National Leadership Program, Summer 2017
Lilly Grossman
Lilly Grossman was a Communications Fellow with RespectAbility, where she worked on changing the narrative in Hollywood to ensure accurate and positive cultural media portrayals of people with disabilities. As a young woman who has a rare genetic disease that causes her to be physically disabled, she is a passionate advocate for people with disabilities. By using her writing and social media skills, she shares her story of being misdiagnosed for 15 years so that no one else has to go through the same uncertainty and struggle. Grossman also shares her story in order to inform researchers and scientists about her condition in hopes of them eventually finding a treatment.
Prior to joining RespectAbility, Grossman interned at Illumina, the largest genome sequencing company in the world, as a part of the Internal Communications and Social Media departments. In 2014, she received the Girl Scout Gold Award for implementing a safety plan to evacuate the students with disabilities of her high school from the second floor of the building in the event of an emergency. In 2014, she also attended the California Youth Leadership Forum for Students with Disabilities as a Student Delegate.
Grossman is a junior at Whittier College in California, majoring in Political Science and minoring in English. She is a member of the Athenian Society and recently was elected as a Student Body Representative to her school’s Senate for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Grossman profiled Celinda Lake and Richard Wolf, two guest speakers for the 2017 Summer Fellowship. Read them on our website:
- Eye of Lioness – Advice on Capturing your Audience’s Attention from Pollster and Political Strategist Celinda Lake
- The Value of Being Unbiased – Lessons from USA Today‘s Richard Wolf
