Our Team

Andy Anderson joined Disability Rights North Carolina in January 2020 as an advocate for the Disaster Recovery project. In March 2021 he moved to the Protection & Advocacy fo…

Jen Andrew joined Disability Rights North Carolina in June 2022 as the communications coordinator. She has over 15 years of experience advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, education j…

Charlie Barnes joined DRNC as the agency’s chief financial officer when it became the state’s Protection & Advocacy agency in 2007. Barnes has over 35 years’ experience in no…

Gabby Bush joined the DRNC team in 2010 as its first outreach specialist. In that role she met thousands of North Carolinians with disabilities and presented on topics such as the h…

Vivianette Ortiz Caraballo joined the DRNC team in 2021 as a Bilingual Case Advocate. Her work focuses on coordinating and administering DRNC’s statewide intake process and pro…

Katerin Castro joined DRNC in July 2019 on the Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of the Representative Payees team. Her work focuses on investigations involving Soci…

Jeremiah Clarke joined Disability Rights North Carolina in March 2022. As the disability law fellow Jeremiah will have the opportunity to rotate between DRNC’s legal teams to ex…

Reighlah Collins joined DRNC in August 2018 as an attorney on the education team. Collins grew up in Zebulon, N.C. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Univer…

Terell Comer joined Disability Rights North Carolina in April 2022 as an investigator/advocate on the Rep Payee Team. Terell’s previous roles include adult protective service…

Joonu Coste joined DRNC in September 2019 as the agency’s first Equal Justice Works Fellow. Coste’s work focuses on the civil rights of children living in psychiatric residentia…

Barbara Daniels joined DRNC in September 2018. Her work focuses on investigations involving Social Security beneficiaries and their representative payees. Daniels has over 3…

Connie Dixon joined Disability Rights North Carolina in April 2022 as an Investigator/Advocate on the Rep Payee Team. Her work focuses on investigations involving Social Secur…

Corye Dunn joined DRNC in 2011 as the agency’s director of public policy. Dunn, who was born and raised in Durham, N.C., graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and NC Central University Sc…

Virginia Fogg joined DRNC in 2014. As the supervising attorney of the education team, she works to resolve special education and discipline issues to help ensure positive outcom…

Lisa Gessler joined DRNC in March 2019.  Gessler is originally from Ohio and graduated from the University of Akron School of Law.  Before law school she worked in psychology in th…