JR began his career at AARP in 2017 as a Senior Program Specialist in Sacramento.  Currently, he is responsible for managing the California District Liaison Volunteer Program; California Veterans, Military, and their Families Advisory Committee; California Employer Caregiving and works on community outreach to the Hispanic/Latino population in the greater Sacramento region. He is also taken on special state and national projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic. JR is also a member of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Before joining the AARP California Team, he was a grassroots manager for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network covering 32 counties in Northern and Central California.

 JR earned his B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing Management from California State University, Sacramento after just three and a half years of study. Outside of work, JR is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the National Teen Leadership Program. He has also served on the Influencing Health Policy Committee for the National Partnership for Action - United States Office of Minority Health’s Southwest Regional Health Equity Council. He is currently a member of the American Cancer Society Breast Health Leadership Council and is on the volunteer leadership committee responsible for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk of Sacramento. He is also a volunteer for the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps, part of the Sacramento County Department of Public Health’s Sacramento Medical Foundation that helps support community health  and public vaccination clinics.

Savannah is a data-driven people operations leader, DEI advocate and SHRM certified professional (SHRM-CP) with years of experience helping fast-growing organizations scale through the power of their people. She is currently the Head of People at Untapped, the all-in-one recruiting platform that helps startups to Fortune 500 companies source and connect with underrepresented talent, identify biases in the hiring process, and measure the ROI of diversity recruiting initiatives. She sits on the executive leadership team and oversees the people operations and talent acquisition functions spanning the entire employee life cycle, including: sourcing and recruitment, employee engagement, total compensation, learning and development, and Untapped’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. Previously Savannah served as the Vice President of Leadership Development at Notley, a social impact investment firm, where she worked across multiple initiatives in both a program management and people operations capacity. She was recognized as a DivInc Champions of Change Rising Star nominee in 2021 for her work in relaunching and rebranding Beam Founders (formerly Women@Austin), an organization dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs looking to scale their companies. Savannah also led Diversity & Inclusion efforts at Capital Factory, the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas, and served on the Board of Directors of the Young Women's Alliance, an nonprofit dedicated to empowering women leaders, and GoodPolitics, an Austin organization focused on civic engagement. Savannah is currently based in San Diego, CA.

Kayla McKeon is the Manager of Grassroots Advocacy for the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) where she works to advance legislation beneficial to the Down syndrome community. Kayla gained experience working with Members of Congress as an intern for Congressman John Katko of New York. She was named NDSS Self-Advocate of the Year in 2016 and joined the NDSS staff the following year. As the first registered lobbyist with Down syndrome, Kayla is a spokesperson for NDSS and the Down syndrome community, participating in media and speaking publicly both nationally and internationally.  Kayla has an associate degree in general studies from Onondaga Community College.

Kayla resides in Syracuse, NY.  She is a Special Olympics athlete and former Special Olympics Athlete Congress member. In 2011, she competed in the Special Olympic World Games in Athens, Greece winning silver and bronze medals. In 2022, she competed in the Special Olympic USA Games in Orlando, Florida winning gold and bronze medals. Kayla is active in her church, is an avid reader, and loves swimming in her pool when the weather is warm.

Peggy O’Neill is a keynote speaker, diversity trainer, author and coach. Standing a whopping 3’8”, Peggy has had the unique opportunity of developing many skills and great wisdom overcoming countless life, business and relationship challenges. Weaving together her from-the-trenches life experiences, good humor and background in psychotherapy, Peggy has supported individuals and businesses such as Chase Bank, Texaco, FEMA, Lockheed Martin, and many others in triumphing over their challenges, and building cultures of greater resiliency, inclusion, empathy and empowerment. More info at PeggySpeaks.com.

Zac is a former college basketball player for Clayton State University, who only played his freshman year due to a tree falling on his car resulting in a spinal cord injury in the summer of 2011. In a moment, Zac went from being a college basketball player to a C6/C7 quadriplegic. This ultimately shifted the trajectory of his life and career. Zac has been a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) since 2017 and has extensive knowledge in assisting people with disabilities enter the workforce. Additionally, Zac has been playing wheelchair rugby since 2012 and had the opportunity to compete in The World Games 2022 for the USA Low Point Team.

Zac began his career as an intern at the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) where he learned how to assist clients in finding employment through the various services available through community providers. While interning at GVRA, Zac also worked for the Shepherd Center part-time as a Peer Liaison, where he assisted inpatients and outpatients adjust to spinal cord injury.

Upon earning his CRC, Zac became a part-time Vocational Specialist at the Shepherd Center, in addition to his Peer Liaison position. In this role, Zac learned the process of returning people to work. Zac transitioned to work for the Georgia Advocacy Office (GAO), the state’s designated protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities, as an Employment Advocate. At the GAO, he had
robust training in Social Role Valorization and Customized Employment. With this knowledge, he worked to encourage and increase meaningful employment for people with disabilities. He was responsible for monitoring state and private facilities for compliance with federal and state laws, ensuring that people with disabilities had access to competitive-integrated employment.

After the GAO, he worked for Amy Price of the Price Support Network doing customized employment, where he practiced discovery and saw firsthand the beauty of uncovering individuals’ strengths and gifts. Zac earned an Association of Community Rehabilitation Educators credential in Employment Services with an Emphasis on Customized Employment certification in 2021.
Zac now works at Shepherd Center as an ABI-post acute vocational specialist. He has worked across the continuum of brain injury post-acute services: SHARE Military Initiative, the Complex Concussion Clinic, and Shepherd Pathways, returning people to work with the help of an interdisciplinary team.

Of note, from 2019-2022, Zac served on the board of directors for Citizen Advocacy of Atlanta & Dekalb. This experience allowed him to expand his knowledge of Social Role Valorization and dream big for individuals with disabilities. Zac firmly believes that with proper placement and accommodation, we can truly increase employment outcomes for people with disabilities.