The CHAT Team
CHAT founder
Barb Tresness, LMT, RCST
A member of the Burton Blatt Institute’s Board of Advisors, Barb Tresness is the founder and drive behind CHAT. One of her sons, Graham, was born with cerebral palsy, which affects his motor control and makes it so he can’t speak. After their ten year long journey to find a way for Graham to communicate, Barb and her husband Greg want to help other families discover ways for their children to communicate. They donated $100,000 to the Burton Blatt Institute to form CHAT. As CHAT’s founder, Barb is also part of its leadership team. In addition to her work with CHAT, Barb is a Craniosacral Therapist. This is an alternative form of therapy that releases tension in the central nervous system through subtle body movements. When not at work, Barb is the proud mother of three boys.
Learn more about Barb
CHAT Leadership and Administrative Team
Peter Blanck, Ph.D., J.D.
Dr. Blanck is University Professor at Syracuse University, which is the highest faculty rank granted to only eight prior individuals in the history of the University. He is Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University.
Blanck holds appointments at the Syracuse University Colleges of Law, and Arts and Sciences, David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, School of Education, and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Prior to his appointment at Syracuse, Blanck was Kierscht Professor of Law and director of the Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center at the University of Iowa. Blanck is Honorary Professor, Centre for Disability Law & Policy, at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Blanck received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester, a Juris Doctorate from Stanford University, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review, and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University.
Blanck has written articles and books on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related laws, and received grants to study disability law and policy. [For a listing see, http://bbi.syr.edu/about/team/Leadership_Team/blanck_vita_6-13-13.pdf.] Blanck and Robin Malloy are editors of the Cambridge University Press series Disability Law and Policy.
Blanck is a trustee of YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network, Chairman of the Global Universal Design Commission (GUDC), and President of Raising the Floor (RtF) US. He is a former member of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and was a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program, a Fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, and a Mary Switzer Scholar. Prior to teaching, Blanck practiced law at the Washington D.C. firm Covington & Burling, and served as law clerk to the late Honorable Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Beth Tollar, M.S., CCC-SLP, NY State licensed, ASHA certified
Beth Tollar joined the BBI as a fellow in January 2013 to assist with the creation and development of CHAT. She is a certified speech-language pathologist who specializes in the area of augmentative communication. She has more than fifteen years’ experience providing evaluations, treatments, trainings, and consultations with staff and families of children requiring augmentative communication and/or assistive technology.
Learn more about Beth
William Myhill, M.Ed., J.D.
William Myhill is the Director of Legal Writing and Research at the BBI. He has a wide variety of interest, including special education, legal and policy developments affecting children with disabilities and persons aging with or into disability, and assistive technology. William shares his experience as a special education teacher as well as many other talents with the CHAT Team.
Learn more about William
Darlene Carelli, B.P.S. Professional Studies, Syracuse University
Darlene Carelli is a highly motivated woman with a welcoming personality. As the Office Assistant at BBI, she is the first point of contact to all visitors and employees who come to the office. Darlene has an all-encompassing role in CHAT as she keeps track of everything that needs to be done and who is preforming what tasks.
Learn more about Darlene
Diana Foote, B.A. Public Accounting, Syracuse University
Diana Foote is the Director of Operations and Business Manager at the BBI. She has years of experience managing multimillion dollar funds at both the BBI and previous positions in the private and public sectors. Diana also ensures that the BBI’s operations are in compliance with Syracuse University’s policies and practices. As a member of the CHAT team, Diana utilizes her skills to ensure that CHAT operations go as smoothly as possible.
Learn more about Diana
CHAT Media Team
Kate Battoe, B.A. History, Le Moyne College
Kate Battoe is an extremely talented young woman with a gift for writing. As a Research Assistant at BBI, Kate assists with many projects such as the Disability Rights Bar Association, Technical Assistance and Continuing Education Center, and Project ENABLE. She has been working on CHAT since the project started and truly enjoys it. CHAT combines two of Kate’s major interests, assistive technology and working with children. Born with a form of cerebral palsy that affects her speech, she will be working with the CHAT campers and talking with their parents about her experiences using augmentative and alternative communication. She is also writing for CHAT’s blog, is the editor for “CHAT Impact Stories”, and is involved with many other writing tasks.
Nancy Nordheim, B.A. Business-Marketing, Ashland University
Nancy Nordheim joined the CHAT Team in May 2013 as a volunteer coordinator, a role in which she wears many hats. She has a background in business and management and has done everything from assisting with start-up ventures to managing million dollar projects during her career. Utilizing her background in business and exuding a bubbling personality, Nancy throws herself into her many tasks with the dedication of an expecting mother, seeing that every detail gets the attention it deserves. With a background in fashion design, she helps decorate the CHAT rooms and design posters, flyers, and CHAT stationary. For Nancy, helping with CHAT is a kept promise that she made decades ago.
Deborah Cavanagh, B.S Business Administration Marketing, Le Moyne College
Deborah Cavanagh is an award winning writer for Family Times Magazine. She joined the CHAT Media Team in May 2013 as a volunteer blogger and is the author of the parent section of the CHAT Blog. Deb will also be doing some freelance writing for CHAT. She lives in Manlius with her husband and two children. She has written for local organizations supporting children and adults with special needs and publishes the blog www.momofmanyneeds.com.
Jason Benetti, B.A. Broadcast Journalism; Economics; Psychology, Syracuse University, J.D., Wake Forest School of Law
Jason Benetti is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN Regional TV, Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and the Syracuse Chiefs. He also is an adjunct professor in Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication, where he completed his undergraduate studies in 2005. He has cerebral palsy, is a graduate of Wake Forest Law School and makes his home in Liverpool, New York.
CHAT Information Technology Team
DaThao Nguyen
Dathao provides on-site and remote information technology support to BBI staff members. Her responsibilities include determining systems’ requirements and installing and configuring new equipment and software programs while ensuring that University IT standards are met. She also maintains and updates existing systems as well as provides training to end-users. Dathao was a certified teacher in the state of Illinois and Missouri before entering into the IT field. She enjoys the outdoors, karaoke, festivals and traveling.
Celestia Ohrazda, M.S., Ph.Dc., Instructional Design Development and Evaluation, Syracuse University
Celestia Ohrazda is a researcher and web designer. Her experience and research interest focus on accessibility and usability of web-based technologies and the adoption of innovations specifically media-rich technologies. Celestia’s primary duties at the BBI are to design, develop, and maintain project websites. Celestia is one of the key people who developed CHAT Central.
More information about Celestia
Richard Vallejo
Richard Vallejo has been called BBI's in-house "Drupal Guru," providing more than 7 years experience with the content management system for the BBI and CHAT web sites. Other than basking in the glow of his computer screen, Richard is passionate about a variety of social issues and enjoys contributing his skills and knowledge to groups with a good mission. He's a self-motivated learner of many trades, having taught himself HTML and CSS at a young age, and frequently spends evenings working as a mechanic and weekends doing construction on his house.
CHAT Main Speakers
Kathy O’Connell, M.S., C.R.C., L.M.H.C., G'95 EDU
A member of the Burton Blatt Institute’s Board of Advisors, Kathy O’Connell is the director of Radiant Abilities, LLC and author of Firewalk: Embracing Different Abilities, a self-help book about living with different abilities. As a counselor and public speaker, she strives to help people with disabilities see their abilities and attain true happiness by accepting their disabilities as part of their whole being. Kathy will be reading excerpts from her book and conversing with the CHAT campers’ parents.
Nienke Dosa, MD, MPH
Nienke Dosa is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Center for Development, Behavior and Genetics at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse New York. She is board certified in Pediatrics and in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is medical director of the Spina Bifida Center of Central New York and also coordinates programs for children with cerebral palsy and children with vision impairment/blindness. Her research is focused on adapted sports for children with disabilities and on the transition to adulthood for this population. She is director of the New York State Institute for Health Transition Training).
Luis Columna, PhD
Luis Columna is an Associate Professor in the Exercise Science Department at Syracuse University. His research focuses on ways to increase the participation of families (especially Hispanic) of children with disabilities into physical activity and also his research focuses on ways to better prepare teachers to work with diverse populations. As a native of Puerto Rico, Professor Columna incorporates Spanish and sign language into his classes. He will be working with the CHAT campers on Sports Day and speaking with their parents about physical education rights and recreational opportunities.
Learn more about Professor Columna
Rupal Patel, CCC- ASHA, SLP(C) - CASLPA
Professor Rupal Patel Professor Patel has a joint appointment in Bouvé College of Health Sciences and the College of Computer and Information Sciences . She founded and directs the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab) which conducts research on the analysis of spoken communication, and the design, development and assessment of human-machine interfaces that augment and enhance communication. One of her many research projects is VocalID, a study aimed towards developing computerized voices to better approximate the natural age, gender, rate of speech and voice quality of individual users. Professor Patel will talk about VocalID via a video recording. Read NPR’s article about VocalID
Warren Pfohl, MDIV
Warren Pfohl, and his wife Brenda, founded David’s Refuge as a place of respite for parents and guardians of children with special needs and extreme medical conditions. Their son, David, developed Batten Disease at nine and lived with it for thirteen years. Warren will talk with parents about how this free respite service works.
More info about David’s Refuge
CHAT Featured Guests
Rachel Mosher, MT-BC
Rachel Mosher is a Board Certified Music Therapist who has been practicing in the Syracuse area for 12 years. Currently, she is working with school aged special education students of various abilities. Music has great healing and communication benefits for all people. Rachel will be working with CHAT’s Campers to show them some of the benefits of music Therapy.
CHAT Mentors
Kara Vander Veer, BA Social Work, MA Disability Studies, Syracuse University
Kara Vander Veer is thirty seven years old. She has been communicating with AAC since she was six. Kara works at ARISE, which is an independent living center for people with disabilities. Her job is to help people who are in nursing homes transfer to their own homes and set up the supports they need to live independently or with family.
Rick Meives
Rick Meives is thirty-three years old and has autism and Down’s syndrome. He lives in Cicero, NY with his family. He uses facilitated communication as his primary means of communication. In the last year Rick has gotten involved in mentoring other facilitated communication users. He loves it and believes it is his calling to advocate for himself and others.