Los Angeles

Kate Caldwell (she/they) is Director of Research & Policy at the Center for Racial & Disability Justice (CRDJ) at UCLA School of Law. A Disability Studies scholar and interdisciplinary researcher, she works to shift how knowledge, data, resources, and power move between communities and the institutions that shape their lives. Her work connects community knowledge with research and policy to challenge racialized ableism and advance justice. At CRDJ, she helps build community-engaged strategies and tools designed not simply to inform institutions, but to change how they value, resource, and act on community-led solutions. Read more.

Grace Huerta is co-founder of the Exceptional Family Center in Kern County, Vice President of The Arc of California Board of Directors, and Chair of El Arc de California. A graduate of the USC School of Education and mother of two adult children with developmental disabilities, Grace has dedicated her life to advocacy, family support, and systems change. Through El Arc de California, she works to strengthen the voice and leadership of Latino individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, promote equitable access to services, and equip communities with the knowledge and tools to advocate for meaningful change. Read more.

Sarita A. Mohanty, MD, MPH, MBA, is President and CEO of The SCAN Foundation (TSF), where she leads one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations dedicated to improving health, independence, and quality of life for older adults. Under her leadership, TSF advances equitable aging through grantmaking, partnerships, and mission-aligned investments focused on helping older adults age safely and with dignity in their communities. Previously, Dr. Mohanty held leadership roles at Kaiser Permanente, COPE Health Solutions, and L.A. Care Health Plan. A practicing internal medicine physician, she is nationally recognized for her work in aging, health equity, and care for vulnerable populations. Read more.

Sade Musa (she / they) is a community herbalist, liberation acupuncturist, and health justice organizer. She is the founder of ROOTS OF RESISTANCE, a project that reconnects people with their ancestral healing practices, disrupts narratives invisibilizing Afro-diasporic medicine ways, and addresses health inequity thru the provision of accessible wellness education and services. She serves as the Executive Director of Los Angeles Spoonie Collective (LASC), a grassroots organization working toward a world where Disabled 2SLGBTQIA+ people can fully, safely, and meaningfully access community and collective care. Since 2016, LASC has advanced this vision through art fellowship, community-led programming, leadership development, and mutual aid care webs throughout Greater Los Angeles and beyond. Read more.

Commissioner Héctor Manuel Ramírez (they/them/el) is a California public policy professional, disability rights advocate, and SEIU 721 labor leader. They serve on the California Commission on Disability Access and the LA County Commission on Disabilities. Grounded in their lived experiences as an Autistic, hard-of-hearing individual and Apache/Mexican heritage, Héctor champions communication access and language justice. They work at 211 LA, notably serving as a 2025 LA wildfire front-line responder and negotiating a historic 2026 union contract. Héctor advises multiple state health committees, including DHCS and CDPH, and holds emeritus board roles with the National Disability Rights Network. Read more.

Keely Cat-Wells is the Founder and CEO of Making Space, a talent and learning platform closing the disability employment gap. Making Space supports more than 50,000 Disabled professionals and partners with employers including Microsoft, Salesforce, Netflix and Coca-Cola to transform how organizations hire, retain, and advance Disabled talent. Its flagship Ascend Fellowship has generated more than $220 million in projected lifetime economic impact with a 75% job placement rate. Before Making Space, Keely founded C Talent, a talent agency representing Disabled artists that grew a roster reaching more than 50 million and was acquired in 2022 in the largest acquisition of a company specializing in Disabled talent. She co-produced the documentary Fight to Fly with Hello Sunshine, which triggered policy reform on accessibility in air travel. Keely is a 2026 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a 2025-2026 Obama Leader, the youngest-ever Presidential Leadership Scholar, and an inaugural Gloria Steinem Fellow. Read more.

Shaomei Wu is a person who stutters and the founder and CEO of AImpower.org, a tech nonprofit that researches and co-creates empowering technologies for, with, and by marginalized communities. As a technologist, researcher, and disability advocate, she brings together lived experience, technical expertise, and community knowledge to advance more accessible, equitable, and empowering AI systems, with a particular focus on disability-affirming speech and communication technologies. Shaomei regularly organizes and speaks at technical and community conventions to advocate for disfluency-friendly speech and communication technologies, and advises stuttering community organizations on technical issues and strategies. Read more.