John Booker
John is by profession a direct care worker. He is the executive director of the National Association of Direct Care Workers of Color and the Statewide Indiana CareGiver Association. He also serves as president of the National Urban League Young Professionals in Indiana and vice president of the National Urban League Guild.
John is the DCA’s Workforce Specialist Consultant. With over 30 years of experience in direct care, he is an expert and a consultant in all areas of direct care services, specializing in the area of workforce development (recruitment and retention). Economic and social advancement of direct care workers is one of his main objectives.
Janet Heinritz-Canterbury
Janet’s organizing and advocacy to improve home and community based services includes extensive experience with California’s In-Home Supportive Services Public Authorities as start-up consultant for the Los Angeles Personal Assistance Services Council, statewide consumer and worker coalition coordinator, and author of Collaborating to Improve In-Home Supportive Services: Stakeholder Perspectives in Implementing California’s Public Authorities. Currently she is spearheading an effort to mobilize consumers to take a more active role in the public authorities. Janet was the executive director of the Congress of California Seniors, Organizing Director for the National Council of Senior Citizens. She serves on the Board of the CALIF, a newly organized independent living center serving Central Los Angeles.
Vera Salter
Vera is an independent consultant and empowerment life coach. In 2001, while with the PHI, Vera established the National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce, the nation’s pre-eminent source of information about frontline workers across the spectrum of long-term care services, as well as an e-mail newsletter that reaches more than 2,000 subscribers. She developed the Clearinghouse’s Practice Profile Database in collaboration with the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, ASPE and CMS. She was the lead investigator in PHI’s subcontract to provide workforce information to the University of California at San Francisco’s Center for Personal Assistance Services. Her recent work includes developing competency standards for the Department of Labor’s nursing assistant and home health aide apprenticeships, and supporting the re-design of direct-care worker training and certification systems.
Vera has over 25 years of experience in health care administration, consulting, research, and policy, and has served on a number of non-profit boards. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology with a concentration in Health Services Research from the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the United Kingdom.
