Howard Miller - Executive Director
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The son of a chaplain and a social worker Howard was bound for a life of trying to do things for others. After a raggedy start in academia he survived a tour of Vietnam (‘68-‘69) and recovered academically at Kent State in Ohio. He managed to resist temptation and turn his back on theatre after getting degrees in the arts there and at the U of Minnesota, finally getting a doctorate in Educational Psychology from Minnesota. A source of great professional pride is his role in creating two art centers for artists with disabilities, the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts and the Anodyne Artist Company in the Twin Cities, MN. Howard is also the chair of the Creative Art Therapies Special Interest Group of the AAIDD. He served thirty years in residential, day, vocational and other agencies for people with disabilities until he found his way to Portland and the ‘self-described’ job of his dreams at Inclusion Inc.
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Amera Smith - Administrative Director
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Amera is a native of Portland, Oregon (Go Blazers!). Amera graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a double minor in Sociology and Early Education in 2007. Prior to Inclusion Amera worked as the Operations Manager in the hospitality field for over 7 years. Amera enjoys traveling, camping, scrapbooking, and spending time with her family and dogs!
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Meg Gibbs - AP and Payroll Manager
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Meg grew up in a small town in south-eastern Oregon. She attended college at the University of Oregon where she majored in Religious Studies. During her time of study, she attended a three month study abroad program on Buddhism in Japan. Here she learned the importance of compassion for all things. Upon graduating, she roamed from various states before returning to Oregon to pursue a career in which she could benefit all.
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Rachel Dayka - Resource Director
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Rachel was born, and raised, in Olympia Washington. She attended Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington and graduated with a degree in sociology in 2004. After graduating Rachel moved to Portland and began working with adults with disabilities in a variety of settings including residential and vocational. Rachel has been with Inclusion since 2006. Rachel’s interests include reading and watching movies (anything sci-fi), music, spending time with friends and her cat, Eddie Van Halen.
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Amil Fulton - Personal Agent
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Amil is a Pacific N.W. native and plans to stay here. He spent many years working toward becoming an artist and a designer all over the U.S. and eventually received his degree in Fine Arts (Architecture) from Portland State University. Amil has been working with people with Developmental Disabilities for 2 ½ years as an Independent Contractor and currently as a Personal Agent. Amil loves to go camping, working on and riding motorcycles, painting, and traveling. Amil loves to make people laugh and hopes his sense of humor and caring personality will shine through with his work in this amazing community.
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Chris Pizzuto - Personal Agent
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I was born and raised right here in Portland, OR. I have a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and have been working in the field of developmental disabilities for many years. I started out working in group homes and moved on to a vocational site. I feel like this field of work is very important and beneficial for the entire community and I feel very lucky to be a part of a great atmosphere here at Inclusion. In my free time I enjoy listening to music, and spending time with my wife and two dogs in the outdoors fishing and camping and enjoying the beauty that Oregon has to offer.
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Jamie is a North Dakota native and lived there until moving to Portland in August 2007. She has been employed with Inclusion Inc., as a Personal Agent, since April 2008.
Jamie comes to Inclusion bringing a wide variety of experiences. She has over 9 years of experience working and volunteering in social services. Jamie worked for several agencies as a Direct Support Provider for people with developmental disabilities for over 5 years in both community and residential settings. She completed an internship as an Employment Specialist at Lutheran Social Services (Fargo, ND) in the refugee resettlement program. She has also had several volunteer and service learning experiences including mentorship in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Fargo, ND, organizing a landlord/tenant rights forum for a grass roots advocacy agency (People Escaping Poverty Project, Moorhead, MN), tutoring Moorhead High School ESL students, and gardening at the Oregon Food Bank. In addition, Jamie has also worked in customer service and office settings, including a position as a Provider Enrollment Representative at Noridian Administrative Services, a contractor for Medicare and Medicaid services. In her spare time, Jamie enjoys spending time with friends and family, listening to music, walking and hiking in area parks, exploring Portland and the state of Oregon, and is trying to learn about photography.
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Megan Andricos - Personal Agent
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Upon graduation from Western Washington University with a degree in American Cultural Studies, Megan moved to Portland in 2003. While in college, Megan volunteered at the Max Higbey Center in Bellingham, WA. Her volunteer activities included supporting adults with developmental disabilities in finding avenues to market the art that they had created and other community inclusion activities. After moving to Portland, she worked at Goodwill Industries for 4 years as vocational program manager and job coach before joining the team at Inclusion in September 2007 as a Personal Agent. Megan believes deeply in the self-determination approach to services that Inclusion offers their customers. When not at work, Megan enjoys folding origami, gardening, traveling, DJ’ing, brewing beer and spending time with her dog and cat.
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Tracy Hendrick - Personal Agent
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Tracy moved to the Pacific Northwest in May, 2007 from Michigan, and began at Inclusion in July of 07. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2002 from Grand Valley State University, where she was a peer counselor for students struggling with heath issues, as well as a peer educator in topics including sexuality and AIDs. Tracy’s professional background includes several years of customer service and mental health case management. Tracy has facilitated therapy groups for abused women, and people dealing with both drug addiction and mental illness. Tracy loves being in Oregon and is very excited to continue to explore and make her home here.
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Vanessa Fulton - Team Coordinator
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Vanessa started working with individuals with developmental disabilities while in college, providing behavioral supports and early intervention training to children with autism and other related disorders. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Vanessa continued her work as a behavior consultant and later decided to dabble in the mental health field. She has worked at Inclusion since 2006. In her spare time, Vanessa enjoys music, art, animals, attempting to garden, and laughing with friends and family.
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Colleen Coyne - Personal Agent
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Colleen was born and raised in a rural town in Northern Nevada. After graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno with a BA in Psychology and working in group homes with both adults and foster children with Developmental Disabilities, she decided to pursue her career here in Portland. She is excited and enthusiastic about working for Inclusion Inc., one of the pioneering support service brokerages where she works to foster independence and self-determination in each one of her customers. In her free time, Colleen enjoys spending quality time with friends and family, being in the great outdoors, reading, and listening to a variety of music.
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DeeAnn Donaldson - Personal Agent
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DeeAnn considers herself a native Oregonian (Go Ducks!). She was born in Arizona and moved to Oregon at the early age of 3 months. She grew up on a farm in Central Oregon and this is where her passion for working with individuals with developmental disabilities began while working as a teacher’s aide in a special educational classroom. After moving to Portland in the early 80’s, she began her career working in vocational and residential settings, which she has been doing for the last 25 years. DeeAnn had a hard time writing this bio so she went to her “source,” her 7 years old niece, who wrote this next section for her. My favorite color is blue. My favorite food is Mexican. I like to ski and spend time with my family, especially my 3 nieces who live in Portland and a niece and nephew in Arizona. I love music, especially classic rock, and watching movies and football with her dog Cosmo. DeeAnn came to work at Inclusion in December of 2009 and is excited to serve individuals as a Personal Agent.
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Joshua Leslie - Personal Agent
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Josh spent his early childhood in California, then moved to Bend at age 11. He attended college at New York University on a fencing scholarship and earned a degree in Creative Writing and Folklore. Immediately after college he spent two years in Americorps, traveling the country and working a variety of two month projects with different non-profit agencies. His favorite assignment was working at a summer camp for people with disabilities in Utah. Because of that experience, he sought out a position in a supported living program when he moved to Portland in early 2003 and has worked in the field ever since. In 2006, Josh attended Portland State’s special Education Teaching program, but ultimately decided he did not want to work in a school setting. Josh has worked as a program manager ensuring supports in both residential and day settings, and as an employment specialist, helping people gain and maintain community jobs. Josh is very excited to be working as a Personal Agent for inclusion, and looks forward to learning new ways to apply his experience. In his free time, Josh enjoys playing dodgeball in an adult rec league and exploring the natural beauty of Oregon, always keeping an eye out for a new swimming hole for his border collie/black lab mix, Sophie.
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Nate Harmon - Personal Agent
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Nate was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. He attended college at UC Santa Cruz where he received his BA in Psychology. Nate’s passion for helping others flourished during his academic career and upon graduating he went to work as a Behavioral Therapist to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Nate enjoyed his work supporting children and young adults with autism develop the skills they needed to live more independent, enriching lives. He continued to work with this population until his recent move to the Portland area in August of 2010. Nate is excited to continue his career serving people with developmental disabilities through his position as a Personal Agent with Inclusion Inc. Outside of work Nate can be found snowboarding on the slopes of Mt. Hood, hiking the beautiful trails surrounding the Portland area, or spending time with friends and family.
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Sharon Sterry - Personal Agent
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Sharon Sterry was born and raised in Colorado and attended high school in Wyoming. She moved to Eastern Oregon after graduating from high school. She received an AA degree from Walla Walla Community College before transferring to Central Washington University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in education. She taught in a pre-vocational/lifeskills special education classroom and then secondary resource special education classroom before leaving formal teaching behind. During the time she was teaching she earned her Master’s degree in education. She then dabbled in retail until moving to the Oregon coast in 2005. Sharon worked as a Personal Agent for a support service brokerage in Clatsop County for 5 years. She moved to Portland in April 2011 and joined the Inclusion team. Sharon enjoys sudoku puzzles, quilting, and spending time with her fiancé and their cats.
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Mitzi Sugar - Team Coordinator
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Born and raised in Southern California, Mitzi and her husband moved to Oregon in 2005. She has a degree in psychology and has been working with individuals with developmental disabilities since 1998. Mitzi has a strong vocational background, including experience coordinating a supported employment program, providing case management at a facility-based vocational training program, job coaching customers in competitive employment positions, and job developing for the Deaf. When Mitzi first moved to Oregon, she worked as a temporary case manager with the Clackamas County Developmental Disabilities program, where she learned a lot about community resources and the DD system in Oregon. Mitzi has been with Inclusion since June 2006.
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Aaron Morkert - Personal Agent
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Aaron split time growing up between SW Washington and N. California. He attended Simpson University in Redding, where he earned his BA in Psychology. Right out of college, Aaron worked in group homes for four years, serving at-risk adolescents. From there, Aaron worked outside of Social Services for several years. But then when his beloved grandmother, Erma, moved to a skilled nursing facility, Aaron just had to follow her. He worked in the facility as a medical social worker for one year before transferring with the company to Portland, where he worked as Social Service Director in another facility for one year. Aaron has been with Inclusion since June of 2008, serving initially as a Personal Agent and now as a Team Coordinator. When not working, Aaron enjoys many different hobbies ranging from jogging to watching Ducks football games to going thrifting and antiquing, searching for unique treasures…
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Becky Bechtell- Personal Agent
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After moving to Oregon from Los Angeles Becky is elated to live in Portland, a place with less traffic, smog and friendlier faces! Becky comes with 8 years of experience working in special education and social work. Outside of work, she enjoys time on the coast, running, hiking, painting, and spending time with her amazing family.
Jennifer Honaker - Personal Agent
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Jennifer was born and raised in East Tennessee and earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Services at the University of Tennessee before moving to Portland in 2000. She has 12 years experience in a variety of social services and joined Inclusion Inc. in 2001 as a Personal Agent. Recently, she became the Development Director after developing an interest in non profit fund raising. Outside of work, she enjoys hanging out with friends, live music, hiking, and camping in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
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Rae Cooper- Personal Agent
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Rae was born in California but moved to Oregon at the tender age of 4. She has a Bachelor of Science in Human Services, but also dabbled in Theater and Life Sciences along the way. She enjoys music, reading, backpacking and hanging out with her kids and dog.
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Scott Donart - Personal Agent
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As a child, Scott moved all over the country with his family, living in Ohio, New York and California. In 1988, while a student at California State University Northridge, Scott watched the movie Rainman and wondered why Raymond had to live in an institution. Shortly after, Scott applied for a job at a residential facility for adults with autism. Since then, he has worked for people with developmental disabilities in many roles including at day programs, coordinating supported living services and as a service coordinator. In 2009, Scott continued his Nomadic ways and moved to Portland. In his spare time, he enjoys family, football, music and playing with his bulldogs. Not necessarily in that order.
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