Relay Resources announced the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke as the company’s new 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 has over 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions leading large accounting operations teams at Fortune 1000 companies such as Gap, Electronic Arts, and Genentech. She also has experience in higher education, having served as associate dean of external relations and director of the executive MBA program at the University of San Francisco. In addition to her professional experience, she has been an active volunteer on 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 for the past 10 years.
Most recently, Camota Luebke served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Workforce Inclusion Officer for PRIDE Industries. In this role, 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 worked with federal, state, and local legislative offices, as well as community advocacy organizations, to influence employment policies that impact people with disabilities.
“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. She serves on the policy and research committees, and is actively involved in advocating for students with disabilities and their families. Camota Luebke co-founded Ability Revolution, an organization that produces film and media projects aimed at changing the way society views people with disabilities. In 2018, she produced the award-winning documentary “You Can Be BRAVE: Breaking Barriers to Inclusion,” which tells the story of her journey as a parent advocating for her son, who has an intellectual disability, to be included in all areas of society.
Camota Luebke has conducted academic research on leadership beliefs and practices that inform disability-inclusive learning communities. She 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 was also named a Top 25 Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Change Maker by the Sacramento Bee. Her portfolio of disability research and advocacy work earned her a 2017 Jefferson Award for Public Service (now known as Multiplying Good).
Disability inclusion is a cause close to Camota Luebke’s heart. Her husband, Christopher Luebke, is 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.
