Dan Phillips - President
Dan Phillips is a speech pathologist/assistive technology specialist and the founder and director of the Tech Resource Center Marin, a technology center that serves the assistive technology needs of over 4,000 students from the ages of newborn to 22 in Marin County, California. Having previously won state-level highest honors for his work in the field of Speech Pathology, he has received two golden bell awards and runner-up for Teacher of the Year for the state of California, Outstanding Tech Director from the Tech Edvocate Awards, and Outstanding Contributions in International Achievements from the American Speech and Hearing Association.
He is a co-founder of the Nika Project and lectures both nationally and internationally. He has been an invited speaker in Australia, South Africa, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, the UK, India, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Malaysia and Dubai.
Heather Regan - secretary
Heather has been a product management leader for multiple content & educational platforms, from successful start-ups to enterprise leaders. She is currently working at Autodesk to deliver on a vision of next-gen products and services for their customers in the entertainment & media industry.
Heather received her M.A. in Education from University of San Francisco and recently completed her B.S. in Communication Disorders at Utah State University. She has had the privilege of volunteering with the Nika Project since 2019 to achieve her SLPA license. In her free time Heather loves travel, playing tennis, hiking and her ongoing participation with the Nika Project.
Michaela Sullivan - treasurer
Michaela Sullivan is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has specialized in the field of AAC and AT; providing assessment, services and resources for students, educators and families. Currently, she is working within the San Francisco and San Mateo Foster City School Districts and additionally in her private practice working with children (birth – 3) and with adults who require AAC and Speech Generating Devices and services. She has been a presenter in the field of Speech Pathology and AAC at state and national conventions.
She first began working in the field of AAC as part of a grant in 1985 while attending the master’s program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Given the many opportunities Michaela has been fortunate to be involved in, she is more than ready to lend a hand in local and worldwide Nika projects to help people with Complex Communication Needs communicate and to assist educators and therapists gain knowledge in this field so that more people can have a voice!
Nancy Robinson - University liaison
Nancy B. Robinson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is Professor Emerita at San Francisco State University in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences in the Graduate College of Education. With her colleagues, Drs. Gloria Soto and Patti Solomon-Rice, Dr. Robinson developed graduate specialization in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) that includes a graduate certificate for SLPs and related professionals in AAC. Through a series of federal grants funded by the USDOE/Office of Special Education Programs, most recently Project Building Bridges, Drs. Robinson, Soto and Solomon-Rice have prepared SLPs to provide AAC services with children and youth with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Over the course of her career, Dr. Robinson served as Interdisciplinary Training Director at the Center for Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii from 1988-1998 where she and a team of colleagues provided outreach to improve service systems for individuals with disabilities and their families in US Pacific Jurisdictions. During her time in the California State University system from 1998-2019, first at Chico State and then San Francisco State, she served as a faculty member and in several administrative roles including Interim Dean in the Graduate College of Education at SF State. Dr. Robinson co-authored of two books: Assistive Technology for Young Children: Creating Inclusive Environments with Dr. Kathleen Sadao and AAC in the Schools: Best Practices for Intervention with Dr. Gloria Soto. In 2013, she was recognized as a CSHA Fellow of the Association and in 2014, CSHA Honors of the Association.
David Goldberg - board member - global outreach
David has worked in the AAC/AT field since 1988, first representing 25 manufacturers through Health Science, and then as an employee with Tobii Dynavox. His passion has been to provide solutions for people with severe communication disorders including autism, Down Syndrome, developmental delay, Rett Syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke, ALS, MS, other MNDs. He earned his BA in Psychology from SUNY Buffalo, a BS from City College, and an MS from NYU Polytechnic University of NY. He is a certified ATP – Assistive Technology Professional through RESNA.
Sarah Leslie - Board Member - team mentor
Sarah earned both her Bachelor and Master of Science at California State University East Bay (Hayward). Her expertise is working with individuals with complex communication needs requiring augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT). She is a RESNA certified Assistive Technology Professional. She works primarily in the school setting providing AAC & AT assessments, direct intervention as well as team and family support. She is a senior associate at Augmentative Communication Technology Services (A.C.T.S) and supervises the adult AAC Conversation Club clinic at SFSU.
Travis Snyder - Board Member - Technical consultant
Travis first entered into accessibility through his work with Transformance Music, a music education company he co founded in 2011 in London, England. With his company he taught and developed Special Education Needs Music Technology Curriculum for UK Music Hubs resulting in a textbook that is now being printed in its second edition.
Upon moving to the San Francisco he began working with Bay Area social services, nonprofits and public institutions to build scalable assistive technology programs tailored towards supporting the accessibility of each organization’s institutional mission. Travis is currently the Assistive Technologist for San Francisco Unified School District, where he serves the accessibility needs of San Francisco’s public schools
Judith Lunger - Board member - team mentor
Judith Lunger is a speech/language pathologist with 30 years of experience working with children and adults with developmental and neurolinguistic disorders of speech and language. Judith moved into AAC supporting children with complex communication needs in CA public schools, and continues to serve individuals and teams using assistive technology and AAC. Judith has special interest in supporting self-advocacy for adolescents and teens with special needs. She is a co-author of Framing A Future (FAF), developed in collaboration with the Bridge School in northern CA, and Future Connections, developed with the Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area. Both are tools that assist young adults in understanding and realizing their personal interests and needs as they transition through adulthood. For Judith, Nika is an extension of sharing, learning and collaborating with service providers, programs, and families locally and internationally to assist everyone in realizing their right to communicate.
stacey barros - board member - team mentor
Masters in clinical psychology from Santa Barbara Graduate Institute
Mild Moderate Teaching Credential SF State University
With a wide array of skills Stacey has taught every age group from preschool to post Senior. She was an inclusion teacher, resource specialist and SDC teacher. She also taught creative expression, health and nutrition and Qi gong for OACE Oakland Adult and Career Education working with adults with developmental challenges and complex communication needs.
Currently, she is a resource teacher at Scotts Valley High School and a curriculum consultant for a Special Day Class in the Scotts Valley Middle School.
Stacey participated in the NIKA Project Team India last summer at the Caddre School for Autism as a teacher and SF State student for the AAC for All project. Stacey loves to travel and is filled with compassion. She especially enjoyed the opportunity to work with the students in India and collaborate with the teachers, Speech Pathologists and CADDRE staff. Stacey is looking forward to being a mentor for the upcoming adventure in Cambodia.
brandi wentland - board member - team mentor
Brandi Wentland is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in AAC. She obtained her master's degree from California State University, Chico in 2014 and later returned to her alma mater to teach a graduate level course on AAC.
Brandi moved to Arizona in 2015 and found her passion for helping families implement AAC in their homes and communities. Through this passion, she started We Speak AAC, LLC, where she provides AAC evaluations, training and implementation through social groups, parent coaching and ongoing therapy. Many of these services are also provided through her contract with Therapy One who generously supports "Out & About" social groups for AAC that she co-facilitates. Brandi is driven to build capacity, impart knowledge and equip others with AAC strategies. She has mentored new clinicians and presented courses on AAC around the world at conferences, schools, clinics, universities and privately held events.
From 2020-2023, Brandi helped launch PicSeePal to the US Market and provided sole US distribution through her company PicSeePal USA, LLC. She has since stepped away to focus on We Speak AAC, LLC and other efforts.
Brandi believes users of AAC are the real experts through their lived experiences and believes in equipping them to mentor others around them. She has co-authored chapters in two books with her friend and fellow AAC consultant, Krista Howard, who is a user of AAC. They often co-present at conferences and universities to share about their friendship and their work together.
Brandi created and administers various Facebook groups for AAC including: We Speak AAC and Out & About.
Kit loudin - travel liaison
Kit Loudin is a retired Language Arts teacher who now travels the world for adventure. She has visited over one hundred countries and all seven continents. She also takes friends on far flung trips, and specializes in France where she learned to poorly speak the language. This translates to her love of French speaking countries! She earned her M.A. from Indiana University and taught at the Middle and High School levels. Her love of language and its nuances has led to writing and editor positions at major newspapers and magazines.
In 2013 she was able to parlay her interests and join the very first group to travel with Tech for Africa (now The Nika Project). She built a library at Kulani Special School in KwaZula-Natal, South Africa for their special needs students, and has been supportive of the efforts of the Nika Project since. She will coordinate travel and assist with logistics for the group.
Hanna Eide - Bay Area project mentor
Hanna is the newest member of the Nika Project. Being an assistive technology user and working for the day program Marin Ventures as an activity specialist gives her a unique perspective on the AT world.
Besides working at Marin Ventures, Hanna runs her digital art business, Fabulous Queen’s Art. She received a certificate for web development from Santa Rosa Junior College. She enjoys watching TV, playing the Sims, being social, and staying active in her free time.
orlando De Jesus- financial advisor
I have worked as an accountant for 35 years. I have held or managed every position an accountant can hold from an associate accountant to an assistant controller. In addition to my day job, I have owned and managed several businesses. My focus for the last 22 years has been a form of accounting called fund accounting; this is a highly specialized type of accounting that most accountants don’t study in school.
Currently I hold a position at a global non-profit as a finance manager/grants specialist III. I have 2 decades of experience with fund accounting which puts me in a good position to advise this team on financial matters.