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Disability Inclusion: Required – Episode 30 – Parenting While Disabled

Did you miss us? This episode of “Disability Inclusion: Required” centers on the experiences of disabled parents, featuring blind foster/adoptive parent and employment services director Melissa Lomax and autistic scholar-activist and adoptive parent Dr. Morénike Giwa Onaiwu.

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

Melissa Lomax

Melissa Lomax serves as the Director of Employment & Transition Services at Family Resource Network, a New Jersey–based nonprofit providing statewide employment, family support, advocacy, and case management services for youth and adults with disabilities. She leads the development and oversight of programs grounded in the belief that, with appropriate placement and supports, individuals with disabilities can achieve meaningful employment.

Throughout her tenure, Melissa has designed and managed initiatives that promote independence and competitive, integrated  employment for youth and adults across New Jersey and Maryland. Her professional advocacy extends beyond program administration through her service as a board member of the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey and as Government Affairs Co‑Chair for the New Jersey Association of People Supporting Employment First.

Melissa has also contributed to international disability dialogue, including collaboration with youth leaders in Syria on the development of the Silver Scorpion comic book, which features a superhero focused on global peace and disability representation rather than cure narratives. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, a Master’s degree in Public Administration, and a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, PhD is a Research Fellow in the Social Dynamics of Intervention (SoDI) Lab in the AJ Drexel Autism Institute at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, founder of Advocacy Without Borders (a grassroots nonprofit supporting community activism), and an award-winning transdisciplinary scholar-activist in global human rights. 

A prolific writer, self-advocate, and parent in a neurodiverse, multicultural family whose work focuses on intersectionality, meaningful community involvement, disability justice, neurodiversity, and inclusion, Morénike is a highly sought after keynote lecturer and public speaker who has presented at the White House, the United Nations, and numerous peer-reviewed international conferences. 

Morénike served on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the National Institutes of Health, the Federal advisory committee that advises the US Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues related to autism and coordinates all federal autism efforts in the US and currently serves on several additional global and national executive and advisory disability boards. Notable publications of Morénike’s include over a dozen monograph chapter contributions, digital scholarship, peer-reviewed articles and editorial work.