Relay Resources Appoints Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke as President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke
Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke, (she/her) in a blue blouse, long dark hair, smiling at the camera

PORTLAND, Ore., October 12, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Relay Resources is thrilled to welcome Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

Margaret Van Vliet, Relay’s board chair, said, “The board selected Jennifer from an impressive slate of candidates based on her extraordinary background, credentials, and clear commitment to disability justice.

“During this time of social change and program modernization, we have every confidence that Jennifer will build on Relay’s strengths and carry our mission forward with renewed energy and a fresh perspective.”

Camota Luebke brings more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions leading large accounting operations teams at Fortune 1000 companies such as Gap, Electronic Arts, and Genentech, and in higher education serving as associate dean of external relations and director of the executive MBA program at the University of San Francisco. For the last 10 years, she has simultaneously served on volunteer boards and committees of disability and higher education organizations such as Best Buddies California, All Belong Center for Inclusive Education, and the State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Individuals with Intellectual Disability.

Most recently, Camota Luebke was the Senior Vice President and Chief Workforce Inclusion Officer for PRIDE Industries, where she led the company’s workforce inclusion programming strategy and operations to develop competitive, integrated, community-based employment pathways for people with disabilities. She also influenced employment policies that impact people with disabilities by working with federal, state, and local legislative offices, and community advocacy organizations.

“I am honored by the board’s confidence in me to lead Relay Resources as we advance the mission of cultivating meaningful work for people with disabilities,” Camota Luebke stated. “I look forward to leading a team of dedicated professionals who share a common vision of disability inclusion, justice, and pride in the workplace.

“I am excited to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities by growing our business services and workforce training programs and collaborating with organizations to renovate workplace cultures to become disability-inclusive.”

Camota Luebke is a member of the Board of Trustees for the national United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) organization where she serves on the policy and research committees. She co-founded Ability Revolution, which produces film and media projects that influence the way society views people with disabilities and advocates for students with disabilities and their families. Camota Luebke produced the 2018 award-winning documentary You Can Be BRAVE: Breaking Barriers to Inclusion about her journey as a parent advocating for her son, who has an intellectual disability, to be included in all areas of society.

Conducting academic research on leadership beliefs and practices that inform disability-inclusive learning communities, Camota Luebke earned a Doctor of Education (Ed.D) with a concentration in organization and leadership from the University of San Francisco, where she also completed her MBA. She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

In 2022, Camota Luebke was recognized as one of the Most Influential Filipina Women in the World™ (Global FWN 100™) by the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) and a Top 25 Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Change Maker by the Sacramento Bee. She was also a 2017 Jefferson Award Winner for Public Service (now known as Multiplying Good) for her portfolio of disability research and advocacy work.

For Camota Luebke, disability inclusion is all in the family. She is married to Christopher Luebke, an intermediate and secondary public school special education teacher and inclusion specialist. Their adult son, a 2023 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology from the EXCEL program for students with intellectual disabilities, is employed full time and lives independently.