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Webinar – Disability and Long COVID

Click here for a transcript of this webinar

Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people experiencing Long COVID is on the rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Long COVID causes a range of health issues that can affect people for months or even years beyond the initial infection. As cases rise, so too does the global population of people with disabilities. For both people who are newly disabled due to Long COVID and people who were already disabled and are now experiencing Long COVID, the long-term impacts are not yet well understood. Many people are continuing to encounter barriers to accurate diagnoses and proper care.

Join Ana Oliveira, President and CEO of The New York Women’s Foundation, for an important conversation about the implications of Long COVID for the disability community. This webinar is presented as a partnership with The New York Women’s Foundation, signatory of the Disability Inclusion Pledge and member of the Presidents’ Council of the Disability & Philanthropy Forum.

About the Panelists

A headshot of Ana Oliveira smiling at the camera with arms folded, wearing a dark blazer and silver necklace.

Moderator: Ana Oliveira, President & CEO, New York Women’s Foundation

Ana L. Oliveira serves as President & CEO of the New York Women’s Foundation since her appointment in 2006. Under her leadership, the foundation has grown in several dimensions, establishing a new strategic plan, sponsoring landmark research reports, increasing visibility and public awareness of the foundation’s presence in NYC; and dramatically increasing the impact of the foundation, with a rise in grants since her arrival.

A headshot of Gabriel San Emeterio, a Mexican gender expansive person, smiling at the camera against a black background. They are wearing a dark blue button down and small hoop earrings.

Panelist: Gabriel San Emeterio, LMSW, Co-founder and Senior Fellow, Strategies for High Impact / Long COVID Justice

Gabriel San Emeterio, LMSW is co-founder and senior fellow at Strategies for High Impact and its Long COVID Justice project, where they serve as co-primary investigator of a pilot patient-led needs assessment and action plan on Long COVID in New York City. Their life experience as a queer, gender expansive Mexican immigrant living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), HIV, and now Long COVID fuels their passion for disability justice, liberatory community work and supporting students as part-time faculty at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.

Zoie Sheets, a young white woman with brown hair several inches below her shoulder smiles at the camera while wearing a cream button up blouse and orange blazer. She is surrounded by a blurred background of greenery and ferns.

Panelist: Dr. Zoie Sheets, Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Resident, University of Chicago

Dr. Zoie Sheets is a resident physician in both internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses at the intersection of disability and medicine, promoting access and inclusion for both disabled physicians and patients. Living with a disability herself, she has witnessed the harm perpetuated by ableism and believes that expanding the number of disabled doctors will improve outcomes for those with disabilities in need of medical care. She is an advisory board member of the #DocsWithDisabilities initiative and frequently provides disability justice education for medical schools across the country.