2026 Advisory Board
Dr. Sami Schalk
Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Sami Schalk is an associate professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction (Duke 2018) and Black Disability Politics (Duke 2022). Sami identifies as a fat, Black, queer, disabled femme and a pleasure activist.
Heather Watkins
Disability rights advocate, author, mother, speaker, and consultant.
Heather Watkins is a disability rights advocate, author, mother, speaker, consultant, graduate of Emerson College with a B.S. in Mass Communications. Born with Muscular Dystrophy, she serves on several disability-related boards and projects. Her publishing experience includes articles for sites like: Femme Frugality, The Century Foundation, Disabled Parenting, 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.
Sarah Blahovec
Co-Founder and President of Disability Victory. Chronically ill and queer disability civic engagement expert.
Sarah Blahovec is a Northern Virginia-based disability advocate and civic engagement expert with experience in nonpartisan and progressive spaces. She is the Founder of Landmark Virtual Assistance, a company that provides accessible administrative and communications support to individuals, organizations, and businesses. As a subject matter expert in disability voting rights and accessibility of our elections, Sarah has worked with several organizations to create accessible resources to advance disability voting rights, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Center for Civic Design, and The Carter Center. Sarah is Co-Founder of Disability Victory, a 501(c)4 organization that launched in 2023 to build the political power of disabled progressives through training, networking, and leadership development. Previously, Sarah served as the Voting Rights and Civic Engagement Director at the National Council on Independent Living. Sarah’s work has also been published in TIME Magazine, Teen Vogue, Nonprofit Quarterly, Washington Post, and Huffington Post.
Sandy Ho
Program Director of the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy.
Sandy Ho is the program director of the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy. Prior to her role in philanthropy Sandy was a disability policy researcher, and comes to disability community organizing by way of mentoring for youth with disabilities. Sandy was a 2022 Disability Futures Fellow, and was most recently named a 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leader. In 2016 she founded the Disability & Intersectionality Summit. She received her MPP from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Sandy identifies as a disabled queer Asian American woman.
