Avery Roberts resides in New City, New York, and is a dancer. She was the first wheelchair user to perform on the great stage of the world-renowned Radio City Music Hall in New York City. She was also among the first few wheelchair users to feature in a nationally televised live production, where she appeared as a dancer. 

Known as “The Everyday Inclusionist,” Beth Ruffin is a respected DEIB expert, author, podcast host, and TEDx speaker who helps women discover doable, “everyday” steps that add up to realizing potential and belonging at their organizations and within themselves. With 45,000+ views, her TED talk on Self Inclusion has taught a global audience how to flip the script by taking back your own belonging. She shares her insights as the host of the “You Belong Here with Beth Ruffin” podcast and in her two books, Get Up and You Belong Here. 

Diego Mariscal is Disabled and Proud! A trailblazer at the intersection of disability advocacy and entrepreneurship, Diego is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Disabled Officer of 2Gether-International, a 501c3 nonprofit and the leading startup accelerator run by and for disabled entrepreneurs. He has dedicated his career to creating a sustainable impact through business ventures led by and for Disabled Founders and currently serves on the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, among many other boards.

Jay Manuel is a music producer and content creator based in Georgia. Despite facing challenges such as being hard of hearing and living with a rare brittle bone condition known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 3, as well as Autism, Jay has dedicated his career to breaking barriers and representing young professionals with disabilities in the music industry.

As a full-time content creator, Jay produces engaging content that showcases his unique perspective and personality. He has collaborated with top companies like Coca-Cola and Snapchat and has produced songs for both independent and label artists such as Yung Bleu, Fred the Godson, Boldy James, DJ Luke Nasty, and many others. Jay is a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Recording Academy and mentors up-and-coming music producers while continuing to create content that positively impacts his community.

Jessie Weber enjoys helping clients navigate a diverse range of difficult legal issues, with a focus on civil rights, including disability and LGBTQ rights, employment law, including wage and hour cases, and appellate litigation. Jessie’s successes include obtaining a $1.25 million settlement for a class of Baltimore City school bus drivers and attendants wrongly denied their full pay, securing an injunction requiring the Maryland Board of Elections to make absentee voting accessible to voters with print disabilities, and winning an arbitration award of more than $250,000 on behalf of an African-American former Hooters server who was fired from her job because of Hooters’ racially discriminatory image policy.

Keisha Greaves is a motivational speaker, adaptive fashion designer, and a disability advocate.  She is the Founder & CEO of the brand, Girls Chronically Rock; Founder of GCR Adaptive Solutions; Founder of Trust Your Abilities Nonprofit for People of Color; and a Board Member of the Disability Law Center.

Keisha has personally worked alongside Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and successfully got September 30th officially proclaimed as Limb- Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Day. Furthermore, she also received theproclamation from previous Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern and current Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui. Keisha earned her BA in Fashion Designand Merchandising from Framingham State University and an MBA from Cambridge College.

Kelly Berger resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a 2024 RareVoice Awardee. She has her own adapted mobility van that she drives independently with a joystick and computer system. Kelly is an avid traveler—she’s ventured to over 40 states and counting. She says that her love of driving and exploring fuels her desire to get others out on the road and feel that same “freeing sense of accomplishment.”

As Co-Executive Producer of Donkey Hodie, Kristin DiQuollo provides leadership and creative vision to Fred Rogers Productions' and Spiffy Pictures' puppet series for preschoolers. which is inspired by characters from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  Prior to joining the company, she led production of broadcast and digital content for the PBS Kids series, Cyberchase as executive producer and story editor of WNET New York, helping to spearhead its expansion on digital platforms, including strategies for accessibility, as well as its evolution as a series focusing on math and environmental themes for 6-8-year-olds A nominee for multiple Daytime Emmy awards, and a winner for Cousin Hodie Playdate, Kristin was honored with Parents' Choice and Kidscreen awards and oversaw Cyberchase's national family and educator engagement efforts, broadening the series' reach to new public media audiences.

Blind, Not Broken author, Lucy Edwards, is a UK based, RTS award-winning presenter, journalist, content creator, speaker, entrepreneur and disability activist. 

After losing her sight at 17 due to Incontinentia Pigmenti, Lucy committed to sharing her experiences and raising awareness about disability. 

Her engaging personality and open commentary have garnered her a social media following of over 2.8 million, with her content being viewed over one billion times. 

Lucy's influence makes her a leading voice in the global diversity, equity, and inclusion space.

Nicole Homerin, M.Ed. (she/her) is the Director of CVI Education in The CVI Center at Perkins School for the Blind. She is excited to return to Perkins, where she began her career as a Teaching Assistant in the Deafblind Program. Nicole formerly served as a special education teacher for students with a variety of disabilities, including CVI, in both Boston and Los Angeles. Most recently, she served as the Inclusion Communities Manager at Partners for Youth with Disabilities. In this role, she oversaw the Dinah F.B. Cohen NDMC DREAM Fellowship, a national fellowship for college students and recent graduates with disabilities. She also wrote curriculum and provided trainings to mentoring organizations, non-profits, schools, communities, and corporations on disability inclusion, accessibility, and a variety of other disability-related topics.

For over 30 years, Paul Grossman served as the Chief Regional Attorney for the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in San Francisco. In Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, Paul has worked on every type of education discrimination matter under Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, and the ADA, including securing equal access and academic accommodations for students with disabilities in higher education. For nearly 20 years, Paul also had lead responsibility for internal disability law training for OCR and continues to provide training services for OCR.

Salyne El Samarany is the Vice President of the Global Center for Inclusion in Education at Special Olympics International, where she works with a global team to lead initiatives to promote inclusive education and social inclusion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). She advocates for leveraging technology, including AI, to improve learning experiences for students with disabilities and professional development for teachers.

Saran Tugsjargal is a student with ASD, SLD, ADHD starting her freshman year at Rice University. She is an advocate for equitable education with a goal is to prove that disabilities don't hinder leadership. Collaborating with ACLC's special education department, she amplifies disabled student experiences. Initiating the Mongolian American Disability Mentorship program in Summer 2023, she mentored over 50+ families. In October 2023, she became one of California's first student commissioners with disabilities, representing over 800,000 students. Speaking at conferences like Breaking Barriers and CarsPlus, she's influenced over 400+ educators. Notably, she championed bill AB2173, changing "emotional disturbance" to "emotional disability." Recognized with awards like the Rotary Youth Leadership Award and the Ronald Reagan Leadership Medal, she's celebrated for her exceptional leadership and advocacy.