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Byline | Expertise | Bio |
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Heather Watkins | Media, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Race, Disability | Heather Watkins is a Disability Advocate, author, blogger, mother, graduate of Emerson College with a B.S. in Mass Communications. Born with Muscular Dystrophy, loves reading, daydreaming, chocolate, and serves on a handful disability-related boards and a former Chair of Boston Disability Commission Advisory Board. She is also a Co-founder of “Divas with Disabilities Project,” a supportive sisterhood network representing women of color with disabilities. Heather is also a member of Harriet Tubman Collective, composed of Black Deaf & Black Disabled activists and organizers. Her publishing experience includes articles in MDA’s Quest magazine, Mass Rehab Commission’s Consumer Voice newsletter and has blogged for sites like: Our Ability, Art of Living Guide, Disabled Parenting, Grubstreet, Rooted In Rights, Women's Media Center, and Thank God I. Heather’s short story, “Thank God I have Muscular Dystrophy” published in 2013 as part of compilation in the Thank God I…Am an Empowered Woman ® book series. Her blog Slow Walkers See More includes reflections and insight from her life with disability. |
Fran Wilde | Pop Culture, Disability Culture | Fran Wilde writes for publications including The Washington Post, Tor.com, Clarkesworld, iO9.com, and GeekMom.com. Her novels and short stories have been nominated for two Nebula awards and a Hugo, and include her Andre Norton- and Compton-Crook-winning debut novel, Updraft (Tor 2015), its sequels, Cloudbound (2016) and Horizon (2017), and the novelette “The Jewel and Her Lapidary” (Tor.com Publishing 2016). Her short stories appear in Asimov’s, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, and the 2017 Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. You can find Fran at her website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @fran_wilde Recent clips: Washington Post, April 2019: Three children’s authors on the importance of tough topics in young people’s literature Fireside, December 2018: You Wake Up Monstrous Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2018: We Will See You Now Fran is available as a source and for personal essays, opinion editorial, reported features, teaching, and speaking engagements Additional communication availability: Text, chat, videoconference Languages: English |
Jane Eaton Hamilton | Fiction, Art, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Feminism, LGBQT, Disability, Relationships, Sexuality | Jane Eaton Hamilton is the disabled author of 9 books, including the 2016 novel "Weekend." They have twice won the CBC Literary Award for fiction and the Prism Int't Fiction Prize. They have 2 Notables in BAE, 1 Notable in BASS and are upcoming in BAX 2020. They have been published in such places as Gay Magazine on Medium, Salon, NY Times and The Sun. More info on the website! |
Robert Kingett | Media, Pop Culture, Books, Fiction, Politics, Ethics, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Criticism, Americans with Disabilities Act, LGBQT, Disability, Relationships, Sexuality, Technology | Robert Kingett is a journalist and author that continuously strives to make the technology and publishing worlds accessible to other disabled writers, especially writers who are blind or visually impaired. Robert Kingett is totally blind and lives with cerebral palsy. He's openly gay, and sometimes identifies as queer. His fiction aims to spotlight disabled characters, especially blind characters, in their own stories. Due to his speech disability, email is best for an initial introduction or request. Phone calls will not be answered without a scheduled time and date. His favorite stories to write include investigative stories, human interest stories, and personal essays, as well as Gonzo journalism. |
Debra Guckenheimer | Books, Politics, Accessibility, Education, Feminism, Race, LGBQT, Disability | Debra Guckenheimer has a PhD in Sociology from UCSB. She has worked as a Researcher for Stanford University and a Visiting Assistant for Bowdoin College. She is a diversity and inclusion specialist, dissertation coach, writer, and teacher. She currently is a Lecturer at California State University, East Bay. |
Jessica Niziolek | Books, Poetry, Fiction, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Education, Americans with Disabilities Act, Disability, Relationships | I am a published content writer, and poet. As well as a disability advocate, and podcast host personality |
Ceillie Simkiss | Media, Pop Culture, Books, Feminism, LGBQT, Sexuality | Ceillie Simkiss is a queer and neurodivergent author and freelance writer based in southern Virginia. She has bylines in places like the Danville Register & Bee, Culturess and Global Comment. She blogs regularly on CandidCeillie.com and is the owner and editor of LetsFoxAboutIt.com. She loves nothing more than curling up in bed with a book and her many furry creatures, but playing silly video games is a close second, even though she’s terrible at them. If anyone wants to reach her, she spends way too much time on Twitter as @CandidCeillie. |
Rosemarie Rossetti | Architecture, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Americans with Disabilities Act, Disability | Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D. is a powerful, internationally known speaker, trainer, consultant, writer, and publisher who walks her talk. On June 13, 1998, Rossetti’s life was transformed when a 3 1/2 ton tree came crashing down on her. Her life was changed in that instant! Paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury, Rossetti looked deep within herself and found new strength and new resolve. Determined to take back her life and make a difference for others, she shares the lessons she has learned since that fateful day, and demonstrates how to rise above misfortune and live life with conviction. Rosemarie presents internationally to audiences from ten to several thousand. She is the author of the Universal Design Toolkit, Take Back Your Life! and co-author of the Healthy Indoor Plant. She writes articles for national publications on the subjects of universal design, accessible design, disability inclusion, the value of disability insurance, and motivational themes. |
Shannon Jade | Pop Culture, Books, Fiction, Disability Culture, Accessibility, Disability Rights, Feminism, Disability | A young writing student with a growing portfolio, Shannon hopes to explore the realms of children's fiction, as well as pursuing advocacy work and continuing to engage in whatever interesting opportunities come her way. |
Lydia X. Z. Brown | Law, Politics, Ethics, Philosophy, Disability Culture, Disability Rights, Criticism, Race, LGBQT, Disability | Lydia X. Z. Brown is a disability justice advocate, organizer, and writer whose work has largely focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people, especially institutionalization, incarceration, and policing. They have worked to advance transformative change through organizing in the streets, writing legislation, conducting anti-ableism workshops, testifying at regulatory and policy hearings, and disrupting institutional complacency everywhere from the academy to state agencies and the nonprofit-industrial complex. Currently, Lydia is a Justice Catalyst Fellow at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, working on defending and advancing the educational civil rights of Maryland students with psychosocial, intellectual, and developmental disabilities facing various forms of disproportionate discipline, restraint and seclusion, and school pushout. In collaboration with E. Ashkenazy and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Lydia is also co-editor and visionary behind All the Weight of Our Dreams, the first-ever anthology of writings and artwork by autistic people of color and otherwise negatively racialized autistic people, published by the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. Lydia and Morénike also co-direct the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment, which provides direct support, mutual aid, and community reparations to individual autistic people of color. Lydia is also a founding board member of the Alliance for Citizen-Directed Services. Lydia recently completed a term as Chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, serving in that role from 2015 to 2017 as the youngest appointee nationally to chair any state developmental disabilities council. They also designed and taught a course on critical disability theory, public policy, and intersectional social movements as a Visiting Lecturer at Tufts University’s Experimental College. Previously, Lydia served as TASH New England’s co-president and its stakeholder representative to the Massachusetts One Care Implementation Council overseeing health care for people who are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. They were formerly staff at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network for several years, working on programs and policy matters. They have also been a Holley Law Fellow at the National LGBTQ Task Force, and a Patricia Morrissey Disability Policy Fellow at the Institute for Educational Leadership. Lydia has been honored by the White House, Washington Peace Center, National Council on Independent Living, Disability Policy Consortium of Massachusetts, National Association for Law Placement/Public Service Jobs Directory, Society for Disability Studies, and American Association of People with Disabilities. In 2015, Pacific Standard named Lydia a Top 30 Thinker under 30, and Mic named Lydia to its inaugural list of 50 impactful leaders, cultural influencers, and breakthrough innovators. Their work has been featured in scholarly publications including Disability Studies Quarterly; Addressing Ableism: Philosophical Questions via Disability Studies; Religion, Disability, and Interpersonal Violence; Barriers & Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability; Feminist Perspectives on Orange is the New Black; Torture in Healthcare Settings; and Films for the Feminist Classroom; and community publications including The Asian American Literary Review; All In Your Head Zine: To The Bone; QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology; Criptiques; Disability Intersections; Black Girl Dangerous; hardboiled magazine; POOR Magazine; and NOS Magazine. Lydia recently graduated from Northeastern University School of Law as a Public Interest Law Scholar. While at Northeastern, they served as an active member of the Committee Against Institutional Racism (representing the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association), the Transgender Justice Task Force, and the Faculty Appointments Committee, and are a founding core collective member of the Disability Justice Caucus. Earlier, while at Georgetown University, Lydia co-founded the Washington Metro Disabled Students Collective for intersectional disability justice organizing, led multiple campaigns to reform university policies on disability access that led to creation of a dedicated pool of funding for sign language interpretation and real-time captioning as well as an access coordinator position responsible for public and non-academic programming, single-handedly founded and coordinated the first Lecture and Performance Series on Disability Justice, served two terms as Undersecretary for Disability Affairs with the Georgetown University Students Association, spurred the university to convene a Disability Justice Working Group, provided training to numerous student groups and university departments and offices, and served on the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities’ consumer advisory council. They have served on advisory boards to a number of research projects, including the National Center for Cultural Competence’s Embedding Cultural Diversity and Cultural and Linguistic Competence: A Guide for UCEDD Curricula and Training Activities Project; a postdoctoral Advanced Rehabilitation and Research Training Program on Health and Functioning of People with Disabilities hosted at Brandeis University’s Lurie Institute for Disability Policy within the Heller School for Social Policy and Management; and Drexel University’s Ethical Autism Research Cultures and Community Engagement project. They have also served as peer reviewer for Journal of Homosexuality, Autism in Adulthood, and Disability Studies Quarterly. |