The Nora Project Announces the 2023-2024 Board of Directors
The Nora Project is exceedingly proud to have welcomed five new members to its Board of Directors, all of whom bring unique lived and professional experience to the organization: Maria Rosa Brea-Spahn, Rasheera Dopson, Emily Nusbaum, Lauren Schrero, and Herbert Washington!
Maria Rosa Brea-Spahn is a white woman with dark brown hair. She is wearing a black jacket and a lilac shirt and a necklace with oval gemstones in different shades. She is wearing red lipstick and is smiling.
Rasheera Dopson is a black woman with medium-dark brown hair. She wears a sleeveless blue and white checkered top, with a silver necklace, wearing red lipstick and smiling.
Emily Nusbaum is a half white-half middle-eastern, cis woman. She has dark brown, wavy hair and dark brown eyes. She is smiling gently at the camera, wearing a cream sweater and green jacket. The background is white and there are green plants behind her.
Lauren Schrero is a white woman with blonde hair. She poses for a headshot and wears a light blue button down shirt, a cream cardigan, and necklace.
Herbert Washington posed for a headshot against a white background. Herb is a middle-aged, mixed-race male with a shaved head and short-trimmed goatee. He is wearing a white button-down shirt with a white/gray/lavender gingham patterned tie.
Maria Rosa Brea-Spahn, Ph.D. CCC-SLP (she/her)
Dr. Brea-Spahn is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University. She is a Dominican immigrant, bilingual (Español and English) speaker, a critical teacher-scholar whose work has been centered at the intersection of multilingualism and disability. Her classroom and community collaborations focus on interrogating standardized language and ableist beliefs concealed in intervention materials and practices, sustaining variability in languaging in the classroom, and co-envisioning a path for linguistic liberation.
Rasheera Dopson, MPH (she/her)
Rasheera Dopson, MPH is a motivational speaker, podcaster, author, D.E.I. consultant, and qualitative research fellow at the Institute of Human Development at Northern Arizona University. In which her intersectional approach to systems thinking has supported organizations and their teams to advance equity and mitigate health disparities in multiply-marginalized communities through community engagement, policy development, education, and advocacy. She founded the Dopson Foundation whose organizational aim is to advance professional, health and social equity for women and girls with disabilities.
Emily A. Nusbaum, Ph.D. (she/her)
Emily Nusbuam, Ph.D. has spent 25+ years working towards inclusive and equitable education for all students, including those with complex support needs. She began her career at one of the first, inclusive schools in the U.S. and has worked in university-based teacher education in various roles since then. Emily's academic scholarship and teaching centers disability and its intersections as rich and necessary (and often erased) sources of knowledge and innovation. She currently has projects partnering with multiply-marginalized, disabled community and youth scholars and is a lecturer in the Disability Studies minor at UC Berkeley. Emily also works as an advocate with families in the IEP and 504 Plan processes, serves as an expert witness in lawsuits, and provides disability-centered consulting to organizations and institutions, nationally. She received her Ph.D. in 2009 from University of California, Berkeley.
Lauren Schrero (she/her)
Lauren Schrero is the proud co-founder of The Nora Project. Her TedX Talk, titled Ability Inclusive Mindset, has more than 65,000 views and is regularly used in inclusive educator preparation courses nationwide. Currently, Lauren works as a staff attorney at Equip for Equality, the governor-designated and federally-mandated Protection and Advocacy System for people with disabilities in the State of Illinois. At EFE, Lauren is a member of the Civil Rights Team, focusing her practice on matters pertaining to community integration and self-determination.
Herbert Washington (he/him)
Herb is the Chief Innovation Officer at Aspire – a non-profit organization providing life-changing supports for people with disabilities. Herb has worked as a passionate leader in the non-profit sector for 27 years covering a variety of roles across programs and operations. Throughout his career, Herb has challenged the status quo and worked to promote inclusion through creative solutions.Herb currently resides in Yorkville. He has served in local government as a two-term Trustee in the Village of Berkeley, volunteers with a local animal rescue and enjoys spending quality time with his wife, two daughters and Chihuahua.
Former directors Rick Jacobson, Jamel Alikhan, and Benito Barrón departed from the board this past year. The Nora Project is deeply grateful for their time, dedicated service, and many contributions to the growth and overall health of the organization.
Michael Glicken was installed as the Treasurer, succeeding Jamel Alikhan, and Andy Farenden has been chosen as Chair Elect and will succeed Peggy Bianco.
Learn more about our Board of Directors here!
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