National Leadership Program, Spring 2022
Elizabeth Pezone
Elizabeth Pezone was a Policy Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2022. RespectAbility is a national nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Pezone’s Fellowship was funded by the Fox Family Foundation.
Pezone was born in Long Beach, California and resides in Artesia, California. She decided to go back to college in 2016, after difficulty finding any employment in early education. She transferred to California State University Los Angeles and recently graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Services.
Pezone has worked as an intern for the Charter College of Education, California State University Los Angeles. She worked under a recruitment advisor specialist and had the opportunity to observe her supervisor student’s sessions including acting as lead counselor virtually to students.
Pezone is connected to the disabled community through vision loss. She has been visually impaired since she was twelve years old with Retinitis Pigmentosa. The doctor told her that she would go completely blind by the age of twenty-one. She had good vision until the age of eighteen, and then her vision gradually declined. She was told by teachers and college professors, employers, and other persons that because of her disability that she could not do certain tasks or programs. Pezone persisted and worked to overcome struggles and negative attitudes. These strong and positive characteristics demonstrates her relationship to the RespectAbility mission.
Pezone hopes to gain professional skills, networking, and improve quality of life for those with disabilities at RespectAbility. She had to advocate for herself as a blind person and working on the policy team to advocate for others will broaden her experience greatly. Pezone’s future plans include working as a mentor, counseling youth and young adults at high schools and working with transitional students to find employment. She wants to help others with disabilities, giving them support like she received over the years. Her work at RespectAbility will help her complete that goal.
Pezone enjoys watching movies in her free time. She likes to exercise and take yoga courses. She loves going to the beach. Pezone is happy to be a part of the RespectAbility team.
