About the Presenters

Betsy Darling, Fair Housing Attorney for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development since 1999. Along with her law degree, Darling also has a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) and an undergraduate Business Degree (BBA).

Allyssa D. Wheaton-Rodriguez, Fair Housing attorney for the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). Wheaton has been with HUD since August 2002. Wheaton-Rodriguez received her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center.

Stacy Toomey has over 18 years experience in the Airline Industry, working for New York Air and Continental Airlines. Her current duties include designing, developing and delivering electronic training products for airport personnel.

Stacy’s focus is addressing the needs of Continental customers traveling with disabilities and setting polices and procedures relating to the Air Carrier Access Act.

She has gained her experience by working with customers with disabilities in air travel. In addition she has been a member of Continental’s Disability Task force since it’s inception and has coordinated travel for the last eight years for the PVA Wheelchair games. She has worked with TIRR, ILRU and the PVA with the development of training and service aids for customers with disabilities and has trained airport personnel worldwide on the Air Carrier Access Act.

Ed Eames, PhD and Toni Eames, MS are a unique and powerful couple who are advocates for disabled people. Both are established writers and authors of several articles that have been published in Dog World Magazine and Cats Magazine. Their article "A Gentle Goodbye" was recently published in Chicken Soup for Cat and Dog Lover's Soul. Recently they were in Kansas to attend the Conference for Cat and Dog Writers being held in Kansas City.

The Eameses have just released a new book, Partners In Independence: A Success Story of Dogs and the Disabled.

To contact Ed and Toni Eames, Call them at (559) 224-0544 or email at eeames@csufresno.edu

The couple travels to veterinary colleges and conferences throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and eventually, Canada. They primarily speak about the special needs of disabled clients and their assistance dogs.

Toni has been blind since birth from a condition known as macular degeneration. Toni contributes her independence to her mother who stressed the importance of techniques upon her daughter. Toni knew she would not live with her mother forever so she attended the Jewish Guild for the Blind for six months.

Ed became blind in his early forties due to retenitist pigmentosa. He says the visions from his sighted years have blurred over time. Dr. and Ms. Eames met in New York City in 1984 when Ed consulted frequently with Toni on the book he was to publish about guide dogs. They married in 1987 and relocated to California where they both are currently Adjunct Professors of Sociology at California State University at Fresno. [Ed has since, retired]

Although the Eameses were already writers, they began their mission to educate the public on assistance dogs by making personal appearances in 1992. Their new careers began from an experience they had at another veterinary hospital. Their guide dog was treated with a steroid that induced a constant thirst, and subsequently, a frequent need to urinate. This is not a good thing for a guide dog. From this terrible experience, they decided to educate the general public on what a guide dog or assistance dog's job is and how disabled persons need to be treated in society.

This information on the Eamses was adapted from the Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine web site.