Join us for this year’s virtual gala, featuring a night of panels, celebration, and community. This year’s theme is Grow With Us — in recognition of our growth and a tribute to the power of our grassroots to fight for the rights of our community.
The gala will be held on Wednesday, October 30th and we’ll be celebrating our community with our award ceremony recognizing the incredible work of community members, exciting panels, and a speech from ASAN’s incoming Executive Director Colin Killick!
This will be our fifth virtual gala, and we’re so excited that having it online means more people can join in — we hope you’ll be among them! Everyone’s welcome. We’re thrilled to share the gala with disability community members and allies from across the country and around the world, who usually wouldn’t be able to attend in-person. We ask that our gala attendees donate if they are able to do so, but donations are never required to attend.
Be sure to RSVP on Facebook to stay in the loop.
Everyone’s welcome. Let’s celebrate self-advocacy for all and keep working to make our community better for all of us.
For more information about gala sponsorship opportunities, contact Alex Grandstaff at agrandstaff@autisticadvocacy.org.
Schedule
Download the program with speaker bios, full schedule, and more here.
Panels
Sowing Safety: Cultivating Protections and Weeding Out Harmful Policies During the Ongoing Pandemic – 3:00 to 4:45 PM ET
As mask bans have continued popping up and pandemic protections are lifted, many disabled people are disproportionately impacted, facing heightened risks in a society increasingly eager to move on from the pandemic. We know that COVID-19 is still an issue. We’ll be joined by experts discussing how to navigate the continual erosion of pandemic protections, the harm caused by mask bans, and what we can do to support and keep each other safer.
Digging Deeper: Autism and Mental Health – 5:15 to 7:00 PM ET
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have mental health disabilities too, but it’s harder to get the right care. This is because mental health services and IDD services are kept separate, creating gaps in support. Most of the time, people with IDD can only get either mental health care or IDD supports—not both. “Behavior support services” tend to focus on controlling or changing behavior and don’t meet people’s needs. This can contribute to trauma and mental health burden for many people with IDD. In this panel, we will talk about how the current systems are failing people with both IDD and mental health disabilities, and what changes we want to see.
Award Ceremony
7:30 PM ET
At this year’s Awards Ceremony, we will be honoring several awardees for their tireless work in advocacy, community building, and so much more. We’ll also hear remarks from ASAN’s incoming Executive Director Colin Killick!
Giveaway
We’ll also be raffling off two year-long ASAN memberships at the Trivia Teammates tier, which includes a membership welcome pack, a member-exclusive newsletter, digital phone and computer wallpapers, an ASAN logo sticker, an ASAN mug, a $5 gift card to the ASAN shop, a physical copy of one of ASAN’s books (Knowing Why, Navigating College, Empowering Leadership, Welcome to the Autistic Community, or Loud Hands), an ASAN pen, an ASAN lapel pin, an ASAN tangle, and a T-shirt!
Awardees
Nothing About Us Without Us Award: CommunicationFIRST
Launched five years ago this month, CommunicationFIRST is the only disability-led nonprofit dedicated to protecting the rights and advancing the interests of the estimated 5 million children and adults in the United States who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood due to disability or other condition and regardless of cause or age of onset. CommunicationFIRST is a cross-disability, cross-generational, multi-racial, and multicultural disability-led civil rights organization. They promote societal and systemic change through public engagement, policy and practice reform, and legal advocacy.
Members of our community are regularly denied access to effective communication; wrongfully assessed and stigmatized for life; deprived of an inclusive, appropriate education; segregated and institutionalized; isolated and excluded from everyday life, including the ever-more-important digital world; subjected to inferior health care; abused and victimized; and far worse. Research and lived experience suggest that Black, brown, multilingual, and other multiply-marginalized individuals are both more likely to need augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) at some point in life and to experience harsh and compounding forms of societal oppression and discrimination as a result. The unwarranted assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination we still experience often stem from the outdated and hard-wired policies and practices of federal, state, and local governmental entities. It is still the norm for countless numbers of our constituents to be ostracized and perceived and treated as less than: As having less intellect, less to say, and no need or right to do so – all, ironically, because others cannot understand them.
CommunicationFIRST is transforming the national conversation about the rights and lived experiences of people who need and use expressive communication tools and supports. They are ensuring conversations at the federal and state levels around policy issues that impact people who cannot rely on speech alone (e.g., communication access in public and private entities (including education, health care, and the court system), guardianship, restraint and seclusion, institutionalization, and more) include their voices and address their interests. They are ambitious and unrelenting disabled advocates who believe in radical inclusion and acceptance. They are fighting to change hearts and minds, and to build a world that centers justice, community, dignity, and humanity.
Creating Community Together Award: Long COVID Justice
Long COVID Justice leads collective efforts to confront the Long COVID crisis, centering racial, social, economic and disability justice. Their work is done by and for chronically ill and disabled people, our families and communities.
They are network-builders, communicators and mobilizers. Our areas of focus include: strategic communications and narrative change, local and federal advocacy around Long COVID and associated conditions (LCAC), resourcing BIPOC leaders through fellowships, and creating accessible resources for health education and movement building.Long COVID Justice is a project of Strategies for High Impact (S4HI), and we are fiscally sponsored by Allied Media Projects.
Creating Community Together Award: Pauline Bosma, Founder and Coordinator of Rainbow Groups of Massachusetts Advocates Standing Strong
MASS is an agency that helps to empower self-advocates through education so people with intellectual and developmental disabilities can make choices that improve and enrich their lives. Pauline is building a living legacy by working with her passion to create a better world for others.
Pauline is the founder and coordinator of the Rainbow Groups of Massachusetts Advocates Standing Strong (MASS), a network of support groups that started in October of 2004 for LGBTQ+ adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She continually finds new ways to grow the network by supporting people across the state as well as nationally and on occasion, internationally. Pauline also delivers sexuality training and teaches staff and agencies about supporting people with I/DD who identify as LGBTQ+. Pauline loves helping her peers and others to learn about and celebrate gender and sexual diversity. When she assists in starting new local Rainbow Groups, she emphasizes human rights: th e need for people to learn their rights, especially their rights to liberty and freedom of choice. Pauline gets the “big picture” and she patiently works to see her many ideas come to fruition. She is not afraid to take risks and is confident in achieving her desired outcomes.
Pauline is a passionate and dedicated leader on the Central Region Awareness and Action (A&A) training team where she assisted in creating a nationally recognized training, which teaches people with I/DD how to recognize, report and respond to abuse. Pauline’s training abilities are extraordinary! She also mentors her teammates on training techniques. She has a “can do” attitude, and she continually comes up with new ideas and ways to make things happen. She is also working on the MASS Rights for Change project, through the Office of Violence Against Women, to help end sexual violence for people with I/DD, by increasing support for survivors of sexual violence. Pauline has experienced the pain of being excluded, and she makes it her life’s work to bring everyone together in an atmosphere of acceptance.
Whether through her work with the LGBTQ+ community, abuse prevention, or in her everyday life, Pauline’s life is about creating an environment where all our voices can be heard and supported in a safe place. She can instantly put people at ease, with her intuitive understanding of others and her down-to-earth style of communication and sense of humor. Pauline is committed to equity, opportunity, and inclusion for all. She is well-known and highly respected by her peers and other professionals, and she has changed the lives of many people who have reached out to her to share their stories. You could not find a more worthy candidate for this award.
Mel Baggs Down In The Valley Award: L. “Dax” Daxer
Dax lives in southwest Ohio, USA. They graduated from Wright State University and work as a volunteer for their local library. When they’re not wrangling large stacks of books back onto shelves, they enjoy raising foster kittens, playing tabletop RPGs, and reading about science. They have been doing research and writing for the Disability Day of Mourning website since 2014.
Loud Hands Award for Autistic Storytellers: Ashley Storrie
Ashley Storrie is a multi BAFTA award nominee, comedian, writer and actress from Glasgow. Ashley most recently co-created and co-wrote Dinosaur, which she also stars in, produced by Fleabag producers Two Brothers Pictures, released on Hulu in the US and BBC1/iPlayer in the UK in 2024. The show was nominated for 4 Scottish BAFTAs including two nominations for Ashley in the categories of Actress (Television) and Writer (Film/Television).
Harriet McBryde Johnson Award for Nonfiction: Katherine Gilyard
When Katherine Gilyard first arrived at Howard University, her plan and dream were simple: pursue her love for science, major in biology, go to medical school, work in medicine like the three generations of women before her, and become a resource for her community. However, after experiencing sexual assault in her freshman year, navigating the criminal justice, mental health, and medical systems as she awaited her offender’s trial, and receiving an autism diagnosis, her dream evolved. Her community now included survivors of assault, people with disabilities, and those who had been left out of important conversations. Her plan shifted to reflect this change.
For over 10 years, Katherine’s work has focused on deeply exploring the intersections of equity, power, systems, and culture, centering the stories of disabled and marginalized communities, and making health and wellness information accessible to all. She currently does this work as a multimedia health equity reporter, victims’ counselor, and disability and accessibility advocate, always looking for new ways to learn and progress in her mission.
Ally to the Autistic Community 2024 Award: Shannon Des Roches Rosa
Shannon Rosa is senior editor of Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, an autism information and advocacy nexus. Her writing can be found in The Washington Post and the anthology Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, among other places. She lives near San Francisco, California, with her husband and adult autistic son.
Panelists
Sowing Safety: Cultivating Protections and Weeding Out Harmful Policies During the Ongoing Pandemic
Eiryn Griest Schwartzman, CHES
Eiryn is the founding Executive Director of COVID Safe Campus and serves as the organization’s lead public health organizer. In this role they use their expertise in health and education policy to lead advocacy and research initiatives focused on COVID-19 policies and their impact, especially during the manufactured “ending” to the ongoing pandemic. A core component of their work at COVID Safe Campus centers around supporting and resourcing disabled student-led advocacy and mutual aid efforts including mask distribution.
Eiryn is a second year MPH student studying Population and Health Sciences at University of Michigan in the Applied Epidemiology Certificate track. Prior to graduate school they earned a B.A. in Public Health from University of Maryland Baltimore County. Eiryn also holds the credential of Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). They specialize in health and education policy, developing and evaluating health programs, ethical analysis, and building solidarity with disability justice in public health practice.
Eiryn is a researcher primarily focused on social and legal epidemiology, studying the relationships between laws/institutional policies, disability accessibility, and population health and serves as the Lead Investigator of the CSC Research Lab. Outside of work, they are a photographer and birdwatching enthusiast.
Emi Kane
Emi Kane is a disabled and chronically ill educator, researcher, and organizer. She spent many years working for a large university and a small foundation on health and migration, reparations and redistributive justice, and how people think and learn. She is also a former National Collective member for INCITE, a feminist of color anti-violence network, a co-founder of Survived and Punished, and a proud member of the Allied Media Projects board of directors. She loves to talk about ideas, share meals with friends, and keep her hands in multiple projects at all times. Above all, she thinks that relationships of trust are the most important political tools we have, and tries to live and work in ways that reflect that belief.
Ngozi Alston
Ngozi (they/she) is a Black mad hottie, with an organizing approach grounded in disability justice and Black autonomy. A crip and death doula guided by theorizing from their lived experiences, Ngozi coined the term “neuroexpansive” and continues to build capacity and care for Black madness in their community. Previously focused on building organizing collectives with survivors and abolitionists, they were a core organizer of the No New Jails NYC campaign and continue to hold the line against fascism, eugenics, and COVID denialism.
Digging Deeper: Autism and Mental Health
Héctor Manuel Ramírez
Héctor Manuel Ramírez (they/them) is a member of the Inter-Tribal Disability Advocacy Council (IDAC), established in 2023 by the Native American Disability Law Center (NADLC) and Borealis Philanthropy, they amplify Indigenous American voices with disabilities. Héctor is of Apache & Mexican descent, Two-Spirit, Autistic, DV & psychiatric survivor, hard of hearing, & Long COVID. Héctor resides in Tongva (Los Angeles, California)-unceded ancestral lands of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Héctor serves on the California Commission on Disability Access & Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities and is an emeritus board member with the National Disability Rights Network and Disability Rights California.
James Baptiste
James Baptiste recently joined the NADSP team in April of 2024. He describes himself as living on the spectrum of human existence. He is passionate about his pets, plants, and the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
After living in Queens for most of his life, James moved to the Hudson Valley in 2015 to pursue college. At SUNY New Paltz, he earned his BA, majoring in Sociology with a concentration in Human Services while minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in 2019. James recently obtained his MPS, majoring in Social Justice Education in 2023. He is excited to be a part of the process of professionalizing the direct support professional workforce. He first became interested in the subject after his professor brought attention to the importance of nail techs and barbers having certifications, but not those supporting people fulfill complex and intimate daily living tasks. This has lingered in his mind since 2016, and he is eager to be a part of NADSP to accomplish this goal.
Prior to NADSP, James has worked with children and families, teens, the LGBTQ+ community, and in the field of mental health. His diverse human service experience roles have taught him the value of meeting people where they are at and supporting them to achieve their goals. He finds himself feeling most fulfilled when he sees those around him thriving on their own terms. One success story he recalls, is when a person he was working with advocated for themselves when they received a meal they did not like at a diner. James had been working with this person to set healthy boundaries, assert themselves, and empower them to use their voice.
With an unwavering commitment to sparking joy and empowering others, James is dedicated to breaking down barriers and fostering a more inclusive and equitable world for all.
Dr. Jenny Phan
Dr. Jenny Phan is a developmental scientist, autistic self-advocate and advocate, and researcher. Her work focuses on the intersections of stress, puberty, mental health, and autism. As a Research Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Community Engagement at George Mason University’s Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation (CASBBI), she works toward identifying how current systems fail individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and mental health disabilities. Dr. Phan is dedicated to advancing inclusive practices and policies that address systemic inequities, aiming to promote person-centered care for neurodivergent and IDD populations.
Karyn Harvey
Karyn Harvey has worked as a clinician in the field of intellectual disabilities for over 35 years. She has her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland. She has written three books: Positive Identity Development, Trauma –Informed Behavioral Interventions and Trauma and Healing, as well as several chapters in various publications and a variety of articles. She currently has a private practice and does therapy with people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, she regularly conducts trainings on trauma-informed support for people with IDD, trauma-informed leadership, and trauma-informed behavioral interventions for both state and individual organizations throughout the US and Canada. She has trained numerous trainers throughout the United States and Canada in conducting trauma informed supports training. In the last several years she has received awards for her clinical service from NADD, START and AAIDD.
Nancy Thaler
Mrs. Thaler, a consultant to federal and state government agencies on Medicaid and disability, served twice as the Deputy Secretary for Pennsylvania’s Office of Developmental Programs, most recently from 2015 – 2018. She currently serves as Senior Policy Advisor to the Dept. of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living.
Ms. Thaler began her career in 1971 working in Pennsylvania provider agencies developing community services for children and adults with developmental disabilities as a direct care worker, a houseparent and in a range of supervisory positions. Ms. Thaler joined Penna. state government in 1987 and served until 2003-2006 when she was appointed then Director of Quality Improvement for the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Ms. Thaler served as the Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS 2007-2015) keeping leaders states informed about federal policy and service innovation and representing states’ issues to federal agencies.
Ms. Thaler has a BA an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoria Causa from College Misericordia and a Master of Human Organization Science/Public Administration from Villanova University.
Mrs. Thaler is the recipient of numerous awards including the Administrator’s Citation Award from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services and Outstanding Ally Award from The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN).
Perri Spencer
Perri is a mentally ill autistic self advocate and AAC user. He is an autiegender transmasculine person who’s sexuality and gender identity are informed by his experience of autism. He is on the LINK center steering committee committee. The LINK center is working to improve supports for people with I/DD and mental illness. Perri is also a support worker helping autistic people with intellectual and speech disabilities. He is passionate about home and community based services and other supports that help disabled people live in the community.