Solutions in Sight Panelists
Panelists
( For more information on the Summit, click here.)
Panel: Transformative Technology: Access, Collaboration, Innovation
Kara Miller (Moderator)
Host and Executive Editor, Innovation Hub, WGBH and PRI
Kara Miller is the host and executive editor of Innovation Hub, which she launched in 2011. PRI took the program national in May, 2014. Kara also contributes to “The Takeaway,” a national radio program hosted by John Hockenberry, WGBH’s “Morning Edition,” and “Greater Boston,” which airs on Boston’s PBS station.
As a host, Kara has interviewed Tom Friedman, Sherry Turkle, Jared Diamond, Sal Khan, David Pogue, and Marissa Mayer, among others. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The National Journal, The Boston Herald, TheAtlantic.com, The Huffington Post, and The International Herald Tribune. Kara holds a Ph.D. from Tufts and a B.A. from Yale.
Suman Kanuganti
Co-Founder and CEO, Aira
Suman Kanuganti is Co-Founder and CEO of Aira.IO, an emerging startup company based in San Diego, CA that is focused on developing leading technology and services that provide blind and low-vision people greater mobility, independence and efficiency. In his career, Suman has leveraged his expertise and leadership in technology and business for more than 10 years, which, in addition to Aira, have included positions at Intuit, Caterpillar, and Qualcomm.
Passionate about startups, problem solving, and creating innovative products that have a social and economic impact, Kanuganti co-founded Aira in 2014, where as CEO he is responsible for developing and spearheading the execution of the company´s high growth business plan, and identifying key strategies to leverage and rapidly expand Aira´s technology base. Under his leadership, Aira has realized key successes, including securing seed capital and Series A financing from such major venture capital investors as Lux Capital, ARCH Venture Partners and Felicis Ventures.
Suman holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Finance from UC San Diego Rady School of Management (Class of 2014), in addition to a Master´s in Computer Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kakatiya University, India. He holds 5 patents as inventor or co-inventor in interactive computer devices.
Bilal Zuberi
Partner, Lux Capital
Bilal Zuberi is a Partner at Lux Capital, based in the firm’s Palo Alto office. He partners with and invests in entrepreneurs working on big, bold, brave ideas in technology, energy and healthcare. Previously he was an investor at General Catalyst Partners in Boston, MA.
Bilal is passionate about student entrepreneurship: he co-founded RoughDraft.vc, a venture firm focused on student startups, is a founding Board member of StartLabs.org, and co-founded the annual University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium. He was also a co-founder of GEO2 Technologies, an advanced materials company that also spun out Bio2 Technologies, and was a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.
Bilal has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under Prof. Mario Molina – Nobel laureate, 1995) and his technical work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and 30+ patents and applications. He was also a visiting scientist at PNNL/DOE Labs. He speaks frequently on university campuses and in media/conferences on innovation, entrepreneurship and the dream of changing the world.
Erich Manser
Accessibility Tester and Consultant, IBM
Erich Manser works in research at IBM, focusing on technology accessibility and ensuring that technology can truly be used by everyone. He is an active volunteer, enjoying mentor relationships with IBM colleagues and young people in the community through organizations such as Partners for Youth with Disabilities and Work Without Limits.
Outside the workplace, Erich competes in marathons and triathlons, including as a member of Team With A Vision, which competes at the Boston Marathon each year to raise funds and awareness for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In the fall of 2015 Erich was proud to break the world record for an Ironman triathlon by a blind athlete. Erich lives in Littleton, MA with his wife Lisa and daughters Ellie, age 10, and Grace, age 7.
Panel: Closing Gaps in Our Healthcare System: The Challenge of Health Care Reform
Audrey Shelto (Moderator)
President, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
As a proven leader with 30 years of achievement in improving the delivery of health care and human services, particularly for low-income and vulnerable populations, Ms. Shelto assumed leadership of the Foundation in August 2013. She is widely recognized for her expertise in all aspects of health care and leads the Foundation’s strategic agenda to broaden health coverage and reduce barriers to care through grants, research, and policy initiatives.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Shelto directed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts efforts to develop a demonstration program for those dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. Previous positions at Blue Cross Blue Shield included Senior Vice President for Health and Wellness where she led the development of a new member-centered model of provider integrated health management designed to improve health care quality and affordability.
Ms. Shelto’s other professional experience includes; Chief Operating Officer of Neighborhood Health Plan; Executive Director for the Boston Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Health Care; Associate Commissioner of Massachusetts’s Department of Mental Health; and, Assistant Budget Director for the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance.
She holds a master’s degree in management of human services from the Heller School at Brandeis University, and a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Connecticut. Ms. Shelto serves on the board of the Justice Resource Institute, the leadership advisory committee of the Kraft Center for Community Health and recently received the Art of Healthcare Award from the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center.
Paul Saner
Commissioner, Massachusetts Commision for the Blind
Paul Saner was appointed Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) in August 2013. Saner was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) at an unusually young age of 4, and was declared legally blind in 1991. His personal experiences, extensive volunteer efforts, and advocacy work, make him a strong leader and ambassador for the 30,000 legally blind residents of the Commonwealth.
Saner has substantial non-profit management experience. His advocacy work on many critical issues surrounding the blindness community has led to numerous leadership roles, including The Foundation Fighting Blindness, The Carroll Center for the Blind, Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library Consumer Advisory Board, and MCB’s Rehabilitation Council. He also served as a trustee of the Brookline Community Foundation, is a Brookline Town Meeting Member and is co-chair of Brookline’s Economic Development Advisory Board.
Born and raised in Northampton, Massachusetts, Saner is a graduate of Trinity College (Connecticut) and holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester. A passionate fan of Boston professional sport teams, he and his wife, Sandra, have two adult daughters, Katelyn and Jennifer. Saner is often seen with Phoenix, his German Shepherd guide dog.
Scott Taberner
Chief of Behavioral Health and Supportive Care, MassHealth
Scott Taberner is the Chief of Behavioral Health and Supportive Care at the Office of MassHealth. In his role he leads MassHealth’s efforts to better coordinate and integrate care for behavioral health, physical health and long-term services and supports for members, including elders and persons with disabilities. Taberner oversees the Office of Behavioral Health, Office of Long Term Services and Supports, and Home and Community Based Waivers. Prior to joining MassHealth in 2015, he served in senior leadership positions at the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, the Department of Youth Services, the Parole Board, and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
Cathy Holden
Director of Clinical Operations and Rehabilitation, NewView Oklahoma
Cathy Holden has specialized in vision rehabilitation for over 30 years with an emphasis in Orientation and Mobility. After completing her degree at Stephen F. Austin State University, Cathy worked as a private consultant before joining forces with NewView Oklahoma. Throughout her career, Cathy has worked in a variety of settings including residential, state, public and private sectors.
She presently oversees operation of two low vision clinics which provide statewide comprehensive low vision care and rehabilitation to over 3000 patients. She continues to serve on many state and national committees seeking to further our profession thru development of measurable tools in all areas of vision rehabilitation. Her utmost desire is that every person struggling with low vision is able to have access to quality vision rehabilitation so that they may continue to remain safe and independent in their home and community.
Panel: Access to a Full Life: Addressing Mental Health Barriers and Reimagining Services for Active Living
Michael Festa (Moderator)
State Director, AARP Massachusetts
Since 2013, Michael E. Festa, Esq., has served as the State Director of AARP’s Massachusetts State Office. In this role, he leads the development and delivery of AARP’s community programs, advocacy and information for its more than 800,000 members age 50 and older in the Commonwealth.
Appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick as the Secretary of Elder Affairs from 2007 to 2009, Festa shined a bright light on the aging of the commonwealth’s population, and the changing needs of seniors and their families. His leadership resulted in the expansion of senior employment and civic engagement opportunities, as well as increased access to resources and services for abused elders. Festa also identified technology solutions to enhance the agency’s ability to monitor costs, analyze and disseminate data, and create efficiencies to better deliver services to seniors.
Elected as State Representative for five consecutive terms, Festa spearheaded the “Equal Choice for Senior and Disabled Persons” law, and led successful efforts to increase state and federal funding for home care, long term care and elder protective services.
Festa has had a longstanding law practice in his hometown of Melrose. He also served as President and CEO of the Carroll Center for the Blind, and as Adjunct Professor at Suffolk University, Sawyer School of Public Management. Festa began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County. Today, he serves as a board member for ITN (Independent Transportation Network) Greater Boston, and is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and the Massachusetts Chapter of NAELA.
Ryan Knighton
Author, Screenwriter, and Speaker
Ryan Knighton is an internationally acclaimed author, screenwriter and performer. His memoirs, Cockeyed and C’mon Papa, received many award nominations, including the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Evergreen Prize. He has been a frequent contributor to NPR’s This American Life and The Moth, and has written for The New York Times, Outside, Esquire, The Globe and Mail, The Believer, Popular Mechanics, Men’s Health, Afar, Salon, and many others.
His journalism has earned him a National Magazine Award nomination and the Thomas-Lowell Travel Writing Award. He is also a Sundance Lab screenwriting fellow and the recipient of the 2009 Alfred Sloan Prize from the Tribecca Film Institute. Most recently, Ryan has written films for Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, as well as a TV pilot for FX. Ryan has been blind for most of his life.
Rebecca Alexander
Psychotherapist, Author
Rebecca Alexander is an author, psychotherapist, group fitness instructor, speaker and an extreme athlete who holds two master’s degrees from Columbia University in Public Health and Clinical Social Work. Born with a rare genetic disorder called Usher Syndrome type III, Rebecca has been simultaneously losing both her vision and her hearing since she was a child. She currently lives in New York City where she maintains her psychotherapy practice.
Rebecca sits on the advisory board for the Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), the leading nonprofit disability rights legal centers in the nation with a mission to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities.
Rebecca has been featured on NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC, Morning Joe, The Dr. Oz Show, The Meredith Vieira Show, People.com, ESPN, The Steve Adulate Show NPR, as well as numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The New York Post, New York magazine, Marie Claire magazine, Self magazine, Fitness magazine, Shape.com, Cosmopolitan.com, and many others.
Alice Bonner, PhD, RN
Secretary, Executive Office of Elder Affairs
Alice Bonner, Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has been a geriatric nurse practitioner caring for older adults and their families for over 25 years. From 2013-2015, she was an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, Bouve College of Health Sciences and a Faculty Associate in the Center for Health Policy at Northeastern University.
From 2009-2011, Dr. Bonner was the Director of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality, at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Director of the Division of Nursing Homes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, MD.
Dr. Bonner’s research interests include quality and safety in health care systems and community-based settings; falls prevention; improving dementia care and reducing unnecessary antipsychotic medication use; and improving care transitions.
Panel: Employment: Strategies to Eliminate Joblessness
Joe Abely
President, Carroll Center for the Blind
Joe Abely is President of the Carroll Center for the Blind, where he has served as a board member since September 2004 and Chairman of the Finance Committee from September 2005 until March 2011. Established in 1936, The Carroll Center has pioneered many methods for people with low vision to learn the skills to be independent in their homes, in class settings, and in their work places. Services for the blind include vision rehabilitation services, vocational and transition programs, assistive technology training, educational support and recreation opportunities for individuals who are visually impaired of all ages.
Joe previously served as President and CEO of CaseSight Inc., a venture-backed company providing litigation consulting services, and Chairman and CEO of LoJack Corporation, the premier worldwide provider of wireless tracking and recovery systems for mobile assets. Joe was also a Partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) where he was National Director of Cable Television and Broadcast Media Practice.
Joe currently sits on the board of the 100 Club of Massachusetts, a 501(c)(3) charity that provides financial assistance to the families of fallen police officers and firefighters, where he is chairman of the audit committee, is Chairman of the Board of Advisors of BI2 Technologies, LLC, an early stage company that has developed and markets proprietary biometric identification systems to law enforcement, and also serves on the Board of Directors of MiCorp Dealer Services, the leading mobile installer in New England of vehicle accessories.
He was formerly a director at Innov-X Systems, a private equity-backed global leader in rapid on-site XRF measurements, where he was on the Audit and Compensation Committees and ZoomSafer, the leading provider of enterprise software to prevent distracted driving. He has also served as Director and President, and Treasurer, Chairman of Finance Committee, and Chairman of the Personnel Committee of Brae Burn Country Club.
Joe is a graduate from Boston College and also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dave Power
President and CEO, Perkins School for the Blind
Dave Power has guided growing organizations as an operating executive, board member and advisor for more than 25 years. His diverse background includes roles as CEO, general manager and marketing executive at successful growth companies including at Sun Microsystems, RSA Security, Novera Software and Mercator Software. He has taught strategic management and design thinking at Harvard Extension School where he received the Joanne Fussa Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014, and he is author of “The Curve Ahead: Discovering the Path to Unlimited Growth.” Previous to his current role as President and CEO of Perkins, Dave served on Perkins’ Board of Trustees and was instrumental in developing Perkins’ eLearning initiative. He is father to Perkins alumnus David, a graduate of Perkins’ Deafblind Program.
Bruce Howell
Accessibility Services Coordinator, Carroll Center for the Blind
Bruce Howell joined the staff at the Carroll Center for the Blind in July of 2012 as the Accessibility Services Coordinator for the Carroll Center’s Accessibility Services Team. Bruce, who is a graduate of Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, enjoyed a long career in retail banking for a Boston area community bank. Then, in 2011-2012, he worked as the Employer Account Manager for the Greater Boston Employment Collaborative. In this role, Bruce pursued business development to facilitate access to job postings and led a group of 38 Job Developers representing several Boston area human service agencies serving disabled job seekers.
In his current job with the Carroll Center, Bruce’s primary responsibility are business development and project management. He coordinates the internal work flow on accessibility projects from start to finish. This begins by assisting clients to identify and articulate their accessibility needs, and moves to matching Carroll Center personnel and resources in order to best meet those client requirements. Bruce communicates with clients throughout the evaluation or testing process and facilitates interaction between the Accessibility Services team and the client. He is a proficient user of some of the Assistive Technologies which the Accessibility Services team uses to conduct testing and evaluation of websites and other online content.
In his spare time Bruce is a competitive sailor with the SailBlind program out of the Courageous Sailing Center in Charlestown. He is the Chair of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind’s Rehabilitation Advisory Council, and is also an appointed member of Needham’s Commission on Disabilities.
Kate Katulak
Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments, Perkins School for the Blind
Kate Katulak, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments at Perkins School for the Blind Kate teaches several subjects to high school students at Perkins including technology, executive functioning and math. She is a representative on Perkins’ Expanded Core Curriculum Steering Committee and also helps design curricula across content areas. She serves as co-facilitator of Perkins’ Pre-Employment Program, a new course designed to prepare young adults for employment and independence. Prior to her current position, she taught students with visual impairments and provided professional training to colleagues at Stamford Public Schools.
Carl Richardson
ADA Coordinator/504/Diversity Officer, Massachusetts State House
Carl Richardson is the ADA Coordinator/504/Diversity Officer for the Massachusetts State House. He collaborates with the Executive branch, legislature, and state agencies which serve the disability community to make the State House fully accessible to all. As a deaf-blind individual, Carl understands firsthand the many challenges that a disabled person faces when it comes to education, employment, and daily living. Formerly, Carl was a marketing representative for one of the world’s leading organization in accessibility, WGBH’s Media Access Group; the Media Access Group helps to make media such as the web, movies, and television accessible to all. He also serves on the board of the Carroll Center for the Blind and is an advisory member for Very Special Arts of Massachusetts.
Marla Runyan
Digital Accessibility Consultant/Testing Team Lead, Perkins School for the Blind
Marla Runyan is a former world-class American track and field athlete and marathoner who is legally blind. She began losing her vision at age nine, but that never kept her from achieving excellence in sport and beyond. A two-time Olympian, an international and Paralympic champion, Marla today speaks on behalf of Perkins and is author of “No Finish Line, My Life As I See It.” She works at Perkins Solutions as a Digital Accessibility Consultant and leads the Perkins Testing Team through the review process of online spaces, helping clients improve the accessibility of their websites. Marla is also a Teacher of the Visually Impaired and taught assistive technology, physics and other subjects to Perkins students.
Martha Steele
Retired Deputy Director of the Bureau of Environmental Health, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Martha Steele recently retired from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Environmental Health. Her professional career spanned nearly 34 years following completion of her graduate work at the University of Michigan. She currently serves as a National Trustee and Boston Chapter president for the Foundation Fighting Blindness; a member of the Board of Directors for The Carroll Center for the Blind and the Usher Syndrome Coalition; and a member of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Statutory Advisory Board. Ms. Steele has Usher Syndrome and was a lifelong user of hearing aids until 2010 when she got her first cochlear implant, followed by a second one in 2015.
She recently trained to receive a guide dog, Alvin, at the Guiding Eyes for the Blind in New York state. Aside from her volunteerism in the blindness community, she is a passionate birdwatcher and now experiences this avocation through hearing and identifying birds by their songs. Ms. Steele lives in Arlington with her husband, Bob Stymeist.