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Tune in to episode 17 of the Disability Inclusion: Required podcast.
On Work, and Cross-Movement Organizing: A Conversation with Nikki Brown-Booker and Yolanda Vargas
In this episode of Disability Inclusion: Required, host Justice Shorter welcomes Nikki Brown-Booker and Yolanda Vargas.
This is our first episode with our new host, Justice Shorter, who joined us a guest for our episode on disability pride. Welcome, Justice!
This National Disability Employment Awareness Month, explore what it means to work while disabled in 2024, including the importance of understanding disabled people as both care recipients and employers, the need for collective bargaining and cross-movement organizing between disability rights and worker rights groups, and strategies for cultivating inclusive and equitable workplaces for disabled employees.
Our podcast theme music is by Andre Louis and Precious Perez. Thank you to Recording Artists And Music Professionals With Disabilities (RAMPD) for connecting these talented disabled musicians with the Disability & Philanthropy Forum.
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Featured Guests
Nikki Brown-Booker
Nikki Brown-Booker is the Program Officer for the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy. As a person with a disability and a biracial woman, she has devoted her work to advancing rights at the intersection of disability justice and racial justice. The daughter of a domestic worker who immigrated from the Philippines, Nikki was taught from a young age that justice is a human right. She has a master’s in clinical psychology, and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Nikki continues to organize with Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network.
Yolanda Vargas
Yolanda Vargas is a Queer fat multiply Disabled Latina woman. She has spent the last 12 years of her life trying to make the world suck a little less for her fellow marginalized people. She serves on multiple boards and committees, including those of the WITH (Working for Inclusive Transformative Healthcare) Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy’s Disability Inclusion Fund. She serves as a proxy co-lead for the Disability & Philanthropy Forum’s advisory committee. She’s also putting her degree in communications to use as the head of the Institute for Exceptional Care’s (IEC) communications work group. Most of her free time is spent hanging out with her toothless cat, Gummy Bear, and playing cozy video games while simultaneously listening to Dungeons and Dragons actual play podcasts.