Laura Millar: Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellow for 2025
Laura Millar is a public health professional and community organizer. Her work uplifts the leadership, autonomy, and rights of blind and disabled people at the intersection of disability justice, sexual health, and reproductive freedom. She is the co-founder of the Blind Sexuality Access Network (BSAN), a grassroots organization expanding access to pleasure-centered, comprehensive, and culturally relevant sexual-health education for blind and disabled communities.
A queer, white, blind, neurodivergent woman living with chronic illness and mental health conditions—and a proud mom—Laura brings both lived experience and professional expertise to her work. She holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of Arts in Human Sexuality. She is a certified sex educator through San Francisco Sex Information (SFSI) and a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC). In 2024, she served as a national panelist for the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis (HESPA III), helping shape public health education standards with a focus on equity and access.
For over a decade, Laura has led workshops, keynotes, and community education centering blind and disabled people. Her teaching spans from introduction to sexuality classes for blind transitional-age youth to pleasure-centered and kink-affirming spaces for disabled adults. She facilitates trainings on ableism, consent, and disability-affirming education for parents and service providers. Millar has spoken at Women’s Marches, organized pan-disabled Pride contingents, and led advocacy focused on access, inclusion, and collective liberation.
Laura is committed to community-based participatory research and developing a sex-positive, disability justice-informed public health framework. Her impact on the social and professional environment is considerable and expanding: She holds leadership roles within the National Federation of the Blind at both the state and local level, where she advances disability-led organizing, fosters consent culture, and promotes policy rooted in public health and disability justice.
Laura’s work invites people to reimagine access not just as a legal requirement, but as an act of care, connection, and liberation.
