Sharif Rashedi, President

Sharif Rashedi has been an Information Technology Professional for over 15 years, a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator specializing in Systems Management and Electronic Data Interchange. He currently works for

renowned travel publisher Lonely Planet and has seized opportunities to travel to places as far as Sudan and Australia.

 

Sharif is a fifth generation Californian native from Marin County and spent half of his youth growing up in Seattle, Washington and the other half in Southern California's Redondo Beach. Sharif has resided in the Bay Area for 15 years. Sharif is a proud CSU Fresno Bulldog Alumni and is always rooting for Bulldog Athletics.

 

He worked for DCARA as both a former employee and volunteer. He is thrilled to be back with DCARA as Board President. DCARA has helped him in the past and he is honored to give back to DCARA as a board member. 

Lonnie is an affiliated health care professional working as a board certified Athletic Trainer for eight years now, proud alumni of California State University, Northridge, with a BS in Kinesiology with an option of Athletic Training. Lonnie is currently the only Deaf Athletic Trainer working in the professional field as an Athletic Trainer. Lonnie is working with the US MotoGP, world motorcycle racing circuit in Monterey at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway when they come to the United States in July every year as an official medcial staff. He has worked with an array of professional sports including the Oakland Athletics, UFL (United Football League), AIFA (American Indoor Football Association), and Deaflympics.

Lonnie was born in San Francisco and resides in Marin his whole life, however he has traveled the world to many places including, Argentina, Venezuela, Greece, Taipei, and a few others. Lonnie enjoys Kart racing, basketball, and golfing. His favorite quote is, "Laughter is the best medicine!

Chris Held moved to the Bay Area almost 5 years ago. Employed by Toolworks, Inc. Chris has been working with this agency for 5 years. Every client that Chris works with is important to him. Chris feels that he has the most rewarding job because he is there to help his clients to live independently! Chris was persuaded by a former DCARA Board member to serve on the DCARA Board of Directors. While serving on the board, Chris gained valuable experience and met many wonderful new faces. Chris Held lives with his partner and 6 furbabies (1 dog and 5 cats) in Vallejo.

Steve was born a Navy brat to military family who much later believed that American Sign Language (ASL) should be the communication method to enhance the educational process for deaf children. During high school, he was the first to hack into the mainframe computer at Sanford University and was offered a job at IBM, but decided to attend Gallaudet University instead, where he received his B.A. in 1976. After returning home to the Bay Area, he worked at various organizations including DCARA as an Outreach Director, Careers Abound, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), DCSP, and now Computer Systems Support matrixes to Science and Technology PAD as their System Associate. He also taught ASL at Vista College for 5 years with a S.I.G.N. certificate under his belt and served on the board with DCARA, NORCRID, CAD chapter, and a few others.

Steve’s hobbies include motorcycle riding (40 years and counting), developing/managing several CMS (Content Management System) websites, and making music. He has his own band - Beethoven's Nightmare, the first and only deaf rock band in the world with 40 years of history. The band made its first CD debut in 2005 called “Turn it Up Louder” and just completed their first music video, which is currently at the editing stage and hoping to release to MTV in a month or so. He also runs his own DJ business called Media Jockey that provides up to 4,000 pumping watts of music with computerized LED lights for effects and efficiency.

Kenton Twidt moved from San Diego to the Bay Area 2 years ago, but he is originally from Oklahoma. Kenton studied at Gallaudet University in Social Work and Communication. He has always been working and/or volunteering for deaf services for years. For example: Deaf Community Services (DCS) in San Diego, Campus Activities (CA) and Bison Bookstore at Gallaudet University, GLAD in Los Angeles, DeafReach in Washington DC, Whitman-Walker Clinic in DC, Valley Center of the Deaf (VCD) in Phoenix, TSHA in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a waiter at California Pizza Kitchen in DC. He gained many great experiences and knowledge of different areas for deaf services/community. He loves to spend quality time with family and friends. Kenton travels annually in different cities and currently resides in El Cerrito.

Alison Amable moved to Livermore from out of state. She lived in California, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio, Indiana, and then moved back home to California! She retired from the Apparel Industry as Head Patternmaker / Designer after a total of 25 years in that field.

Alison is from huge families of deaf, with too many generations and still going! She is a proud mom to one daughter and her lovely family, including 3 grandkids which are very precious to her! But they live in Indiana!

Her hobbies are too long to list on this page! But she is called Jill of all trades by her daughter and friends.

Alison has always volunteered for deaf services or deaf clubs over the years.

She is now married to her wonderful husband Mark for more than a year, and has been living in California for more than 3 years with Bella the dog!