EB 2 – Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Sharpening Our Cultural Competency

Brenda Shorkend is a Certified Aging Life Care Manager™/Geriatric Care Manager with over 25 years of experience working with older people and people with special needs and disabilities and their families. She has a background in Rehabilitation Psychology and is a member of the Aging Life Care Association. She has worked in a wide variety of hospital and community settings, including Huntington Hospital’s Senior Care Network. Brenda has broad knowledge of local resources and services. 

Brenda is a strong advocate for her clients. She helps to tailor unique solutions for each individual that maximize their independence and autonomy while ensuring their safety and well-being. She emphasizes the importance of building a team or circle of care that includes family, friends and trusted advisors. 

She is on the Board of JLA Trust, a nonprofit Pooled Special Needs Trust; Chair of the Aging Life Care Association’s Standards Committee, and Chair  of the San Gabriel Valley End of Life Care Coalition.

Joseph Lee is a partner at Chang and Lee. The father of a child with autism, Joseph Lee practices in the area of Probate as it is a matter that hits home for him.

Joseph Lee has been practicing probate since his child was first diagnosed with autism, in 2007. When he realized how underserved that population was, he decided that he was going to start a practice to fill those unmet needs. Today, Joe’s practice includes estate planning with an emphasis on families that have special needs issues, conservatorships, and it has grown into a general probate practice.

In this capacity, not only does he help those families that have children with disabilities, but typical families as well.  He represents Professional Fiduciaries as well as lay persons in all aspects of Probate, Trust Administration and Conservatorships.

Joseph Lee serves on the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Child Development Associates, a non-profit organization which provides therapy to children who have developmental disorders and is also an Advisor Board Member to Center4SpecialNeeds, a parent support group in the Conejo Valley. He is also involved with the DIR/Floortime Coalition of California, another non-profit which seeks to educate and advocate on behalf of providers of autism treatment and the families that they serve and is a board member at his church. Joe continues to be in good standing as an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church.

Joe Lee is a graduate of Seton Hall Law where he received his J.D., Boston College, where he received his B.A. in History and Political Science, he also has an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary as well as a D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is admitted to practice law in California, New York and New Jersey.