Who We Are

Kate Williams is a white woman with dark brown hair and bangs and pink glasses smiling in front of a wall of pink roses. She is wearing a black and white sleeveless dress.

Kate Williams (she/her) serves as the Director of Advocacy Supports at the Disability Equity Center. Kate has supported the disability community professionally for twelve years, with experience serving folks across the lifespan and in both the private and non-profit sector. She is especially passionate about cross-disability community organizing and holistic health and wellness programming. She loves cats, yoga, and radical social justice!

Zina Allen (she/they/Z) is a Corvallis artist and poet. Their art is an outlet and a way for them to create while living with disabilities. They are inspired by the concept of social symbiotic relationships and the idea that equity is possible. Their work joins layers and different ways of seeing things to represent the complexities they observe not just in their own life but also the world around them. They work as an architect, designer and wellness and equity ambassador at the Disability Equity Center. Zina recently received the Paul Harris Fellow award from the National Rotarians for their multiple volunteer efforts.

Laura Estreich, a Japanese-American woman with long, straight, brown hair, wearing a pink long sleeve top and a blue hat. She is smiling and sitting at a wooden table with a bright window behind her.

Laura Estreich (she/her/hers) is the Peer Health Facilitator. Laura was born with Down Syndrome to a family she loves and is close to. Laura describes working for the DEC as her dream job. She loves to travel, going between the East Coast and Corvallis, where she sees her friends. Laura identifies as part of the IDD community and believes working in the disability community is important.

Cameo is a mixed-race disabled woman in her thirties. In this photo taken at the Memorial Union Quad in the fall of 2020, she is posing (smiling) in her wheelchair with her hands placed one over the other on her upper right thigh. Worn are a light blue sweater and dark blue jeans.

Cameo Ariel K. Perrells serves as our Event and Fundraising Coordinator. She was born and raised in Hawaii and is also an interior design student at Oregon State University in the College of Business.
Cameo volunteers as the Disabled Students Union club president and a Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF) committee member. Her passions are swimming, camping, cooking, and baking for her home-kitchen-licensed business.

Photo of Allison Hobgood, a 40-something white woman with short, dark curly hair. She is wearing spiral earrings and a dark t-shirt. She is smiling at the camera. Behind her is a partially-visible bookcase with some books peaking out. — Allison Hobgood, a 40-something white woman with short, dark curly hair. She is wearing spiral earrings and a dark t-shirt. She is smiling at the camera. Behind her is a partially-visible bookcase with some books peaking out.

Allison P. Hobgood serves as Executive Director of the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center, a day resource and community hub for individuals living in chronic poverty. She previously was Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Willamette University and now focuses on grassroots community organizing for disability and homelessness justice.

Photo of Abby Mulcahy, a white person with cropped brown hair and dark-rimmed square glasses. They are wearing a black blazer in a brightly lit room with a picture frame slightly visible behind them. — Abby Mulcahy, a white person with cropped brown hair and dark-rimmed square glasses. They are wearing a black blazer in a brightly lit room with a picture frame slightly visible behind them.

Abby Mulcahy is a co-founder of the Disability Equity Center. Abby completed their PhD in public health at Oregon State University and is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care at the VA Portland Healthcare System, as well as a Delivery Systems Science Fellow through AcademyHealth.

Rebecca is a white woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair. She is wearing a green sweater under a black rain jacket. Behind her is a green field with trees under a bright blue sky.

Rebecca Olson is Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University. She is passionate about improving access in education through trauma-informed and critical pedagogy, programs designed to support working class students, and more inclusive open educational resources.

Kate is a white woman with short black hair with red streaks. She wears glasses with red frames and a black cardigan over a red shirt. Behind her is a blue telephone box.

Kate Schilke (she/her) is currently a process engineer at HP, Inc., and is training to be a clinical sexologist. Kate resigned her tenure as an Associate Professor of Engineering at Oregon State University because of a prolonged neurological illness. She is an advocate for safe, affirming, and accessible queer and transgender sexual and mental health care.

Lzz is a white person with short light brown hair and square glasses. They are wearing a blue jacket over a collared shirt, and are smiling and standing in front of green bushes.

Lzz Johnk served as a media and website volunteer for the DEC. They are currently a visiting professor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Grand Valley State University. They previously worked as an Archival Assistant for the OSU Disability Archives.

Skyler is a white person with short, curly brown hair. They are wearing a white collared shirt under a black jacket and have a dark blue background behind them.

Skyler Scott is a DEC intern. They are a student at Western Oregon University. Their major is Interdisciplinary Studies with focus areas in American Sign Language and Writing.

This picture shows Mike as a white person with short gray hair, sitting in a chair with a black headrest. He is wearing a blue collared shirt with a red and blue shirt underneath and is in front of a green plant on a sunny day. He is smiling kindly.

Mike Volpe cheerfully and relentlessly pushed us to do better in serving people in Oregon and brought a perspective to our work that was both personal and deeply considered. We credit him for helping shape programs in Oregon that redefined how long-term services and supports should be delivered.

Our Staff

Our Board of Trustees

Our Community