Sara Gales (she, her, hers) is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), trainer, and facilitator. Sara describes herself as a teacher at heart, dedicated to sharing information and asking questions to help others see things differently.

Sara currently works for the PA Department of Health’s Office of Operational Excellence as the Director of Quality Improvement (QI) and Performance Management (PM). This involves tracking progress towards goals, identifying gaps in desired performance, and taking action to improve. QI and PM ask questions like: What are our goals? How are we progressing towards those goals? What could we do better? Accessibility is advanced by asking similar questions.

Sara previously worked for Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) as a counselor, supervisor, and training specialist. In the Training Director role, Sara planned, coordinated, and facilitated virtual and in-person trainings for rehabilitation staff and community partners. This included proactively preparing documents in an accessible format, coordinating with captioners and interpreters, and educating presenters about best practices. It also included collaborating with colleagues with lived experiences to continuously improve accessibility and inclusion.

Russell Goddard

Russ Goddard works for the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) as the Statewide Coordinator of Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deafblind Services.  In his position, Russ provides technical assistance to OVR field staff and central office staff with issues related to the provision of services for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind OVR customers.  He also worked in his capacity as the program director for the Summer Academy for High School Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing for the past five years.

Russ has 25 years of experience in vocational rehabilitation, first as a rehabilitation counselor for the deaf and hard of hearing in the state of Ohio, then continuing in the same capacity for OVR before being promoted to his current position.  Russ, who has a hearing loss, brings a wealth of personal and professional knowledge about adult services, educational, and transition services for high school students with hearing loss.

Rebecca Knaub

Becky Knaub is a Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Specialist for Accessibility Support. In this role, she focuses on supporting blind/visually impaired staff who use AT and helping to ensure all content distributed to Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) staff is accessible. Additionally, Becky is often asked to test the accessibility of websites that are being considered by OVR for its customers or staff or by other agencies collaborating with OVR.

Becky started in the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services in the Department of Labor and Industry in 2013 as a Vision Rehabilitation Therapist in the Wilkes-Barre District Office. She transferred four years later to the Special Programs Division,  where she assisted in creating instructional materials, checking the accessibility of websites and documents, training staff on the use of assistive technology (AT), assisting with the development of AT and vision rehabilitation therapist (VRT) curriculums for programs for transition-aged students and training business enterprise program (BEP) clients in both VRT and AT.

Becky has a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a minor in Spanish from Edinboro University and a master’s degree in Vision Rehabilitation Therapy from Salus University. She received her Vision Rehabilitation Therapy ACVREP certification in early 2013

ELLEN STROM

Chief Accessibility Officer

Ellen Strom was named Chief Accessibility Officer for the commonwealth in January 2020.

In this role, Ellen is focused on ensuring that the state’s digital content is accessible to its citizens and employees alike.  She works with state agencies to define best practices, design and implement strategies to educate and influence organizational culture, improve procurement processes and organize communities of practice.

Ellen has been in the digital customer experience field for more than 15 years.  Prior to joining the commonwealth, she concentrated on designing and implementing a digital program to improve the web and mobile banking experiences for customers with disabilities.  She is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC).

Ellen earned a master’s degree in business administration from the American University in Washington, DC and a bachelor’s degree in French and German from Millersville University of Pennsylvania.  She spent two of her undergraduate years in study abroad programs at the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France and Phillips Universität in Marburg, Germany.

Kristopher Adams is a seasoned professional with close to 20 years of experience across multiple sectors of state government. Currently serving as a Digital Accessibility Lead with the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA), his primary focus is digital document accessibility and language access. Kristopher excels in building and nurturing strong client relationships while strategically planning how to change the culture surrounding accessibility. Working together with his team, they are building a foundation of knowledge and breaking down silos to support content creators, web and application developers, language access coordinators, and their leaders in these spaces. Prior to his current role, he held positions in customer service, Lean leadership, program operations, human resources, and information technology across various Commonwealth agencies, showcasing his versatility and leadership capabilities.