Board of Directors

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

DeafBlind Citizens in Action is powered by a team of committed individuals who strive to level the playing field for people who are deafblind. Our team and volunteers are dedicated to making a positive impact on the lives of those we serve.

Our Officers

Chairperson of the Board – Lauren Lieberman

Lauren J. Lieberman Ph.D. is a Distinguished Service Professor in the Kinesiology Department at SUNY Brockport in adapted physical education. She previously taught at The Perkins School for the Blind in the Deafblind program. She is co-director of The Institute on Movement Studies for Individuals with Visual Impairments or Deafblindness (IMSVI). She is the founder and director of Camp Abilities; an educational sports camp for children who are visually impaired or deafblind. Camp Abilities is now in 35 locations worldwide. She has published over 225 peer-reviewed articles and 24 books. Most recently she published “The Camp Abilities Story” a memoir of how she started Camp Abilities and developed Camps all over the world. In 2019 she was awarded a Global Fulbright Scholarship from the US Government to promote Camp Abilities world-wide in Ghana, Ireland and Brazil. She won the Lifetime Achievement Award for both the National Consortium of Physical Education for Individuals with Disabilities and for SHAPE America. She continues to teach future teachers how to teach all children worldwide.

President – Quinn Burch

Quinn Burch, 34, is a Reader Advisor at the New York State Talking Book and Braille Library. She is also the President of DBCA.
Deafblind herself, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in English & psychology. She took part in a conference hosted by the National Family Association on Deafblind in 2012, presenting about her experiences with interpreters. In April 2012 she received the Anne Sullivan Macy Award.
She was one of the participants in the Deafblind Young Adults in Action seminar in 2018, where she presented to the Department of Transportation about the need for better policies in paratransit systems.

In her free time, she’s a doting cat mother, Scrabble enthusiast, avid braille reader, and hopeful writer. She’s working on her memoir.
Quinn is a passionate advocate for those who are deafblind, and, as a deafblind individual herself she has been advocating all her life for herself and the deafblind community.

Vice President – Christian Gonzalez

Christian M. Gonzalez, 39, was born and raised in Southern California, and is now a New Yorker since 2019.

 Chris is a recent graduate of Schenectady County Community College (SCCC), with an Associate in hotel & restaurant management, and certification for assistant chef.

  Chris spent his teens and twenties as a musician playing harp (main instrument)/piano/percussion as a solo and various bands including some of the legends in the Mariachi industry. He graduated from Southwestern College with an Associate in Liiberal Arts, Latino studies and General education in 2008. 

Chris began his journey as an advocate in 2004 as an activity leader working with the California Youth Leadership forum, working with children, teaching self-advocacy and safety awareness.

 Chris was a counselor for Camp Talk in San Diego, working with children with disabilities especially autism and Deafblind children who used different methods of communications including American sign language,  Tactile Sign Language,, nonverbal cues / gestures, and more. In 2017 he joined the staff at Helen Keller National Center as an independent living intern, teaching cooking and other independent living skills to fellow Deafblind folks.

 He joined the Youth Leadership program Deafblind Young Adults in Action in 2018 focusing on self-advocacy at a national level, where he learned what it takes to advocate for equal access through speaking with congress and other federal agencies. 

   He is now  the Vice-president of this organization, and is very passionate and driven to do whatever he can to further improve the lives of Deafblind individuals through Deafblind citizens in Action.

He lives with his fiancé and his cat Ginny in Schenectady NY.

Treasurer – Mark Mellenger

Mark is deaf and sighted.  He lives in Arizona and has been involved with various deafblind communities from camps to conferences for over 18 years.  Mark is one of cofounder for DeafBlind Retreat of Arizona.  He has done as a deaf interpreter and Support Service Provider (SSP).  Currently he is the treasurer for DBCA.

Secretary – vacant

Our Board Members

Cassandra Xavier

My name is Casandra Xavier. I am from Boston, MA. I am deaf-blind and an active member of the disability community. I speak verbally and use ASL. I enjoy blind sailing and many things nautical. I enjoy cooking and storytelling on stage. Technology makes me heart happy most times. I cannot part ways with my Mantis Q40 braille display. I am primarily focused on my health and wellness journey so that I can be healthier for myself in the future.

Elizabeth Spiers

Elizabeth Spiers, a board member, is Director of DeafBlind Services at the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired.  She works with deafblind people in the eastern part of Virginia, providing them with communication and independent living skills assessments.  She demonstrates and recommends devices such as alerting devices and assistive listening devices to help deafblind people communicate with others and be more aware of sounds in their environment.  Elizabeth also coordinates the I Can Connect Program for Virginia, a national equipment distribution program for people who are deafblind.  She also trains staff on how to work with deafblind individuals.

Prior to her work at DBVI, Elizabeth worked as Director of Information Services at the American Association of the DeafBlind, a consumer advocacy organization of, by and for deafblind people.  She edited AADB’s magazine, The Deaf-Blind American, and AADB’s e-news, “AADB Today.”   While Elizabeth was at AADB, she and other AADB staff were involved in the very first legislative training for young deafblind adults, when DBCA was called Deaf-Blind Young Adults in Action (DBYAA).

Jonathan Candler

Jonathan was born in 1991 in Phoenix Arizona where he’s been a native in Arizona for all of his life. He was born in Good Samaritan hospital and after being hospitalized for four months, he, his parents and siblings moved to Yuma where he and his siblings would all grow up but would move back to Phoenix in 2012. Jonathan was home schooled for most of his life but went to Arizona school for the Deaf and Blind back in 2010 where he graduated in 2013. He did go to public school for a year and a half a year prior. After he graduated ASDB, he went to a couple summer camps in Arizona, one of which was, FBC, (Foundation for Blind Children) and Saavi (Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired) In 2014, Jonathan spent 10 months in Colorado at CCB to learn all he can regarding independent living. He graduated in 2015 from the center and in 2016, began going to college to get his degree  / certification in computer science, more commonly known as information systems and technology, where he graduated successfully in 2020. Candler was always intrigued in the world of music and he always had, and still to this day, has a great deal of passion for music and learned guitar when he was 5. He took up and self-taught numerous instruments after that point including Drums, bass guitar, Pedal steel guitar and many others. Jonathan was always in the music industry ever cense he was 7 but didn’t start traveling / touring and playing until he was 12 or so. During his late teens, he also was self-taught in music production and later, audio engineering and making beats. He’s played with lots of band / musicians and has worked producing for some artists in the pop / hip hop scene either by making beats, or engineering. Jonathan’s focus is primarily in the music scene as a professional musician and production where he hopes to continue touring whenever he can, making that his full time gig and part time, IT work, computer programming and or web development. 

Social Media Coordinator – Sarah Hale

Sarah is currently on a temporary medical leave and hopefully will return to us full time very soon. We wish her all the best.

We have a wonderful group of volunteer interpreters and conavigators. who generously donate their time free of charge for all of our board meetings and hopefully in person meetings in the future.

Our CoNavigators and Interpreters

Melissa Hays is the Program Director for ASL & Interpreting at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. She has been volunteering with DBCA since 2011 and has learned so much through that experience. She has been interpreting for over 30 years in various settings, including community, post-secondary, theatre, and VRS. Melissa is married with two adult children. She enjoys playing pickleball, crafting, and spending time with her dogs in her free time.