Michigan. Mr. Jackson has worked as a housing advocate at the Westside Center for Independent Living in Los Angeles, and a program coordinator for students with disabilities at Michigan State University. He spent two-and-a-half months in Zimbabwe as a diplomatic representative of the United States Information Agency to evaluate programs for students who are blind or visually impaired. Mr. Jackson is blind and was the first African-American Valedictorian at the Michigan School for the Blind.

Rebecca Lounsbury is a retired elementary school teacher with a progressive visual impairment that requires her to use a cane. She now lives in Iowa. Previously, she participated in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Hearings to improve transportation access for people with disabilities and was a community advocate for safe sidewalks in Berkeley, CA. Ms. Lounsbury's call to AFB a few years ago turned out to be one stimulus for this project. She had been considering relocating, and was disappointed to learn that there was no research for rating accessibility of locations for retirees who are blind or visually impaired. She has accepted our later invitation to begin creating such a resource.

Ken Metz is Director of the Davidson Program for Independence at the Foundation for the Junior Blind in Los Angeles, California. He has been a rehabilitation counselor for the past three years after over 20 years of employment in the private sector. He is President of the Local Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the California Council of the Blind, Vice President of the State Chapter of the Organization, and Treasurer of Guide Dog Users of California. Mr. Metz is blind and uses a guide dog himself, and has been working for greater accessibility through his association with the Access Paratransit group in Los Angeles County.

Jeff Moyer is a singer, writer, teacher and advocate who has been at the forefront of the Disability Rights Movement for the past 30 years. He is a commentator for Morning Edition, National Public Radio, consultant on accessible design and the ADA, and a lecturer at Kent State University. He has also worked as Director, Cleveland Sight Center, Principal Investigator, Veterans Administration, and Deputy Director, Center for Independent Living, Berkeley, CA. He has also been a peer reviewer for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). Mr. Moyer is blind and lives in Ohio.

Ernestina Notargiacomo is a vocational rehabilitation teacher and member of the Consumer Advisory Committee at the Texas Commission for the Blind. She has been an active advocate for blindness issues in her academic and professional life. She founded the Disability Awareness Club at the University of Texas at Brownsville, co-developed resource directories for the visually impaired, and organized and served as past President of the Brownsville Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.

Lynn Nutt is the mother of two children, both of whom are visually impaired. Ms. Nutt has taken an active role in her children's education. She is Secretary, Texas Commission for the Blind Regional Advisory Committee in Dallas, PTA President for South Grand Prairie High School, and community representative for the Wesley Foundation at the University of Texas at Arlington, where her daughter attends college.

Marla Runyan is an Olympic track and field athlete and an educator of deaf children. She was the 2001 U.S. Outdoor 5K race champion, finished 8th in the 1500 meter race at the 2000 Olympic Games and is the American record holder for the indoor 5,000 meter race. Ms. Runyan is visually impaired as a result of Stargardt's Disease. She uses a golden Labrador retriever guide dog named Summer.

Willis (Buck) G. Saunders is a retired social worker who has worked with many blind clients. He is now active in advocacy for blind and visually impaired people, serving as the President of his local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind and a member of the Council on Rehabilitation. Mr. Saunders was educated at a state school for the blind, and brings his own experiences of growing up in rural West Virginia to the project.