Texas Advocacy Members

James Meadours has been involved in self-advocacy for 25 years. He has served as the Chair of SABE and been on the Boards of TASH, The Arc, and what is now the President’s Committee on Intellectual Disability. He is the former State Self-Advocacy Project Coordinator in Louisiana, the co-Coordinator of the Peer to Peer Grant for Texas Advocates, and the Self-Advocacy and Self-Determination Specialist for Disability Rights Texas. Currently, he sits on the Board for Disability Rights Texas and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered as region 9 representative.

Shaun Bickley is an autistic self-advocate who coordinates the SAVE grant for Texas Advocates. He has a state appointment to Texas’ Employment First Task Force and is co-Chair of the University of Texas Center for Disability Studies’ Community Advisory Council. He was a community organizer for 4 years in southeast Texas and is a 2012 graduate of the Midwest Academy for Social Change. He also started the Houston chapter of Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Kendra Kerbow is the President of Texas Advocates. She has worked for MHMR of Tarrant County for 17 years. Employment is very important to her; besides her duties with Texas Advocates, she serves on the state’s Employment First Task Force. She is very involved in her community and has lived on her own for over 20 years. She is passionate about voting because she sees it as a way to express herself and to speak for her rights.