12th Annual LACCD Disability Summit

Welcome to the 12th Annual LACCD Disability Summit 2026!

Mission Statement!
The Los Angeles Community College District’s 2025 Disability Summit seeks to celebrate equal access to educational programs, support services, technology, and curriculum, while highlighting best practices, universal design and teaching methodology that supports students, faculty and staff.
1st. Keynote Speaker
Joze Piranian is a lifelong stutterer turned Forbes and TED featured International Keynote Speaker. Born and raised in Lebanon, Joze avoided speaking for more than 25 years out of the fear of being judged for being different. Then, everything changed.
After winning the award of Inspirational Speaker of the Year in 2017, Joze went on to deliver 5 TEDx talks and performed stand-up comedy in 3 continents and 4 languages - he stutters in 6 of them!
Having graduated from McGill University with a Bachelors in Organizational Psychology and from Queen’s University with a Master of International Business Joze has since delivered hundreds of stand-up comedy and speaking engagements about Inclusion and Resilience at organizations including Google, Netflix, Meta, Dell, IBM, TikTok, TD and others. With millions of views on Goalcast,

Joze has also been featured on TED, Forbes, John Krasinski's Some Good News and ABC.
2nd Keynote Speaker
For over 35 years, Gail Conrad has been in the field of disabilities in post-secondary educational settings. For the past 10 years, she has served as the Disability Consultant to the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office, providing technical assistance to all the 116 CA Community Colleges as needed. She was a DSPS advisor at DSPS Solutions/Interwork Institute,

San Diego State University Research Foundation.Gail has a BS in Occupational Therapy, a MS in Physical Education, Adaptive, and an Ed.D. in

Educational Leadership for Community Colleges. She is a retired DSPS Director in the San Diego Community College District, and has also been an Interim Vice-Chancellor, Student Services, an Interim Vice-President, Student Services, and a DSPS Coordinator. She also worked at College of the Redwoods in Eureka in the Coordinator role.

Gail has been a Lecturer in Research Writing for SDSU graduate Rehab Counseling programs; taught various EAC courses in the community college and has presented at numerous conventions on serving students with disabilities in higher education and assisting students with disabilities to achieve success in college.She has broad experience in all aspects of disabilities and postsecondary education,

disability-related counseling of students in college and budget management. She has broad experiences in a variety of student service areas, including admissions, financial aid, EOPS/CARE, and student activities and research.