Staff

Executive Director: Leonila Vega, Esq.
Ms. Leonila Vega, Esq., is a civil rights attorney specializing in elder and disability law. She has represented older Americans and individuals living with disabilities throughout Wisconsin. Prior to becoming Executive Director of the Direct Care Alliance, Ms. Vega developed and enforced advocacy procedures for older adults and direct care workers involved with the Wisconsin Innovative Family Care Waiver Program. She obtained a substantial wage increase for direct care workers in the state and was appointed by the governor of Wisconsin to the Independent Living Council, elected twice to serve as Chair. Ms. Vega became the Direct Care Alliance’s first Executive Director and established the organization as the national advocacy voice for the more than three million direct care workers in the U.S. Under her leadership, DCA has launched various programs and has been a strong advocate for legislative fixes to the issues facing direct care workers. Ms. Vega is a founding member of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance and served as co-chair for the subcommittee on the direct care workforce. She also serves as co-chair of the Carework Network. A native of Mexico, Ms. Vega moved from her rural hometown to California, where she attended the University of California – Irvine. She then earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Direct Care Worker Specialist: John Booker, CNA
John H. Booker has been a certified nursing assistant (CNA) for more than 30 years. A member of the DCA’s board of directors since 2000, he is also the founding director of the National Association of Direct Care Workers of Color Inc. and the founding president of the Indiana Care Givers Association. He has worked as a long-term care ombudsman and as director of CNA services for a full-service retirement community in California. His essays and editorials have been published by the National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce and Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management magazine. Our direct care worker specialists do direct care work and work part-time for the Direct Care Alliance, developing and practicing their advocacy skills. John is a graduate of the DCA’s Voices Institute.

State Advocacy Director: Roy Gedat
Roy Gedat has rejoined the DCA staff on a part-time basis to help with membership recruitment, connecting with direct care workers in the field and developing graduates of the Voices Institute. Roy has over 35 years in human services including 20 as the Executive Director of a child health agency and previous work with the DCA as its National Advocacy Director. He earned a Master's Degree in Social Work from Boston Universsity and has had long career in social services management and advocacy. He was the founding director of Maine's direct care worker organization Maine PASA, a direct care worker and a political activist who has run for office, and is currently the Treasurer of Oxford County, Maine. Roy has recently been focusing his energies on starting a private duty home care agency, raising money for several local and state-wide organizations and political campaigns.

Direct Care Worker Specialist: Brenda Nachtway, Nurse Aide
The co-chair of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association and chair of its Education and Conference Planning Committee, Brenda has been a nurse aide since 1987. After six years in a nursing home she switched to hospice care, starting in private duty and then taking a job at the hospice program of the Evangelical Community Hospital Hospice in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She cares for people who are dying both in their homes and in nursing homes. Our direct care worker specialists do direct care work and work part-time for the Direct Care Alliance, developing and practicing their advocacy skills. Brenda is a graduate of the DCA’s Voices Institute.

Director of Communications: Aaron Pickering
Aaron formerly served as Senior Communications Specialist at Equal Justice Works, where he helped promote the work of law students and attorneys providing pro bono representation to low-income and vulnerable individuals and families. He was part of the team that developed their communications and marketing strategy and was responsible for designing and implementing organizational and issue-specific campaigns. He co-teaches graduate-level courses on new media, media relations and public affairs for associations and nonprofits at the George Washington University, where he earned his master’s degree in Political Management – Strategic Public Relations & Public Affairs. He got his BA in English with a minor in Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Professional Development Director: Vera Salter, PhD
In her last position, at PHI, Vera helped develop a definition of the work done by home care aides for a national apprenticeship program developed for the U.S. Department of Labor. Vera was the founding director of the National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce at PHI, where she worked from 2001 to 2007. Before that, she co-owned a national planning and marketing firm with clients across the continuum of health and long-term care services. She has served as vice-president of a multi-institutional healthcare system and held a number of health planning and research positions. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, with a concentration in health services research; a Master’s degree in Social Administration from the University of Essex; and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Administrative Associate: Maureen Traverse 
Prior to joining Direct Care Alliance, Maureen worked for the Smithsonian Institution, where she provided administrative support for an organization of over eight-hundred employees. She assisted in planning an annual international conference on museum security, oversaw a training program for security officer trainees, and developed an orientation program for employees relocating to Washington, DC. She has also taught composition and creative writing. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Writing and English from Loyola College in Maryland. 

Director of Policy and Planning: David W. Ward, MPH
Prior to joining the Direct Care Alliance, David worked on health-related initiatives for the JEHT Foundation’s Palliative Care and Criminal Justice programs. His experience includes research and analysis on the uninsured and long-term care systems. David also served as the research coordinator for the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, where he worked on a large-scale research project designed to document the social and medical needs of people over the age of 50 with HIV/AIDS. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Michigan State University.