Chair Person

Israel Bocanegra

Israel Bocanegra was introduced to ADA through a short-term volunteer project to set up the IT lab. Shortly afterward, Israel joined the board of directors to give back to the community. Israel attended the Duke University Non-profit organization classes to learn more about the industry.

Through continuous learning and leveraging relationships across the community, Israel is passionate about helping all peoples experience a better quality of life through intentionality and community inclusiveness for consumers of disabilities.

Vice-Chair

Ali Ingersoll 

Ali Ingersoll is a day trader, consultant, disability advocate, writer, blogger, editor, and public speaker. She started her advocacy mission after being repeatedly denied medically necessary equipment by insurance companies over the last 10 years since becoming a C6 quadriplegic and full-time wheelchair user after a shallow water diving accident.

Ali’s passion lies in coaching people with disabilities on how to improve their quality of life by teaching them to self-advocate in order to live a life of independence, dignity, and grace.

Ali has a firm philosophy of paying it forward by giving back to the community through outreach, working together, and building each other up. She believes it’s important to band together as one in order to affect the greatest change on the national stage and in local communities.

Board Member

Marion Quirici, Ph.D.

Marion Quirici, PhD, is a scholar of disability studies who co-directs the Health Humanities Lab and teaches for the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. Her courses train students to critique and revise cultural assumptions about disability by analyzing language, the media, popular representations, the law, institutional spaces and practices, and the built environment.

Dr. Quirici is also the director of a cross-disciplinary faculty working group in disability studies and faculty advisor of Duke Disability Alliance. With these groups, and in her role at ADA, she strives to build stronger relationships between the university and the disability community.

Board Member

Ali Zahid Malik

Ali Zahid Malik is passionate about helping others especially people with disabilities. He created and hosts Deaf Coffee and American Sign Language Chat so people who are either deaf or hard of hearing have a place to meet up. In addition to ASL, Ali is also fluent in Urdu and English.

Ali knows first-hand about the work Alliance of Disability Advocates does for people with disabilities. He is on the Board of Directors to make sure Alliance of Disabilities Advocates (ADANC) continues to grow and help more people be independent in the community.

Board Member

Vanessa S. O’Neal, Ph.D.

Vanessa S. O’Neal, Ph.D. is the founder of By Vanessa S. LLC. Dr. O’Neal has over twenty-five years of experience working with Non-profit organizations and over 17 years of Entrepreneurship experience and she is a Veteran. 

Dr. O’Neal’s professional background as a law enforcement officer, her educational background in public policy and administration, and her work with non-profit organizations in capacity building, program management, board development, fundraising, grant writing, and as a board member and committee chairperson have rendered her skillsets in which she feels can be of benefit to the ADA.  

Her focus as a board member is to identify ways the interaction between law enforcement and the disabled community in times of crisis can have more positive and successful outcomes. 

Board Member

Brittny Zenere

Brittny Zenere is the Chair of ADANC’s Resource Development Committee and a dedicated and self-motivated social worker with experience in grief and bereavement settings. Brittny has always been driven to be an active member of the community and is a positive voice representing those who experience living with a disability.

She believes in ADA’s vision and desires to grow the organization so it can better serve those with disabilities living in a community that has no barriers.

Board Member

Shefaali Keegan 

Shefaali is a Managing Director at the Kara Group where she has worked extensively with executives on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, operations improvement, and reorganizations. Prior to the Kara Group, Shefaali was Vice President at Inova Health System, a $2.5B nonprofit healthcare system in Northern Virginia, helping the system to improve employee and patient experience.

She is passionate about a number of community issues including alleviating poverty, providing access to education, and enabling those who are underserved to achieve their full potential. In addition to working with ADANC, she is also on the Board of Directors for InStepp Inc., where she served as Chairman for 2 years.

Board Member

Kim Andrews

Kim Andrews began her career as a special education teacher. Kim holds BS and MEd degrees in Educational Psychology and has worked as an instructional designer, trainer, or performance consultant for over 25 years.

Kim has led the analysis, design, and development of performance-based training for employees worldwide to address technical, soft skills, organizational development, and business skills topics using a variety of methods from self-study to the classroom to online training.

Originally from Detroit with key stops in Tennessee and Kansas, Kim has lived in Durham for over thirty years. When not working, Kim performs improvisational comedy with a team and loves classic movies.

Her focus as a board member is to use her skills to provide outreach opportunities that benefit ADANC.

Board Member

Lee James 

Lee James, who sustained a C5-6 spinal cord injury and near-drowning at the age of 15 in a diving accident, is a licensed LCMHC counselor/therapist with 19 years of highly successful experience providing effective, evidence-based mental health services, including extensive individual and group psychotherapy and case management. 

He earned 2 degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1999, and a Masters of Science from the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Counseling in 2002, with internships as a staff therapist in the UNC Department of Psychiatry, all achieved as a manual wheelchair user. 

Since graduating in 2002 Lee has been honored to work in community mental health, specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based interventions with dually diagnosed individuals via outreach team modalities with XDS Incorporated and UNC Center For Excellence In Community Mental Health of Chapel Hill.  He is currently in private practice in Chapel Hill/Durham specializing in working with disability and other diagnoses.

Board Member

Crystal Johnson

Crystal Johnson was born and raised in Raleigh with a deep, meaningful connection with the NC community. Crystal has worked in the finance & accounting field since 2013.

Her goal as an ADANC board member is to strengthen the disability community by using her finance and accounting experience. She’s volunteered for Habitat for Humanity since 2009 and the Special Olympics Spring Games held in Raleigh.

Chief Financial Officer (non-voting)

Kayli Miller

Executive Director (Non-Voting)

Vicki Smith