Special Events

Elan Allison is a Board Certified Prosthetist / Orthotist and Area Clinic Manager of Hanger Clinic’s Downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena and Long Beach Clinics. Elan holds a Master’s of Arts in Industrial Organizational Psychology and obtained his certification, education and training through the Prosthetics and Orthotics Department of Northwestern University.

Holding over 20 years of Industry experience, Elan is passionate in solving clinical, technical and operational challenges for the patients that he and his team service. His background in Industrial-Organizational Psychology has provided Elan a diverse skill set to manage the complex healthcare environment and the workforce that he is partnered with. His dedication to his team and patients is demonstrated through his effective leadership skills and positive clinical outcomes.

Elan will be celebrating his 8 year work anniversary with Hanger Clinic in July and enjoys cycling, running and spending time with his beloved son, Maxime. If Elan is not enjoying outside activities, you can find him enjoying the sounds and racing of Formula One. 

Rob Balucas is an ‘every-man joe’ who was thrust into extraordinary circumstances in 2015 when a cycling accident rendered him paraplegic. At the time he was training for his first half IRONMAN triathlon the very next weekend. He vowed to return and raced in 3 sprint-distance triathlons as a paratriathlete that following year.

Since then he’s competed in 6 half IRONMANs, including the 2019 half IRONMAN World Championships in France.  After qualifying, but delayed by 2 years of COVID, his next goal is to cross the finish line at triathlon’s biggest stage – the Kona (full) IRONMAN World Championship – this coming October 2022.

Outside of paratriathlon, Rob resides in Southern California with his partner, Erika, and their dog Chloe. He is founder and Chief Creative Catalyst at babaLucas Creative, serving the branding and online marketing needs of small businesses and nonprofits.

Sally has been with the USOPC since April 2019, where she works in multiple multi-disciplinary teams across a range of summer and winter sports. 

Prior to her work with Team USA, she was working in her native Australia in elite rugby union, in private practice and teaching sports nutrition at Queensland University of Technology.

Candace Cable is an active native Angeleno whose life took a turn when a car accident at the age of 21 in 1975, resulted in a spinal cord injury requiring her to use a wheelchair full-time for mobility. By becoming a member of a diverse disability community she emerged as an athlete traveling the world as a 9 X Winter and Summer Paralympian, 12 X medalist in three sports, winner of 84 marathons, including six Boston Marathon and a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Famer.  

During her athletic career she realized her sport platform is the perfect automatic door opener to dismantle ableism, racism and the negative stigmas disabled people experience daily. She also began writing and speaking about the urgency of the implementation of true equity and access, leaving no one behind with her education materials on understanding the disability experience. 

She has worked with Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Open Doors Organization, and was the Director of Paralympic and Disability Engagement for the LA2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid organization in Los Angeles. She participates regularly at the United Nations meetings of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, (CRPD). Candace is currently working as the Head of Community and User Insights for Aurie, a start-up company building a reusable catheter.  

Candace is a board member of US International Council on Disabilities, the Southern California Olympians and Paralympians Association, a Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Disability Commission, as well as a volunteer wheelchair racing coach for Angel City Sports. Candace loves Los Angeles and her disability communities. 

Conal Doyle, Attorney and Founder, Doyle Law, is a right leg amputee and legal advocate for the disabled community. He has one of the most successful personal injury and insurance bad faith practices in California, based in Beverly Hills. He is one of the few amputees who have argued before the United States Supreme Court. 

Conal has received many awards such as 2020 Consumer Attorneys Association of California (CAOC) Street Fighter of the Year Award, 2012 California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award in Human Rights, and the 2011 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA). He has been listed in both Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers for the past ten consecutive years, and his courtroom victories have been chronicled in newspapers around the world, including a piece on the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.” 

Former Collegiate Soccer player Travis Kikugawa has spent the last 20 + years serving in various roles at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California. Travis has been a part of 6 CIF Championship Teams and has multiple Daily News All-Area Coach of the Year accolades to go along with his California State Boys Tennis Coach of the Year Award.  

Outside of Viewpoint, TK is a performance consultant who works with individuals, teams, clubs, and coaches on how to become the best versions of themselves. He uses a variety of techniques while adhering to his philosophy of “Life Over Sport”. This unique perspective has very little to do with what you are currently doing and EVERYTHING to do with the person you’re becoming while doing it.

Focusing on culture and the intangibles, TK believes that everyone can close the talent gap utilizing his methods. He is a servant leader who trusts that the Life Over Sport philosophy extends well beyond the athletic arena and will serve as a road map for life. 

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Accomplished executive with more than 15 years of marketing and communication experience. A track record of building and executing strategic programs that drive positive business results within the insurance/financial services and sports and entertainment industries.  

Mayra Mendez is a parent ambassador for Angel City Sports and recently joined the Ethics & Eligibility Committee. She holds a Master of Science in Psychology and is a certified Title IX higher learning professional. 

Her daughter discovered Paralympic sports through Angel City Sports seven years ago. Since that day her daughter has not stopped playing sports. Mayra immediately became a supporter of the organization’s mission and vision.  

As a person who intersects several communities, Hector Ochoa has been an advocate for as long as he can remember. From an early age, Hector quickly learned to advocate for himself and his brother, who is nonverbal and has an intellectual and physical disability.

Now, Hector’s passion for activism shines through his work as a Regional Director at Southern California Resource Services, an independent living center which helps people with disabilities lead full lives. 

Additionally, among his many duties, Hector assures that the voice of the disability community is continuously at the table by serving as a County Commissioner for Supervisor Hilda Solis on the Commission on Disabilities. In addition, Hector has also co-founded the Los Angeles Disability Pride Parade, an annual function which organizes thousands of people, with and without disabilities, to come together and celebrate disability pride and human diversity.

As a person of color who grew up with a disability, Hector also understands the importance of being a positive mentor to youth with disabilities.  Year after year, he helps organize and run a summer leadership summit for high school students with disabilities. Hector deeply believes in an accessible, inclusive and equal society for all, and he dedicates his professional talents and personal skills to make his belief a reality for countless people with disabilities. 

Gus has had the pleasure of working with a wide array of adaptive athletes, ranging anywhere between developmental youths to world record holders and Paralympic medalists. He enjoys the unique challenge each athlete brings to the table and loves to be part of the development process towards their success.   

Jamey Perry is a TV writer, athlete, actor, wife and mom with a disability. As a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), as well as the vice chair of its Disabled Writers Committee, Jamey advocates for disability equity and inclusion in film and TV. To that end, in 2021, Jamey sold two shows to NBC, both with multiple disabled leads.

In addition to her career pursuits, Jamey is a multi-sport athlete who is passionate about getting more disabled women into adaptive sport. In 2016, she became the first-ever Women’s World Champion in WCMX (which is like skateboarding but for wheelchairs!). She also regularly plays wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball, often with Angel City Sports.

In honor of her talents on the court, and her character off of it, she was recently awarded Athlete of the Year by the Triumph Foundation. Jamey loves to talk TV, disability and sports (playing, not watching)–so come find her if you do too! 

As a proven business leader, people operations executive, and change agent, Nadia Rivero brings 20 years of experience to LA28’s HR team.

As an organizational development leader and top talent recruiter, Nadia has transformed programs and delivered actionable results throughout her career.

At LA28, she leads the information, knowledge and learning function and ensures team members have the knowledge and skills needed to deliver the Olympic and Paralympic Games successfully. Nadia works across teams within the organization and partners closely with her counterparts at the IOC and other organizing committees. 

Dave Sanderson is an inspirational TEDx speaker, author, and philanthropist who channeled his life-changing experience on US Airways Flight 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson, into a mission to provide insight and strategies on the essential facets of faith, conviction, and leadership; attributes that he credits with saving his life.

He has shared the lessons from that experience with over 1700 audiences around the world and the strategies he learned and implemented to show how you can, not only grow from a traumatic life event, but, in one hundred days, achieve your most sought-after goals and outcomes. 

Matt Scott is a five-time Paralympian in the sport of wheelchair basketball for which he has meddled three times, including most recently at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. He is a pioneer and champion for not only wheelchair basketball, but for Paralympians and athletes with disabilities as a whole, and he continues to be an outspoken advocate for inclusion and universal participation in sport. 

Born with spina bifida, Scott began using a wheelchair from an early age. He pursued his love for sport by taking up wheelchair basketball at 14 years old. Scott showed early promise and talent, and he was recruited by the U.S. men’s national wheelchair basketball team directly out of high school.  

Scott has competed in every Paralympic Games since his high school graduation: Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Throughout this two-decade long Team USA tenure, Scott and the men’s wheelchair basketball team steadily improved, rising from a seventh place finish in 2004 to a bronze medal win in 2012 and finally the gold medal in 2016. They successfully defend that gold in Tokyo. 

His impact extends beyond the court as well. Scott was nominated for an ESPY, became the first U.S. Paralympian to star in a Nike commercial, appeared in an Apple commercials and gathered millions of views worldwide displaying his talents with online presence. This is while continuing to support adaptive sport athletes through a variety of community initiatives and supportive programming. 

Matt is currently working within the Visa corporation as an associate. His role within the company plays a significant part in creating opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the corporate space. He is a part of the Global Sponsorships team that works directly with the NFL, FIFA, International Olympic and Paralympic committees.

Kylie serves as a Human Resources Associate at LA28, supporting a variety of HR pillars including new team member onboarding, training, employee engagement and HRIS systems management.

She graduated from USC in 2018 with a degree in Policy, Planning and Development and spent the first years of her career in volunteer recruitment and management.

Kylie channels LA28’s values to bring her passion for maximizing the employee experience, championing volunteerism and creating a welcoming & inclusive work environment every day.  

The son of a Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball pitcher, Charley Walters was raised in a Sports-loving family who encouraged year-round athletic success. 

At a young age he became enamored with the Olympics and Paralympics and has since turned it into a passion, covering the past several Summer and Winter Games as Media for People Magazine, the Advocate, and Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” . 

He co-founded and produces an event with Nicole Kidman and Nadia Comaneci each year called “Gold Meets Golden”, proudly benefiting Angel City Sports, where Sports heroes visit Hollywood for Awards Season.  

Shot 10 times while on patrol in Afghanistan in 2011, Scotty is the epitome of resilience. He suffered nerve damage in his right arm/hand and multiple other injuries. Before music he used the sport of archery to assist him with his injuries as a form of therapy both physical and mental. Since then he has moved on to find solace in a new form of therapy, music. Scotty uses guitar and music as a way to help him cope with the struggles being to war brings. He still has limited mobility in his right strumming hand.  

Scotty has written with multiple known country artists, veteran singer/songwriters and up-and-comers in the country music world. He loves to write songs, and also enjoys playing live at local bars throughout Nashville and the surrounding area.