Community Advisory Council Members
The Institute on Community Integration’s Community Advisory Council (CAC) is a diverse group of community leaders in disability that advises on broad programmatic decisions, evaluates the impact of the Institute’s work within the state and region, and helps guide the Institute's involvement in community-engagement activities. CAC members bring policy and advocacy skills, provider and practitioner perspectives, and lived experiences. Over half of the CAC members are persons with IDD or family members. As a group and individually, CAC members offer advice and counsel on broader cross-system and related priorities. They also provide feedback on ICI projects and products and make sure that we are on target to meet our goals. CAC members meet quarterly.
Members of the Institute's Community Advisory Council include the following individuals, as of February 2023 –
- Carolyn Allshouse - Family Voices of Minnesota
- Emma Baldwin – Proof Alliance – Self-Advocate
- Lester Bauer - Parent Advocate
- Wendy Berghorst - Minnesota Department of Health
- Jesse Bethke-Gomez - Metropolitan Center for Independent Living - Family Member
- Curtis Buhman - Minnesota Department of Human Services , Disability Services Division
- Shelly Christensen - Inclusion Innovations - Parent Advocate
- Mariam Egal - Minnesota Department of Human Services
- Ruth Evangelista - La Red Latino Childcare Network - Parent Advocate
- Vicki Gerrits - Minnesota First Community Solutions
- Antonietta Giovanni - Parent Advocate
- David Hancox - Accra - Family Member
- Mary Harding - Parent Advocate
- Evan Henspeter - Dakota County Social Services
- Cindy Hillyer - Minneapolis Public Schools
- Lindsey Horowitz – Minnesota Department of Education
- Darren Kermes - Southwest Metro Intermediate District 288
- Shelley Madore – Minnesota Olmstead Implementation Office
- Kate Onyeneho - Center for Africans Now in America (CANA), Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities - Parent Advocate
- Anna Phearman – Minnesota Disability Law Center/Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
- Pat Pulice - Fraser
- Julia Sawyer - Holland Biomedical Clinic -Special Projects - Parent Advocate
- Sue Schettle - ARRM, Inc.
- David Sherwood-Gabrielson - Retired Disability Professional - Parent Advocate
- Anne Strootman – Wilderness Inquiry
- Petronellah Thomas-Shanobi – Kesma Flame Lily Therapies
- Jesús Villaseñor - PACER - Parent Advocate
- Robert Wagner - Disability Professional – Self-Advocate
- Allana Walsh - Anoka Hennepin Public Schools - Family Member
- Ellie Wilson - Autism Society of Minnesota
- Andrea Zuber - The Arc Minnesota
If you would like to learn more about the Community Advisory Council, please contact Macdonald Metzger at metz0171@umn.edu.