Convention Experience

Father Gregory Boyle a Jesuit priest is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. Born and raised in Los Angeles and Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Fr. Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights. Dolores Mission was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city. Fr. Boyle witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992. In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings. In 1988 they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to thousands of individuals who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life. Fr. Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Followed by Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship (2017) and The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness (2021). His most recent work is Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times (2024). He has received the California Peace Prize and has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Obama named Fr. Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. Homeboy Industries was the recipient of the 2020 Hilton Humanitarian Prize validating 32 years of Fr. Greg Boyle’s vision and work by the organization for over three decades. In 2024 he was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Jamie Axelrod, M.S. is the Director of Disability Resources at Northern Arizona University and a past-president of AHEAD. Jamie presents regularly on topics related to disability access and higher education, having expertise in disability law and policy, communication, and information technology (ICT) access, and the reasonable accommodation process. Jamie is a respected contributor to professional listservs, having received the Fink-Ryan Award for the quality of his guidance, and a go-to consultant for complex issues. He has worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s athletic department, as a mental health therapist, and for Protection and Advocacy Systems, Inc., a disability rights advocacy law firm where he served as an advocate for individuals with disabilities who were claiming that their civil rights had been violated. Jamie has served as co-chair of Northern Arizona University’s Commission on Disability Access and Design, President of AHEAD’s Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Disability Access in Health Science Education.

Ralph Black received his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics with highest honors from California State University at Long Beach in 1977. In 1980 he received his J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. While at CSU Long Beach, Ralph became a leader in the successful effort by students with disabilities to secure funding for disabled student programs in California higher education. This led to his first professional position as a specialist with the California Postsecondary Education Commission where he advised the Commission and the Legislature on policy and funding of programs for students with disabilities at all three systems of higher education. Later, he served as a consultant for the Disabled Students Programs and Services in the Chancellor's Office for the California Community Colleges. Through these efforts, he helped to establish the foundations for programs for students with disabilities in California higher education. In 1988, Ralph joined the Legal Affairs Division of the Chancellor's Office for the California Community Colleges. He served as both Assistant General Counsel and General Counsel for the Chancellor's Office. In this capacity he played a significant role in developing and interpreting the law which governs the California Community College system. This often involved working on issues related to students with disabilities. For example, he led the development of policies which have made the California Community Colleges a leader in providing access to print and electronic instructional materials for students with disabilities. In April 2008, Ralph left the Chancellor’s Office and accepted a position as Assistant Director for Legislation with the California Department of Rehabilitation. In that role he advised the Director and Governor’s Office on a wide variety of disability-related legislative proposals. After retiring in 2011, Ralph continued working part-time for the Department of Rehabilitation on special projects such as efforts to improve procurement of equipment for reasonable accommodation of state employees with disabilities. In addition, he served as A Legislative Consultant for CAPED; leading a successful four year effort to restore funding for community college DSPS programs which had been cut during the recession of 2008-09. He also served as a consultant with the Galvin Group LLC and participated in reviews of several community colleges. Ralph has received many awards for his work, including the CAPED Lanterman Award. He recently completed several years as a member of the Board of Directors for Disability Rights California and remains active in other volunteer efforts such as serving on the Board of Directors for the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities.

Paul Grossman, JD, graduated from the University Wisconsin of Wisconsin, Madison Law School. Paul is an active member of the California Bar and the Disability Rights Bar Association. Currently, Paul is Executive Counsel for the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). Paul has been a civil rights lawyer for nearly 50 years, participating in the development and growth of civil rights protections on the basis of race, national origin, disability, sex and sexual orientation while employed by the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights; where Paul served as its Chief Attorney in the San Francisco Office. Paul taught disability law at Hastings College of Law for over 20 years and remains a guest lecturer and legal advisor on the topic of postsecondary student disability law across the country. His clients include all three of the UC higher education systems. Paul estimates that he has been reporting on postsecondary student disability law to the membership of CAPED (or its predecessor organizations) for over 40 years. Paul has a number of published scholarly works including a disability law textbook. His scholarly works were most recently included in Laws, Policies, and Processes (AHEAD 2023). Paul will be published again by NASPA in 2024. Paul’s favorite topics include intersectionality in disability law and the application of universal design to legal education.