Maysoon Zayid is an actress, comedian, disability advocate, and writer. She is a graduate of and a Guest Comedian in Residence at Arizona State University. Maysoon is the co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and The Muslim Funny Fest. She was delighted to be a 2013 honoree of United Cerebral Palsy NYC’s Women Who Care Awards and is honored to sit on their planning committee. Media includes: CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central.

Emily Ladau is a passionate disability rights activist and digital communications expert whose career began at the age of 10, when she appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate children about her life with a physical disability. She is dedicated to harnessing the powers of communication and social media as tools for people of all abilities to become informed and engaged about disability and social justice issues. Media includes: The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Salon, Vice, Huffington Post.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is president of RespectAbilityUSA, a non-profit organization working to enable people with disabilities to achieve the American dream.  In that capacity Mizrahi has met with the majority of Governors, many future Presidential candidates, Hollywood celebrities, major employers, philanthropists and others to expand job and other opportunities for people with disabilities. She has also led numerous national polls and brought significant visibility to the issues of America’s 56 million citizens with disabilities. Media includes: CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Fox. 

Annie Harris-Meachem is a dedicated and persistent advocate for women who, for a variety of reasons find themselves living on the margins of society due to the social stigma of their disability or race. She was a member of the management team at the prestigious World Institute on Disability (WID) where the first HIV/Disability Project brought these two groups the same Culture of Disability. 

Esmé Grant is the Senior Director of Government Relations for the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), leading the federal policy and government relations work for the organization and its over 800 local and state members.  Previous to this role she served as the Director of Public Policy for the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, working with all State Councils on Developmental Disabilities on their advocacy and policy priorities for individuals with developmental disabilities. Media includes: Association for Women's Rights in Development, Washington College of Law Podcast. 

Susan L. Parish, PhD, MSW is the Dean and Professor of Health Sciences at Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University. Prior, she was the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Disability Policy and Director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, at Brandeis University. In addition, she directed the undergraduate Ruderman Social Justice in Disability Scholars program, also at Brandeis. Media includes: PBS NewsHour, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Psychology Today, Huffington Post.

Michelle Elman is a 5 board accredited life coach that specialises in body confidence. Her campaign Scarred Not Scared has earned her a collective following of over 110k people on Instagram sharing her advice and wisdom to help people embrace their bodies. She uses her psychology degree and her qualifications as a Master Practitioner of NLP, Hypnotherapy, Time Line Therapy and NLP Coaching to provide her expert opinion. Media includes: Sky News, Channel 5 News, BBC Radio London, LBC, Today Show, Fox News, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, People.

Nadine O. Vogel is the CEO of Springboard Consulting LLC, a global company working with multinational corporations to successfully mainstream disability in the global workforce, workplace and marketplace.  As CEO, Nadine leads production of the world-renowned Disability Matters Conference & Awards Gala as well as The Springboard Foundation which provides scholarships to college students with disabilities. Media includes: Women in Business, National Braille Press, Bloomberg.

Sarah Wright is the president of Social Work in Progress & the board chair of Unmarried Equality. Her business specializes in geriatric and medical social work, wherever disability, illness, and old age intersect; she and her team provide social workers to a variety of health care settings. Sarah’s work with Unmarried Equality recognizes that marriage is a “single” relationship type, but the only one that comes with institutional benefits, rights, and privileges. Media includes: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Sentinel & Enterprise.

Dior Vargas is a Latina Feminist Mental Health Activist. She is the creator of the People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project, a response to the invisibility of people of color in the media representation of mental illness. She is a volunteer crisis counselor for CrisisTextLine and a co-facilitator for NAMI NYC Metro's Young Adult Support Group. Dior is the recipient of numerous awards including The White House Champion of Change for Disability Advocacy Across Generations. Media includes: NBC News, Huffington Post, Newsweek, MTV, Buzzfeed.