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Meet the Disability & Philanthropy Forum Team

Our Team

Photo taken by Adrian O. Walker. Sandy Ho is sitting outside against a wall in a power wheelchair. She’s wearing a long sleeved white shirt, yellow pants, and brown shoes with a silver buckle. She has short dark wavy hair, and she is smiling at the camera.

Sandy Ho

Sandy Ho began as the Executive Director of the Disability & Philanthropy Forum in June 2024. She was most recently the program director of the Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) at Borealis Philanthropy. Prior to her role in philanthropy, Sandy was a disability policy researcher at the Community Living Policy Center at Brandeis University. She was a member of the inaugural 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leaders program, and a 2022 Disability Futures Fellow supported by Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

She is a co-partner of the Access is Love campaign that she leads with Alice Wong and Mia Mingus. In 2016 Sandy founded the Disability & Intersectionality Summit, a national biennial conference that is organized by disabled activists and highlights the lived-experiences of marginalized disabled people of color. Sandy was recognized by the White House in 2015 as a “Champion of Change.” She comes to disability community organizing and activism by way of youth mentoring for young women with disabilities. Sandy came to the DIF in 2021, and helmed a $4 Million annual grantmaking strategy for disabled-led organizations building power to dismantle ableism across the U.S. At the DIF she spearheaded Joy Grants, and the launch of the $1 Million DIFxTech Fund, further expanding pathways to inclusion and thriving disability futures. Sandy is a visionary whose commitment to disability communities and grassroots organizing centrally inform her values within and beyond philanthropy. Core to her values is the belief in disability justice, rights, and inclusion as powerful tools and ways of being that are essential to all social movements and civil sectors.

She earned her Master in Public Policy from The Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Sandy lives in Oakland, CA where she can be found birding, reading by Lake Merritt, and spending time with her communities.  

Photo of Gail taken outdoors. She is smiling into the camera and is wearing a red blazer with a black shirt and silver necklace. Her hair is in a short bob with bangs.

Gail Fuller

Gail Fuller (she/her) is the senior program and communications director for the Disability & Philanthropy Forum. Prior to her current role, she served as the communications strategist for the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. As a black woman with a non-apparent disability, Gail is committed to aligning her professional experience and personal commitment. She works to deliver on the Forum’s mission to mobilize philanthropy to dismantle ableism by increasing funding for disability inclusion, rights, and justice; amplifying the leadership of disabled people in the philanthropic sector; and educating philanthropy to build a culture of inclusion.

With more than 35 years of experience, Gail’s career has spanned several industries, including nonprofit, corporate, publishing, sports, and philanthropy. Her philanthropic career has included serving as vice president of marketing and communications for the San Francisco Foundation and director of communications for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. During her days in sports, she developed and spearheaded the Orlando Magic’s first corporate communications strategy. Early in her career, she served as a public relations consultant for AT&T.

Gail holds a Master of Business Administration from Nova University and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications from Wake Forest University. As a recipient of the Central Florida YMCA Black Achiever Award and the YMCA Greater New York-Harlem Branch’s Black Achievers in Industry Award, she is a two-time YMCA Black Achiever honoree recognized for her accomplishments in her field and community. Click here to read Gail’s story, “Black and Disabled: I Have Lived in the Shadows.”

A white woman with dark blonde hair flowing behind her, smiling, wearing a black shirt.

Sarah Napoli

Sarah Napoli (she/her) is the learning services director at the Disability and Philanthropy Forum. From 2019-2023, she acted as the lead disability inclusion project officer within the people and culture Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity team at Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she developed and facilitated disability inclusion learning and embedded proactive disability inclusive practices throughout the global network. In addition to OSF, she has over 20 years of experience teaching and conducting training on social justice and advocacy in higher education and nonprofits, most recently as the director for the inaugural Center for Inclusion at Manhattanville College and as the assistant head of Goodricke College at the University of York, England. She specializes in facilitating engaging workshops and designing curriculum that challenge and encourage participants to foster a culture of inclusion. 

She holds two MA degrees, one in social justice in intercultural relations from the SIT graduate institute and one in applied human rights from the University of York.. She identifies as a proud disabled person and enjoys chatting about Geek culture—all things fantasy and sci/fi and her former life as a hip hop researcher and dancer. Her research on how hip hop creates human rights identities was recently published in the University of Michigan press text, For the Culture: Hip Hop and the Fight for Social Justice. 

She has conducted workshops and training all over the USA and in the world, including Japan, Guatemala, throughout Europe, South Africa, and Canada. Click here to read Sarah’s story, “The Disabled Mindset: Embracing My Disability Identity.”

Olivia Williams, a young Black woman with low cut coily black hair, wearing a black turtleneck, silver hoop earrings, and red lipstick. She is smiling softly at the camera.

Olivia Williams

Olivia Williams (she/her) is the Senior Program and Communications Associate for the Disability & Philanthropy Forum. She is excited to insert the lenses of race, LGBTQIA+ identities, and socioeconomic status into the Forum’s mobilization toward disability inclusion, rights, and justice in the philanthropy sector.

Olivia’s background in philanthropy includes executing content creation and communications strategies for the Ewing M. Kauffman Foundation and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. During her time with the Kauffman Foundation, the op-ed that she wrote on local systemic racial inequity led to increased donations for small, Black-led organizations. She is a trained writing consultant and has provided freelance services to aspiring and published authors.

Olivia holds a Bachelor of Arts in African and African-American Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. There, she supported disabled students in a role with the Disability Resources Center and engaged in her own disability learning journey through seminar courses centering members of the local disabled community. Olivia is also a published writer of short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Her work has been featured in Periphery Art and Literary Journal, The Common Reader, elementia, and the Kansas City NPR show, Up To Date. Click here to listen to Olivia’s podcast episode, “Reflections on Ableism, Anti-Blackness, and Honoring Black Disabled Ancestors.”

Noor Al-Ahmadi, a woman wearing a yellow beanie and a sweater under blue overalls with long brown hair smiles at the camera in front of a solid yellow background.

Noor Al-Ahmadi

Noor Al-Ahmadi (she/her) is the Member Relations Manager for the Disability & Philanthropy forum. Before joining DPF, Noor was the Operations Coordinator for Programs at Youth Rise Texas, a non-profit in Austin, TX dedicated to uplifting the voices of youth impacted by parental removal through incarceration and deportation. As a disabled Palestinian American, Noor is unrelenting in her vision for a post-abolition world aligned with disability justice.

Noor’s belief in abolition led to co-founding “Lasting Empowerment for Teen Success”, a non-profit in Austin whose mission was to empower incarcerated youth by providing creative outlets, fostering self-worth, and building sustainable support systems in their community. The relationships she built through community organizing and art encouraged her to work with ATX Interfaces, a community initiative that nurtures and amplifies marginalized artists, as Accessibility Director.

Noor graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and a degree in Arabic & Journalism. Noor is a published poet and spends her time growing her relationships in Austin, Texas in order to fulfill her dream of creating inclusive arts and music spaces for folks with disabilities and other accessibility needs.

Razz is a Black woman with brown skin and long black marley twists pulled into a big bun on the top of her head. She's standing in front of a blue and white abstract painting of a tree wearing a black sweater with the word "kindness" stacked in red and pink.

Razz Sharpless

Razz Sharpless (she/her) is the Administrative Assistant for the Disability & Philanthropy forum. Razz’s career has spanned several industries, including criminal justice, violence prevention, higher education, outdoor recreation, and philanthropy. Her philanthropic career has included serving as Individual Philanthropy Coordinator at the Trevor Project and fundraising for Safe Alliance. She graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.