Ella is an alum of UC Berkeley College of Letters & Sciences and of UC Berkeley Law School. She has had a long history of advocacy as an attorney for the rights of disabled people before joining UC Berkeley. Ella is open about having disabilities herself and as a member of the Bay Area American Indian/Alaskan Native community. Her understanding of disability in the United States is as an identity that is deeply intersectional with race, class, gender, sexuality, and...
Dr. Derek Coates is a 22-year employee of U.C. Berkeley and has used a Service dog since 2012. He has been legally blind for more than 40 years.
Dr. Coates is currently the campus Manager of ADA Program Access in the office of Disability Access and Compliance. Most recently, Dr. Coates was the Project Lead on the Access 2020 campuswide program access Self-evaluation and training project. With two Master’s Degrees in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the California State University, at Fullerton Dr. Coates received his Ph. D in Sociology from Wayne State...
Nio Howa is an alumnus of the Department of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED). He brings professional experience across the public, private and nonprofit sectors, having worked at the San Francisco Planning Department and with firms in design, engineering, and general contracting.
At UC Berkeley, Nio plays a leading role in advancing accessibility within the built environment. He manages the University’s ADA Transition Plan and ADA Master Plan, oversees the...
Steve is an alumnus of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and is originally from Northern Ireland. He has over 20 years’ experience as an investigator and manager. While still living n the UK, he worked as a crime scene investigator, major crime manager, and financial crime investigaor.
He moved to California in 2018 and after almost two years at UCSF investigating privacy incidents and potential HIPAA violations, he moved to DAC at UC Berkeley in October 2020.
As well as reviewing allegations (by students, staff, faculty, and visitors) of...
Faryal is a first-year student majoring in political science at UC Berkeley. As a first-generation Pakistani-American, she is passionate about diversity, equity, and accessibility initiatives. Her work involves supporting the Disability Access and Complaince Office. Aspiring to a career in law, Faryal hopes to advocate for marginalized communities.
Donna was born and raised in the Bay Area. She is an alum of UCSC with a BA in Business Management Economics. From 2014-2020, she supported the Disabled Students' Program as the Business Services Admin. In 2020, she joined UC Berkeley administration and now supports DAC as the Executive Assistant. Go Bears!
