Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship Advisory Board
The Advisory Board meets to identify and nominate candidates for the Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship. The Advisory Board members also offers mentorship and guidance to the fellow during the fellowship term. The members of the Advisory Board for the third year of the fellowship are Robin Wilson-Beattie (the 2024 Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship recipient), Renee Bracey Sherman, Colleen Flanagan, Morénike Giwa-Onaiwu, Ayesha Elaine Lewis, and Heather Watkins.
Robin Wilson-Beattie is a captivating speaker, writer, educator, and passionate advocate for disability and sexuality. With her groundbreaking insights into the intersection of disability, sexuality, healthcare, design, and identity, she has revolutionized sexual-health education by challenging norms and empowering individuals to recognize and embrace their unique sexual expressions.
Find out more about Robin and the 2024 Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship: Accessing Reproductive Justice.
Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, PhD(c), MA (she/they) is a global advocate, educator, disabled person of color, non-binary woman, and parent of children with various disabilities in a neurodiverse, multicultural, twice-exceptional serodifferent family.
A prolific writer and social scientist/activist whose work focuses on intersectional justice, meaningful community involvement, human rights, and inclusion, Morénike, raised in the U.S. by immigrant parents and diagnosed with ADHD and autism in adulthood, is a recognized leader in various human rights endeavors. Morénike, a Humanities Scholar at Rice University, is also founder and principal operator of Advocacy Without Borders and holds leadership positions in various organizations, including Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Foundations for Divergent Minds, and Dove Orchids.
Heather Watkins is a disability activist, author, blogger, mother, graduate of Emerson College with a B.S. in Mass Communications. Born with Muscular Dystrophy, loves reading, daydreaming, chocolate, and serves on a handful of disability-related boards and projects including Disability Policy Consortium, advisory boards National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities, Open Door Arts. Heather is also a former chairperson of the Boston Disability Commission Advisory Board. Her publishing experience includes articles in MDA's Quest magazine, Mass Rehab Commission's Consumer Voice newsletter and has blogged for sites like: Our Ability, Art of Living Guide, Disabled Parenting, Grubstreet, Rooted In Rights, Women's Media Center, Medium, 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.
Colleen Flanagan is a longtime activist for disability rights and justice. As a disabled woman, she brings important lived experience to her position at the Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities as the Outreach & Engagement Specialist, leading community engagement initiatives to make sure Boston’s disability community can access all that the City of Boston has to offer. Colleen also manages the Commission's social media and other digital platforms. She is an expert in making digital content accessible to people with disabilities. At the Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities she creates content that tells the story of Boston's disability community and illustrates resources available to the people with disabilities and the general public.
Ayesha Elaine Lewis is a Senior Staff attorney and member of the Leadership Team at Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). After earning her JD from the New York University School of Law, she clerked for Justice Allison Eid at the Colorado Supreme Court and completed fellowships at the ACLU National Center for Liberty and the ACLU of Michigan. Her work to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities spans a variety of areas, including marriage equality, reproductive rights, the rights of parents with disabilities, and access to the legal system. In addition to litigation and policy advocacy, she provides technical legal assistance to legal services providers and conducts workshops and trainings regarding disability and disability-related topics. Ayesha loves rainy days, karaoke, and baking with seasonal produce.
Renee Bracey Sherman is a reproductive justice activist, abortion storyteller, and writer. She is the founder and executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who have abortions and share their stories at the intersection of race, class, and gender identity. She is also an executive producer of Ours to Tell, an award-winning documentary elevating the voices of people who’ve had abortions, co-host of The A Files: A Secret History of Abortion, a podcast from The Meteor, and the co-author of LIBERATING ABORTION: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve.
