Advisory Committee
ALAN CARTWRIGHT, GDC Advisory Committee President, a Deaf American, became co-director of GDC in 1998. Alan is also the President of the Alaska Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Deaf-Blind Council. After graduating from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., Alan moved to Alaska where he worked for 10 years as a project officer in civil engineering. Alan also volunteered with the Peace Corps for four years; two in Nepal and two in Ecuador. Alan later accepted a position as Program Director for Alaska Center for Deaf Adults in Anchorage, Alaska, where he has served for the past eight years. Through Alan's wide variety of experiences both locally and overseas, he has the necessary skills to be a successful Co-Director of Global Deaf Connection.
BUNMI AINA, Advisory Committee Member, received a Honors degree in Law from the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria in 1990, and completed his legal education at the Nigerian Law School the following year. After 3 years legal work including time as a senior editor with the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, he entered the Social Work program at Gallaudet University in the Fall of 1994, and graduated with an MSW in 1996. He was an ESL instructor at ELI between 1995 and 1999 when he departed for SouthWest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf (SWCID) of Howard College in Big Spring Texas where he was the founding Director of the Diagnostic Center. In June 2003, Bunmi moved from this position to Gallaudet University as Director of the Office of International Programs and Services (OIPS).
GAIL BRINKMEIER, Advisory Committee Member, is a 1995 graduate of Smith College, she has experience in both the non-profit and for-profit organizations. Gail has utilized her organization and marketing abilities in her role as state office coordinator for the Minnesota Chapter of the National Organization for Women as well as the founder of the Midwest Young Feminist Summit. She worked in sales and marketing for DoubleClick's San Francisco office for the past three years before returning to Minneapolis where she is currently pursuing an MBA at the Carlson School of Management.
CHRISTOPHER DOW, Advisory Committee Member, is a Senior Graphic Designer employed at Northwest Airlines' headquarters in Eagan. He graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Since then he has gained valuable experience designing for the printing industry as well as designing for the world wide web. This experience has helped Chris develop skills to help diversify his knowledge with various media. Chris also engages in freelance design projects that also help to further develop the talents necessary to remain competitive in the graphics industry.
JEFFERY T. ROSEN, Advisory Committee member, is the General Counsel and Director of Policy for the National Council on Disability. Previously, Jeff worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he was a senior attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel, Advice and External Litigation Division. Jeff is a third generation Deaf person with long time involvement in the advocacy of the civil rights and equal opportunity for people with disabilities, both in the US and internationally.
FRED WEINER, Advisory Committee member, currently serves as Special Assistant to the President for Planning at Gallaudet University. Previously, Fred worked in the Federal government, a not-for-profit national disability advocacy organization, U.S. Congress, and the corporate world. His more significant accomplishments include being one of the people involved in sparking the Gallaudet Deaf President Now (DPN) protest, leading the lobbying effort that led to the establishment of the first federally-mandated relay service, becoming the first Deaf relay center manager for a private corporation, and being selected as a Brookings Institution Congressional Fellow. A graduate of Gallaudet University, he has a Masters of Science from NYU in Management and Systems.
JOSHUA R. BEAL Advisory Committee Member, is a financial advisor for Schwarz Financial Services LLC and also operates the subsidiary,www.DeafTax.com. Prior to joining Schwarz, he worked at World Bank in the Eastern Europe Central Asia (ECA) region as a research assistant supporting the operations team in developing Bank disability lending projects for the Governments of Ukraine and