Members of the Board

Susan Brita
General Services Administration bio

Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA
Seattle, Washington bio

Public Members

Regina Blye
Regina Blye of Austin, Texas is the Executive Director of the Texas State Independent Living Council (SILC) and currently serves as Chair of SILC Congress, a national group dedicated to improving the effectiveness of SILCs. She is also Vice-Chair of the Texas Disability Policy Consortium, a collection of organizations working together to advance the rights of Texans with disabilities, and serves as a board member for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, a grassroots advocacy organization. Blye graduated from West Texas A&M University with a degree in mass communications.

John Gunnar Box
John Gunnar Box of Corona, California is founder of Colours ‘N Motion, Inc., a company that manufactures and customizes wheelchairs and wheelchair accessories. A native of Southern California, he has run the company as its president for the past 16 years. Previously, he organized and operated a family run aerospace company. Box sits on the boards of UNITY, a Corona youth organization, and the Los Amigos Research and Education Institute. He was appointed to the Board by the President in 2007.

Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA
Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA, of Seattle is a registered architect and principal with Studio Pacifica, Ltd., an architectural consulting firm focused on accessibility and accessible design that she co-founded in 1993.  She regularly advises state agencies, local governments, school districts, other architects, and home builders and owners on accessibility under various laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act, and on compliance with state codes in housing, commercial, retail, institutional and educational projects.  Braitmayer served as a member of the Washington State Building Code Council from 1994 to 2001 and remains active in the development and update of Washington State’s accessibility code. 

Edward H. Gee
Edward H. Gee of Stone Mountain, Georgia is president of the ISES Corporation, a facilities engineering and management support firm that he founded in 1987.  He has almost 35 years of experience providing capital planning and budgeting services to corporate, institutional, and government clients.  Through his company, Gee has pioneered and developed a range of management services and tools, including facility condition analyses, operations and maintenance programming, asset management studies, life cycle modeling, and accessibility surveys, among others.

Christopher S. Hart
Christopher S. Hart of Boston, Massachusetts is the Director of Urban and Transportation Projects for the Institute for Human Centered Design, an international nonprofit organization in Boston that promotes accessibility and universal design. He also serves as an appointed member of the Governor’s Transportation Advisory Reform Committee and the National Steering Committee for Project ACTION, a national organization dedicated to promoting universal access to transportation for people with disabilities. In addition, Hart served as a consultant on transportation issues for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and Boston’s disability community and is a board member for the Livable Streets Alliance and the Disability Law Center. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts College of Public and Community Service.

Phillip D. Jenkins
Phillip D. Jenkins of Austin, Texas is a senior software engineer in IBM's Research Division who has over 27 years of experience with the company.  He has been active in the development of innovations to enhance the accessibility of IBM technologies, products, and services through IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Center.  He represented IBM on Access Board advisory committees involved in drafting and more recently updating access standards for electronic and information technologies issued under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Mathew McCollough, M.P.A.
Mathew McCollough, M.P.A. of Washington, D.C. is executive director of the District of Columbia (DC) Developmental Disabilities Council which promotes independence and equal opportunity for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He previously served as communications manager for the DC Office of Disability Rights where he coordinated and publicized District government efforts to improve accessibility and compliance with laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Before joining the DC government, McCollough was employed by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities as a grants manager and contracted by the U.S. Department of Justice as an information specialist.

Neil K. Melick, CBO
Neil K. Melick of West Palm Beach, Florida, serves as the Assistant City Administrator for the City of West Palm Beach, a position he has held since 2008. Prior to that, he served 13 years as Director of the Construction Services Department for the city. He is a Florida Licensed Building Codes Administrator and International Certified Building Official, as well as a Florida Certified Building Contractor. From 2002 to 2009, he served as Chair of the Florida Accessibility Advisory Council in the Department of Community Affairs whose members are appointed by the Governor. He also served as a member of the Florida Building Commission's Accessibility Technical Advisory Committee. Melick is a former president of the Building Officials Association of Palm Beach County and previously chaired the Building Code Advisory Board of Palm Beach County. He also has served as vice chairman of the International Code Council (ICC) International Building Code Interpretations Committee, chaired the ICC's Structural Action Committee, and served on the former Code Interpretations Committee of the Southern Building Code Congress International, which is now part of the ICC.

Howard A. Rosenblum
Howard A. Rosenblum is a senior attorney at Equip for Equality, a nonprofit organization responsible for implementing the Protection and Advocacy System in the State of Illinois.  He was recently named Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), a position he will assume next April, and has served as NAD’s Public Policy Chair since 2006.  An attorney for 18 years, Rosenblum has focused his legal practice on disability rights and special education.  He has been involved in major cases under the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and other laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities.  Rosenblum is the co-founder and Chairperson of the Midwest Center on Law and the Deaf, an organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to the legal system for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. 

Deborah A. Ryan
Deborah A. Ryan of Boston, Massachusetts is head of Deborah A. Ryan & Associates, an accessibility consulting firm that specializes in compliance with design requirements issued under Massachusetts law and federal laws such as the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act. As a consultant, she is active in accessibility surveys, plan reviews, technical assistance, training, and guidance on complaint resolution. Before creating her firm in 2002, Ryan served for over 25 years at the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB), including 15 years as its executive director. The MAAB develops and enforces state requirements for accessible buildings and facilities. Ryan previously served on the U.S. Access Board's Public Right-of-Way Access Advisory Committee.

Hans A. Van Winkle
Hans A. Van Winkle of Lumberton, New Jersey is a Vice President at Parsons Brinkerhoff, a leading engineering firm, and has over 35 years of experience in engineering, operations, construction and project management. Before joining Parsons Brinkerhoff, he was director of the Construction Industry Institute, a non-profit consortium at the University of Texas at Austin, and served for more than 30 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he rose to become Deputy Commander.

Kathleen Martinez, Department of Labor
Kathleen Martinez was appointed Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy by the President Obama in 2009. As head of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, Martinez advises the Secretary of Labor and works with all department agencies to lead a comprehensive and coordinated national policy on the employment of people with disabilities. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the World Institute on Disability (WID), an internationally recognized public policy center that focuses on issues that affect people's ability to live full and independent lives. At WID, Martinez directed Proyecto Visión, WID's National Technical Assistance Center to increase employment opportunities for Latinos with disabilities and Access to Assets, an asset-building project to help reduce poverty among people with disabilities. She is a former member of the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency that advises the President and Congress on disability policy. In 2007, she was named a member of the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Congressionally-created agency dedicated to research and projects in conflict management, and in 2005, she was appointed by the Secretary of State to a newly created State Department advisory committee on disability and foreign policy.

Thomas E. Perez, Department of Justice
Thomas E. Perez was named Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights by President Obama in 2009. Before becoming Assistant Attorney General, Perez served as Maryland's Secretary of Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. In 2002, he was elected to the Montgomery County Council and in 2005 served as Council President. Earlier in his career, Perez was a federal prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and later became Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. He also served as Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. He is a former Special Counsel to the Senator Edward Kennedy and served as the Senator's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. Perez was a law professor for six years at the University of Maryland School of Law and a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. He is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Scott Quehl, Department of Commerce
Scott Quehl serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Quehl oversees the Commerce Department's financial resources, human resources and facilities, and an office that establishes and monitors implementation of departmental policies and procedures for administrative functions affecting program operations throughout Commerce and its 12 bureaus. Before receiving his commission, Quehl supported local, state, and national governments in 14 states, the District of Columbia, and four countries in financial stabilization, service delivery improvement, cost containment, revenue enhancement, competitive contracting, workforce, organizational consolidation, infrastructure, and capital market initiatives. He previously served as Senior Managing Director at Public Resources Advisory Group and was employed by JPMorgan Securities, Inc., Public Financial Management, Inc., the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and the Office of Management and Budget. Quehl holds a master’s in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in history and political science from Lawrence University.

Dr. Jo Ann Rooney, Department of Defense
As Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Dr. Jo Ann Rooney is the deputy senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits for the Department’s military and civilian personnel. Before assuming her post in June 2011, Dr. Rooney served as president of Mount Ida College in 2010 and of Spalding University from 2002 to 2010. Previously, she was employed as chief counsel, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and partner of The Lyons Companies in Waltham, Massachusetts, practiced tax law in the Boston area, and was a founding partner of the consulting firm of Stearns, Rooney & Associates in Hingham, Massachusetts. She earned an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Laws in taxation from Boston University's School of Law, a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Suffolk University Law School, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Boston University.

Tom Samra, United States Postal Service
Tom Samra was named United States Postal Service Vice President, Facilities, in November 2005. In this role, he is responsible for one of the largest civilian construction programs in the U.S. and oversees all Postal Service properties, including 8,000 owned and 26,000 leased facilities. Samra manages a nationwide staff of professionals, comprised of architects, engineers, environmental, property management, and real estate specialists. His organization is responsible for acquiring and leasing all properties and buildings, for managing the design and construction programs for all new postal buildings, and for renovating and/or repairing current postal space. Prior to joining the Postal Service, Samra served with the American Red Cross as vice president of real estate development and material management. He has 30 years experience in project development and facilities management both domestically and internationally. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Detroit Institute of Technology in 1975.

John U. Sepúlveda, Department of Veterans Affairs
John U. Sepúlveda was named the Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration for the Department of Veterans Affairs by the President in 2009. In this capacity, Sepúlveda serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Department on human resources management, labor-management relations, diversity programs and equal employment opportunity, and employee health and safety. Prior to his appointment, Sepúlveda served on a special panel advising the Director of National Intelligence and various intelligence agencies on human capital and diversity policy issues. He also worked as a senior executive in the housing finance industry. During the Clinton Administration, Sepúlveda led various initiatives to promote greater diversity throughout the U.S. Government as Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management and also worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Earlier in his career, Sepúlveda held various local and state executive and appointed positions in Connecticut and taught political science at Hunter College and Yale University. A native of New York City, he holds two Master’s degrees from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College.

Rhea S. Suh, Department of Interior
Rhea S. Suh serves as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the Department of the Interior and oversees financial, administrative and programmatic policy for the Department, including budget formulation, implementation and accountability. Before her appointment as Assistant Secretary, Suh served as a program officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation where she managed a $200 million initiative designed to build ecological integrity and resilience in key lands and watersheds in western North America. Previously, as a program officer at The William and Flora Hewett Foundation, Suh managed a portfolio of grants designed to protect the ecosystems of the western part of North America. She also developed educational strategies and programs for under-served constituencies as a consultant to the National Park Service and served as a senior legislative assistant to Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Suh is a graduate of Columbia University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and of Harvard University, where she earned a Masters of Education, Administration, Planning and Social Policy. She has received both a Fulbright Fellowship and a Marshall Fellowship.

John Trasviña, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
John Trasviña was appointed Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by President Obama in 2009. In this capacity, he administers federal fair housing laws and establishes national policies to ensure that all Americans have equal access to the housing of their choice. Previously, Trasviña served as President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) where he led litigation and public policy in the areas of civil rights, immigration, education and related issues. Trasviña also taught immigration law at Stanford Law School and served as Director of the Discrimination Research Center in Berkeley. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Mr. Trasviña Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices. As Special Counsel, a position he held until 2001, he led the only federal government office devoted solely to immigrant workplace. He earlier served as General Counsel and Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. A native of San Francisco, California, Trasviña is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School.

Polly Trottenberg, Department of Transportation
Polly Trottenberg was appointed Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Transportation (DOT) by the President in 2009. In this position, she works closely with the Under Secretary for Policy and the Administrators of DOT's various modal and safety administrations in the development of transportation policies. She previously served as Executive Director of Building America's Future, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in the nation's infrastructure to enhance prosperity and quality of life. She spent 12 years as a staff member in the U.S. Senate where she worked extensively on transportation, public works, energy and environmental issues. During her time on Capitol Hill, Trottenberg served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Senator Barbara Boxer, as Legislative Director for Senator Charles Schumer, and as Legislative Assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Before her congressional career, she worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Massachusetts State Senate, and the Massachusetts Port Authority. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College and her Master's in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government.

Department of Education
[vacant]

Department of Health and Human Services
[vacant]