Meet AIVRTTAC's Team
Wayne Dagel
Director
Wayne Dagel serves as director of the current AIVRTTAC-IHD project at NAU-IHD and will be the Director of the new AIVRTTAC project. Mr. Dagel, first-generation descendant of the Romsa family of the Blackfeet Tribe, has over 20 years of experience in the vocational rehabilitation world. Mr. Dagel began his career as a client of vocational rehabilitation in 1996 after being involved in a motor vehicle accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury. He has served twice as an interim AIVRS project director for the Northern Cheyenne CDKC VR program in Montana. He also worked as a VR counselor for the State of Montana for eight years, in addition to serving as a technical assistant consultant and trainer to the TVR CIRCLE (Continuous Improvement of Rehabilitation Counselors, Leaders, and Educators). Mr. Dagel has developed, managed, and implemented many disability- and employment-focused programs, including a Workforce program funded under WIA/WIOA. Mr. Dagel’s extensive knowledge of AIVRS systems and resources allow him to network with multiple state VR agencies, federal RSA staff, and AIVRS projects to provide resources to meet varied needs.
Lee Gaseoma
Project Manager and Traditional Cultural Guidance and Support Lead
Dr. Gaseoma is a member of the Hopi Tribe, and in 1999 received his doctorate in educational leadership from NAU. Dr. Gaseoma started working with the AIVRS projects as the graduate research assistant with the American Indian Rehabilitation Research and Training Center in 1999, housed at NAU-IHD. Until 2005, Dr. Gaseoma worked closely with the AIVRS projects as the director of the Capacity Building for American Indians Program, funded by RSA, providing national grant-writing workshops for existing AIVRS projects and newly eligible tribes in efforts to secure funds to provide vocational rehabilitation services for tribal members with disabilities to prepare for and achieve gainful competitive employment. Dr. Gaseoma also worked as a consultant with ASSIST! to Independence, the RSA-funded Independent Living Center (ILC) in Tuba City, Arizona, serving members of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. Dr. Gaseoma has consulted with eligible tribes in support of the development and awarding of AIVRS project proposals. Dr. Gaseoma has also consulted with many federal and state entities and tribes on the topic of tribal VR service provision, including San Diego State University, Southern University, National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns, and the Consortia of Administrators for Native American Rehabilitation – TVR CIRCLE Project. Dr. Gaseoma is currently serving as co-director of AIVRTTAC-IHD.
Jamie Emanuel
Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Hub Lead
Vocational Rehabilitation Coordinator
Jamie Emanuel is a member of the Lumbee Tribe and is currently a vocational rehabilitation coordinator with AIVRTTAC-IHD. Ms. Emanual received a BA from UNC-Pembroke in sociology, as well as a BS in marketing and communications and an MS in rehabilitation counseling from Winston-Salem State University, with a focus on rural VR counseling. Ms. Emanuel also holds a certified rehabilitation counselor license. She has worked with the Hopi, Navajo, and Apache tribes of Arizona in providing VR services to members through the Arizona state VR services program. Ms. Emanuel also brings her VR experiences with the Coharie, Lumbee, Saponi, Eastern Band of Cherokee, and Waccamaw Siouan tribes/nations, through the NC state VR services program. Ms. Emanuel has a personal connection to her work through her identities as a Lumbee tribal member and the daughter of a deaf parent, who lived in rural areas with little access to disability resources and services.
Rebecca Holland
Vocational Rehabilitation Coordinator
Rebecca Holland joined the NAU AIVRTTAC team at IHD in September 2022 after being the State of Montana Counselor Supervisor in the Billings, Montana. Prior to moving to Montana, she was the program manager for the Jemez Vocational Rehabilitation Program at the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico. She had been the program manager for 14 years and cultivated an excellent TVR program for the Tribe. Rebecca began her work in vocational rehabilitation with the Veteran’s Administration as a psychometrist in Albuquerque. She holds a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from San Diego State University with a CRC certification and has a certificate from San Diego State University in Post-Employment Training in American Indian Rehabilitation (PET-AIR). She has held various board positions on the State Rehabilitation Council, the Statewide Independent Living Council and the Consortia for Administrators in Native American Rehabilitation (CANAR). She currently serves on the Advisory Board for the TVR Institute at Northwest Indian College, serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Montana, Disability and Rural Institute Tribal VR Self-Employment website and is the Sargent of Arms for the CANAR Board. Rebecca loves being an advocate for individuals with disabilities and particularly enjoys her work with Native American/Alaska Native Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Programs. She is a passionate person who believes that every human being has a right to a satisfying, fulfilling and independent life.
Laura Maudsley
Director for the TVR Institute
Ms. Maudsley has worked at NWIC in various capacities since 2011 and has been the director of the TVR Institute since 2015, working to develop a comprehensive training program in TVR knowledge and skills for AIVRS project staff. She has over 12 years of experience in tribal vocational rehabilitation as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, project director, and program consultant. She has managed the day-to-day operations of two different multi-tribal vocational rehabilitation projects; hired, supervised, and trained staff; written funded program proposals; developed a program procedure manual; performed TVR external evaluations; and served on national committees. Experience outside of TVR includes grant writing for various federal agencies, evaluation of workforce programs, writing grant reports, and planning training and conferences.
Elizabeth Boland
Assistant Institute Director for the TVR Institute
Dr. Boland is a professor and the academic program director of the MA in Rehabilitation Counseling (RC) program at Western Washington University (WWU). She has also worked as the assistant director of the TVR Institute. In addition, Dr. Boland is serving as the University of Washington’s Center for Continuing Education in Rehabilitation (CCER) interim director and holds an appointment as an associate affiliate faculty. Dr. Boland is well-known to the rehabilitation counselor education community and has more than 25 years of experience as a certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) and RC educator with research interests in (a) RC education, (b) return-to-work for individuals with significant disabilities, and (c) professional leadership. She holds a PhD and MS in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After receiving her master’s degree, Dr. Boland worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the State of Nebraska for three years. Upon completing her doctoral degree, she joined the faculty at the University of Florida’s Department of Rehabilitation Counseling and taught undergraduate courses in rehabilitation services, graduate courses in rehabilitation counseling, and doctoral courses in rehabilitation science.
Earlson Peacock
Community Program Coordinator
Bio coming soon
Ronda Jenson
Knowledge Translation Hub Lead
Dr. Jenson is an associate professor with appointments in psychological sciences and education specialties at NAU, and serves as the research director at NAU-IHD. She is currently on the NAU Interdisciplinary Health Doctoral Program Steering Committee as an inaugural member and core faculty for the program. Recently, Dr. Jenson was the PI/co-PI of two projects focused on using advanced modeling techniques and funded by the National Science Foundation (Award #1246221, 1650490). She also recently worked with the Arizona Department of Economic Security Division of Development Disabilities on the design and piloting of a statewide system for determining the level of care needs for individuals with I/DD receiving intensive nursing care. Additionally, Dr. Jenson is currently the Chair of the Association of University Centers of Excellence in Disabilities (AUCD) Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE) and an AUCD Board member. In that capacity she has collaborated with both the Alaska Center for Human Development and the Montana Rural Institute, both UCEEDs serving rural, indigenous communities.
Kyle Beam
Project Editor
Dr. Beam holds a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from the University of Notre Dame as well as a Bachelor of Arts in political science and letters (summa cum laude) from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Beam has over 15 years of experience with professional writing, as both author and editor. He has edited documents ranging in length and substance from short internal memoranda and newspaper columns to professional articles, legal and investigative reports, and book-length academic publications. Dr. Beam has served with both the state of Oklahoma and the U.S. Department of Justice in regulatory and investigative capacities and has worked extensively with historically disadvantaged populations. His work with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services entailed working closely with Indian Child Welfare and applying the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Dr. Beam was born and grew up in the Chickasaw territory of southeastern Oklahoma, and his wife and children are enrolled members of the Chickasaw Nation. Dr. Beam is the senior editor at NAU-IHD and has been chiefly responsible for editing the majority of IHD and AIVRTTAC-IHD materials prior to dissemination, including scholarly publications, grant applications, newsletter articles, and outreach materials. His duties include providing critical feedback to authors and supervisors concerning style, grammar, format, and logic, as well as evaluating factual accuracy and ensuring consistency in style and citations. In the current AIVRTTAC proposal he will continue and expand upon these duties, focusing on revising and formatting all materials produced by AIVRTTAC for external dissemination. Dr. Beam has experience in social science research and data analysis, and will assist the team with data collection and report writing as needed.
Miles McDonald
State-of-the-art IT Support Lead
Miles McDonald, MBA, is the Director of Dissemination at the Institute for Human Development. In this role, he leads the production and dissemination of the work of IHD at local, state, and national levels. He has over 30 years of experience working in technology, media and video production, audio engineering, television producing and directing, website management, and technical training. Miles Is experienced with graphic design, live-streaming events, creating accessible content, and accessibility remediation.
AJ Catalano
Evaluator
AJ Catalano holds a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from Columbia University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from SUNY Geneseo. He began his career working in global adolescent mental health, where he worked with schools to identify, implement, and evaluate school-based mental health programs in low- and middle-income countries. He also has experience in substance use disorder research with a focus on alcohol use disorder and its impact on families. In addition to serving as the AIVRTTAC evaluator, Mr. Catalano serves as an evaluator and researcher at the Northern Arizona University Institute for Human Development. Notably, Mr. Catalano serves as a researcher for the Culturally Appropriate Research in American Indian Employment (CARE) project, which aims to identify the effective policies and procedures being used by AIVRS projects.
Orienda Goddard
Administrative Assistant
Bio coming soon