The Team
Molly has worked as an educator, non-profit leader, presenter, school administrator, university faculty, curriculum developer, researcher, independent facilitator, and consultant. She holds degrees in elementary education (BA), special education (MS), and educational leadership (EdD), and has a family member who types to communicate. Molly is also a Certified Employment Support Professional (CESP).
Molly conducts qualitative research with colleagues, writes inclusive curricula, and volunteers with MountainQueers, Volunteer Eastern Sierra, and Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra.
Molly is adjunct faculty in the Special Education Department at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and Co-Director of the CSUN Explorers Program.
Molly K. Rearick Day, EdD
Owner & Educational Consultant
Amy Brooks, MEd
Mentor & Presenter
Amy holds a Master’s degree in education, specializing in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling. As an individual born with Cerebral Palsy, along with her professional experience across all environments, Amy has thrived by adapting. She welcomes growth opportunities to educate herself and others in ways that will reflect purpose-driven living.
Career highlights for Amy include Graduate Assistant Transition Coordinator for Kent State University’s Center for Innovation Transition and Employment; Independent Living Skills Summer Camp Director and Relationship Education Co-Facilitator for IGNITE Collective, Inc., and Inclusion Specialist for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, California.
Amy provides private tutoring to students in Reading and Language Arts. She also serves on advisory boards for Peerbots and Elevatus Training.
Amanda Frazier Timpson
Presenter
A Texan transplant to Southern California, Amanda could read and write before she could do almost anything else. That love of words lead to degrees in both English and journalism and has evolved into a tool for advocacy, enlightenment, social justice and storytelling.
Achieving the full trifecta of disability: congenital, acquired, and
invisible, has commandeered a significant portion of her life.
The reward for such an accomplishment is a commitment to discernment, compassion and empathy. Functioning as a disabled person in a society that was clearly set up without you in mind develops skills that, if you pay close attention, overlap nicely into every other area of life.
The foundation of Amanda’s philosophy is that absorbing all possible wisdom from your experiences is key to living a fulfilling life.
Wesley Witherspoon
Presenter
Wesley is a participant advocate for a university. He does trainings for people with disabilities. He trains on Self-Advocacy, Voting, Crime Prevention, Emergency Preparedness, Health Care, Healthy Relationships ,and IPPs. He is also the Chair of the California State Council of Developmental Disabilities. He is a nationally-known self-advocate and is working to improve the lives of people with disabilities. He has presented at the AUCD conference 5 times.
Wesley wants to make sure advocates, family members, and professionals who support people with disabilities are treated with respect and dignity. He has over 20 years of experience as a self-advocate, family member, and professional.
The sky is the limit when you believe in yourself.
Paul Mansell
Presenter & Spending Plan Specialist
Paul is a San Diego native, raised here, and have mostly lived here. He lives near the coast and gets the mild ocean breeze all year. He went to San Diego State University, getting a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master's in Educational Technology. With these two degrees, he learned to be an advocate and acquired a passion for all things Apple. He worked himself off SSI and out of Section #8 apartment through employment at the San Diego Regional Center as a Consumer Information Specialist. He served there for 21 years, supporting self-advocacy in the community.
Paul now serves as the San Diego People First president and once was a member of the State-Wide Self-Advocacy Network. He has advocated for disability causes in Sacramento and Washington, DC. He has retired and learned what being on Social Security, Medicare, and Medi-Cal is like. He wants to devote my future to advancing the cause of self-advocacy.
Heather Lea Berg
Presenter
Heather has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology, with focuses in writing and science. She also had the opportunity to attend school in Alaska for 16 weeks through a program shared with her home school. She took the opportunity to explore and learn from a new geographic area as well as take courses not offered at her home school. Heather also studied child development in non-credit courses in an academic setting as well as diving into online and library resources as part of a self-led study. She loves to learn through hands on life experiences as well as in scholarly settings.
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Heather has enjoyed and grown skills from a variety of job opportunities including childcare, waitressing, customer service, cleaning, landscaping, development office assistant, journalism, and editing. Heather has also worked on whale watch boats as a crew member, a researcher, and an educator as well as working at a whale museum. For many years, she built a career as a nanny and worked closely with many different families. She enjoys the role of caregiver, providing services for others, and helping people in general. This includes family and friends outside of the workplace as well.
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Heather has multiple disabilities, most of which are invisible and dynamic. She also has family members and friends in her life who have disabilities as well. She has learned much from herself and others and considers herself to be an advocate for the disabled. She specializes in advocating for children with disabilities, with a specific interest in neurodivergence. In addition, years ago, she also flipped her personal perspective of her own struggles from, “Why me?” to “What for?” (What purpose?). She has used this mindset to motivate herself and others, advocating for less understood disabilities such as Narcolepsy, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.
Araseli Navarro
Operations & Marketing Manager
Araseli is a dedicated Disability Accommodations and Support Services Counselor at California State University Channel Islands, where she passionately advocates for students with disabilities by ensuring equitable access to academic and housing accommodations. With degrees in Sociology and Psychology, she specializes in outreach to historically underrepresented groups, focusing on promoting self-advocacy and inclusion.
Araseli leads marketing initiatives to raise awareness of disability rights and resources. Currently pursuing her master’s degree at California State University, Northridge, she brings a personal perspective as someone with a disability. Araseli is also an educator, volunteer, presenter, and researcher, constantly seeking opportunities to learn, grow, and spread kindness and compassion in all aspects of her work.