Everyone deserves justice. Everyone deserves freedom. Everyone deserves safety.
And we deserve better policies and better leadership to help us get there.
I bring 15 years of experience as a community organizer and disability advocate, most recently as an adjunct professor, special education lawyer, nonprofit leader, and disability and tech policy expert. I am equally comfortable talking to kids about respect and human dignity as I am giving an expert consultation to the United Nations on disability and human rights. I know how to build coalitions, collaborate across communities, and work to make sure everyone has a voice. As an openly queer and disabled Asian American, I also bring a desperately needed fresh perspective and understanding of vulnerable and marginalized communities – and I believe deeply that a rising tide lifts all boats.
Before moving to Maryland, I grew up in Massachusetts. My dad worked for the Environmental Protection Agency for over thirty years, after his first few years working as a legislative aide in his home state of South Carolina. While we haven’t always agreed on everything, my dad taught me from a young age just how important public service is, in all its forms.
I have lived in and around Maryland since about 2012, including in Laurel, District Heights, Baltimore City, and Olney, before I moved to Baltimore County several years ago. While I might be newer to the area, I am not new to advocacy or community-building work. Currently, I serve on a statewide committee addressing rights for people with mental illnesses. In 2020, I designed and taught a short class on advocacy and civic engagement for students at Towson University’s Hussman Center for Adults with Autism. From 2018-2019, I represented students with disabilities throughout Maryland – including in Baltimore County schools – in special education cases related to denial of access, equal opportunity, and unfair discipline.
In 2018, I founded the only grantmaking organization dedicated to helping autistic people of color, which to date has given over $200,000 in microgrants to individual autistic people of color and their families to help with everything from covering rent, paying for medications insurance won’t cover, buying job interview outfits, leaving abusive situations, and recovering after disasters. Over the last four years, we’ve also partnered with several universities and community groups to give young people work experience for fair pay, while advocating for policy changes to address underlying causes of poverty and disability and racial discrimination. I will bring my experience building and leading this organization and numerous other projects with me to Annapolis.
I am fighting for equal rights, social justice, and economic stability for everyone. With the national resurgence of white supremacist ideologies, the Supreme Court gutting Roe v. Wade, and the ongoing economic devastation caused by COVID-19, it is vitally important to elect people to state and local office who will show up for racial justice, reproductive rights, and economic recovery that respects workers and listens to public health experts.
If elected, I will continue to listen to people in my district who are most directly impacted by the laws passed in Annapolis, and I will work together with community leaders to advocate for full freedom, economic stability, and community safety for all.