About Us

Mercy (she/her) is a college student who lives in Massachusetts. She fights for disability justice through an intersectional lens, displaying her knowledge of different types and levels of discrimination. Mercy has published in Forbes, discussing the power of mentoring. She immigrated from Ghana to Massachusetts in 2012 and was diagnosed with severe bilateral hearing loss in 2013. Mercy wants to work in the education leadership and policy fields and build schools that serve disabled students in the United States, Ghana, and other nations.

Victoria Copeland (she/her/they) is a Black and Ilocano disabled scholar and social worker. She currently works as a Research Fellow at the Center on Resilience and Digital Justice (CRDJ) and serves as a community mentor for Survivors+Allies, an organization she helped co-found in 2020. Her work interrogates how social institutions use data and technology for decision-making processes, specifically as it pertains to interpersonal violence, and how community members are impacted by it. Influenced by Black Feminist Epistemology and Sins Invalid’s Disability Justice Principles, her work aims to contribute to a more equitable and just world for those most impacted by organized abandonment. Prior to working at CRDJ Victoria was a Senior Policy Analyst Upturn, and received her Ph.D in 2022 from UCLA.

Marissa (she/her) is a multiply-disabled activist and attorney. She serves full-time as the Disabilities Community Project Staff Attorney at Tzedek DC, a non-profit dedicated to safeguarding the legal rights and financial health of DC residents with low incomes dealing with debt and consumer issues. She is also a disability rights adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law and the volunteer executive director of Crip the Law. 

Prior to her time at Tzedek DC, she served as the Disability Economic Justice Counsel at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she worked to advance policies that promoted the economic health of disabled women, particularly disabled women of color. Marissa also served as a litigation fellow at the AARP Foundation, where she assisted with legal research on cases involving age discrimination, reverse mortgages, nursing facilities, elder abuse, and other issues facing Americans ages fifty and older.

Marissa graduated magna cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law in 2019 and magna cum laude from Brandeis University in 2016. 

Paul (he/him) is a lifelong member of the disability community and has spent much of his career writing and teaching about how laws and policies shape the experiences of disabled people, as well as advocating for improvements to those laws and policies. Paul is an unshakable mentor to nontraditional students in higher education. He has won multiple awards, which only begin to scratch the surface of the support he offers students. Paul is also a renowned scholar in the Library and Information Sciences field, bringing Critical Disability Studies and Accessibility to the forefront of conversations around information justice.

Murphy King (they/he) is a trans, Autistic, chronically ill wheelchair user and current student at Linacre College, Oxford, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. They hold a B.A. in the History of Science and Women and Gender Studies from Harvard College. Murphy specializes in statutory disability and transnational eugenics history. They sit on the Accessibility Board of TransUpFront and have upcoming publications in Latinx Studies, Disability Studies, and Gender Studies. Murphy has previously worked in public health, the U.S. House of Representatives, and in federal medicaid defense. They live in Chicago with their two cats, Duck and Goose.

AJ Link (he/him) is openly autistic. He earned his JD from The George Washington University Law School and his LL.M in Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. 

He was the inaugural director of The Center for Air and Space Law Task Force on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Aerospace and is an adjunct professor of space law at Howard University School of Law. AJ serves as a research director for the Jus Ad Astra project and the Space Law and Policy Chair for Black in Astro. AJ is the human rights and policy lead for the Palestine Space Institute, which he helped cofound. He is the founding president of the National Disabled Law Students Association and the National Disabled Legal Professionals Association. He currently serves as the president of the board of Crip The Law. AJ was previously a fellow at For All Moonkind’s Ethics Institute, served as the Accessibility Team Lead for AstroAccess, and worked as a policy analyst for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. 

AJ currently works as the director of policy for New Disabled South and New Disabled South Rising. He sits on the JustSpace Alliance board of directors where he previously served as chairperson and vice chair of the board. AJ previously served as the steward of The Potter’s House DC, a nonprofit bookstore and café, and as a commissioner on the American Bar Association Commission on Disability Rights. He is the 2020 recipient of the Michael Dillon Cooley Memorial Award, a 2020 inductee of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, and the first ever winner of the Above Space Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award. 

AJ continues to be actively involved in local, national, and international social justice movements and serves on several advisory boards and steering committees that focus on building a better future.

Madison (she/they) is a chronically ill creator, advocate, and writer. She is currently in college studying public health and disability studies, and has a background in journalism. They have self-published written and video content mainly focused on disability rights issues and policy, interviewing multiple lawmakers, researchers, as well as founders of and professionals from a plethora of disability-focused organizations. In her personal life, Madison has experience working as a caregiver and patient advocate to several family members and friends, which has greatly shaped their passion for disability rights, as have her own experiences as a disabled individual. Experiencing the systemic issues in disabled healthcare herself influenced her passion to work on changing these inequities. 

Margaret (she/they) is currently a Master's student in Disability Studies at City University of New York, School of Professional Studies, and has plans to pursue a PhD. As a queer and multiracial disabled person with a background in neuroscience research, they are passionate about disability justice and aim to execute research in the disability space that is inclusive of varying identities and experiences. Having worked for the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Margaret has gained experience in disability advocacy specifically as it relates to creating informational material and fostering community building. They are interested in teaching, and are currently exploring what the process of education may look like outside of a Western and colonial academic setting. Beyond her academic and professional careers, Margaret also enjoys creative activities such as drawing, beading, and writing, and incorporates these practices into her daily life. 

Photo Credit: Jeevan Portraits 

Angelica Vega (she/her) recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice with a Master of Science in Social Policy. She was a Jay Goldman Scholar and is originally from Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of disability rights, health equity, and public policy.

Angelica earned her bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, with a minor in Public Health, from American University, graduating with departmental and Latin honors. Prior to graduate school, she worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a Data Management Associate. She is an incoming law student at George Washington University Law School and is a GW Public Interest and Public Service (PIPS) Scholar.

Angelica is a dedicated disability advocate with experience across policy, law, research, and user-centered design. In 2022, she served as a Law Fellow at the Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation at Loyola Law School. Earlier in her career, she was selected as a Lime Connect Fellow.

Her experience also includes internships with Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) on Capitol Hill and EMILY’s List, service on the Advisory Council of CommunicationFIRST, and meeting with the White House Gender Policy Council and the White House Office of Public Engagement to discuss reproductive healthcare access within the disability community. She served as a Policy Intern at Penn’s Center for Public Health and as a Research Assistant at SAFELab, where she contributed as a UX tester for JoyNet.

Outside of her academic and professional pursuits, she enjoys playing board games, watching the latest films, and trying new restaurants with friends and family.

Photo Credit: Jeevan Portraits