Bio – Fellow – Past Fellows

National Leadership Program, Spring 2020

Geoff Hoppe

Geoff Hoppe was a Communications Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2020. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Hoppe has Nonverbal Learning Disability, a diagnosis he received in adulthood. He is interested in disability advocacy because he believes there’s tremendous untapped potential in the disability community, and that spreading awareness of this fact is the first step toward workplace inclusion.

​Hoppe is interested in framing discussions about diversity and inclusion through the lens of neurodiversity. He is interested in helping employers (and, frankly, everyone) understand that diverse styles of cognitive processing can be a source of strength that may be well suited for certain roles and tasks. He is interested in advancing disabled inclusion for the shared benefit of both employee and employer. ​

​His interest is a blend of practicality and idealism. On one hand, disabled people face devastating unemployment rates. On the other, he believes neurodiversity and disability are often important elements of American history (Madison was epileptic, and Jefferson is believed to have had dyslexia, or another learning disability). In this sense, different styles of thinking are an inseparable part of the American experiment. ​

​Hoppe has a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, and M.A.’s in English literature from the University of Virginia, and Southern Methodist University. He has experience teaching at the college, high school, and middle school levels. He also has been employed as a content marketer for a small business software directory. ​

​Hoppe has a brother with Down syndrome, who has influenced his outlook about disability issues.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2020

Natalie Dunaway

Natalie Dunaway was a Public Policy Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2020. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Dunaway majored in Math and minored in Geography at Virginia Tech, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in May 2019. She hopes to continue her formal education in the future.

Dunaway applied to RespectAbility because of her interest in the disability community and in advocating for the rights of others. She was raised by a civil rights lawyer who ingrained in her the need for more advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves. Dunaway hopes to gain more knowledge and experience in disability public policy and to become a better ally to those in the disability community.

Before joining RespectAbility, Dunaway volunteered with different nonprofit organizations including United Saints Recovery Project, Llipin Yahaur, ARCAmazon, and Anathoth Community Garden and Farm. She has volunteered both locally and internationally through Virginia Tech’s service organization VT Engage, which is Virginia Tech’s center for service-learning and civic engagement by working with a variety of nonprofits to create community-driven service programs. She spent school breaks working with underprivileged communities in New Orleans, New York, North Carolina and Peru.

During college, Dunaway balanced going to school with two part-time jobs as a project manager in the Living Learning Community Orion (LLC) and working at a 3D design studio. As a project manager for 40 students at Virginia Tech’s Orion LLC, Dunaway promoted teamwork and group cohesion while maximizing efficiency within the LLC. She delegated tasks among the students after making a detailed assessment of their progress. She also motivated each student to improve productivity by ensuring optimal workflow, effective communication and timely results.

Dunaway is knowledgeable and experienced in working with a variety of 3D printers, including Lulzbot Taz 5, Lulzbot Taz 6, Lulzbot Mini, Prusai3 MK2 and Prusa i3 MK3. These 3D printers transform mathematical data into vibrantly visual depictions of engineering and architectural models for students and staff members at Virginia Tech.

In her free time, Dunaway likes to volunteer at animal shelters and teach Sunday school at her church. She also enjoys kayaking, whitewater rafting, knitting, crafting and spending time with her dog Teddy.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2020

Liam Itgen

Liam Itgen was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2020. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Itgen, originally from Long Island, New York, is a junior at Temple University, where he is majoring in Political Science. At Temple, Itgen is a member of the Model United Nations club and has participated in several bands where he plays the tuba. During several of his classes, the faculty introduced The Washington Center program, which provides immersive internships and academic seminars to students from hundreds of colleges and universities and young professionals from across the U.S. and more than 25 countries. The program was of great interest, and he got into the program with a position as a Fellow at RespectAbility.

He first became interested in advocacy for those with disabilities after working at Nassau-Suffolk Services for Autism in the summer of 2019. Itgen worked as a Direct Support Professional in the Day Habilitation Program at NSSA. Here, he worked with adults with autism ages 22-30. Through this work, he developed an interest in advocacy for those with autism and other developmental disabilities.

After he completes his undergraduate degree, Itgen would like to attend St. John’s Law School in Queens. There, he would like to pursue a law degree, which he would use to either advocate for those who can legally receive services but do not, or work as an entertainment lawyer and make sure musical artists are compensated fairly for their creative output. He believes strongly in the rights of all people, regardless of ability, and stands by the notion that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Besides his passion for helping others, Itgen has spent a large part of his life working at his father’s ice cream parlor, Itgen’s. The family business has left him with skills that would most likely only be useful in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, like making chocolate rabbits.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2020

Ilya Zhitomirskiy

Ilya Zhitomirskiy was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Spring 2020. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Zhitomirskiy was born in Moscow and now lives in Rockville, Maryland. Zhitomirskiy is in his second semester at University of Maryland Global Campus studying for a master’s degree in nonprofit management. In addition to his studies, he is a high school sports official overseeing baseball, basketball, football, and volleyball games. In 2019, he was hired to officiate college football games and professional basketball games for the American Basketball Association (ABA), the biggest professional basketball league in the U.S. not affiliated with the NBA. He also has received multiple MPSSAA (Maryland Public Secondary School Athletic Association) playoff assignments in baseball and volleyball.

Even though his major may not be directly relevant to working with people with disabilities, Zhitomirskiy plans to create a nonprofit that will combine his interest in officiating, his background in nonprofit management, and his interest in helping other people with disabilities. This proposed organization intends to help other people with disabilities become sports officials by providing training and mentorship opportunities, as well as assisting them with advancement up the officiating ladder.

In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, working out, and improving his officiating skills and knowledge of the rules. He also attends officiating camps in the offseason for exposure and to improve his skills.

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National Leadership Program, Fall 2019

Mireille (Ray) Pioppo

Mireille (Ray) Pioppo was a Jewish Inclusion Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall 2019. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Originally from New York, Pioppo graduated in 2018 from Elon University in North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in Human Service Studies. She chose to study Human Services because she knew it would equip her with the skills required to serve clients in a variety of public outreach organizations. Pioppo recently moved to Potomac, Maryland and is pursuing a career in nonprofit management. She hopes to work with marginalized populations in the Washington, D.C. area.

Determined in her goal to advance human rights, Pioppo is dedicated to many social justice causes. She aims to empower others to become leaders in their communities and believes that every individual has the potential to create meaningful change. Pioppo is especially passionate about promoting the rights of women and children, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Pioppo is a dedicated public servant. She has interned at domestic violence and human trafficking agencies, helping women and children escape violent situations. She hopes to effect change in these communities on a policy level. Pioppo also spent much of her time as an undergraduate student working with homeless populations, both in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina. A primary focus of Pioppo’s was helping homeless individuals with disabilities find housing and employment, as well as to access public benefits. She is especially proud of her role in helping to establish a temporary shelter for homeless women and children.

Pioppo cites her experience working at the Kilmer Center as a primary influence informing her desire to work with the disability community and intern at RespectAbility. The Kilmer Center is a Fairfax County Public School for students with disabilities, ages 5-21. In recognizing the importance of physical activity for all, Pioppo chose to focus on normalizing the experience of the students by assisting with their physical mobility. Working with students in the gym was a rewarding opportunity for Pioppo. A large number of students were in wheelchairs. Her roles at Kilmer included facilitating the students’ gym activity time by pushing the students in wheelchairs, demonstrating stretches, and encouraging them to experience full body movement.

Pioppo’s personal experience with learning disabilities is an additional motivation to advocate for inclusion. Pioppo attended a high school for students with learning differences and attributes her skillset to an education that provided her with tools that helped her identify her strengths and classes that catered to her unique learning style. She hoped that this opportunity will jumpstart an exploration of how opportunities such as the ones she was afforded can be shared with the larger population.

Pioppo’s decision to be a Jewish Inclusion Fellow at RespectAbility stemmed from her work in the Jewish community after her recent Birthright trip to Israel. Birthright is an educational organization that provides free trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. Pioppo enjoyed exploring Tel Aviv, hiking Masada and sleeping in a Bedouin Tent. The trip helped Pioppo strengthen her Jewish identity and values. Pioppo comes from a lineage of strong, educated Jewish women and is determined to help other Jewish women find their voice.

Beyond her interests in social justice, equity and inclusion, Pioppo is also a certified yoga instructor and hopes to teach yoga to people with disabilities. Travel is also one of her passions. Some of her favorite countries include Turkey, Greece, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Holland. She also has been fortunate to study abroad in Cannes, France and Copenhagen, Denmark. Pioppo appreciates learning about other cultures and customs. In her free time, Pioppo enjoys tennis, cooking, yoga, snowboarding and playing with her very cute and naughty Havanese puppy, Bodhi.

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National Leadership Program, Fall 2019

Israel Sanchez

Israel de Jesus Sanchez Carlos was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall 2019. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Sanchez is finishing his last semester in Business Management Engineering for a bachelor’s degree at TESCo (Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Coacalco) in Mexico. During his time in the seventh semester, he participated in the Seventh National Meeting of Academic Groups by writing an article about a specific case of one of his classmates with cerebral palsy. During his research, he noted the lack of research, writing, public data and general interest on disability in Mexico.

Even though his academic major may not be highly relevant to people with disabilities, Sanchez is an idealist, who believes that everyone should have the chance of getting a good quality life no matter one’s social or economic distinction. Recognizing the fact that many people with disabilities do not have that chance, he decided to redirect his interest to create a more inclusive society.

In 2019, he decided to apply for an international scholarship, which led him to the Washington Center and then to RespectAbility. Sanchez hopes to help RespectAbility’s mission by creating more opportunities for people with disabilities through a state project that will promote different strategies to integrate students with disabilities in schools and universities and then in various industries.

Once he graduates, Sanchez hopes to fight the stigmas about people with disabilities, especially in industries as well as public institutions, not only to benefit from the public services, but also to be part of them. He wants to reduce the barriers that people with disabilities face in accessing education and jobs.

Sanchez’s plan for his future is to pursue another bachelor’s degree in Small and Medium Companies Management to help improve small communities and create programs to include people with disabilities. In Mexico, 72 percent of employment and 58 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are generated by micro, small and medium companies.

In his free time, Sanchez enjoys reading science fiction and historical novels as well as constantly learning more about his major and successful experiences businesses have in integrating people with disabilities.

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National Leadership Program, Fall 2019

Stevie Mays

Stevie Mays was a Community Outreach Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall 2019. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Mays has great passion and enthusiasm when working with and for the greater disability community. This passion is rooted in experiences of wanting to end the cycle of shame and taboo felt with their own learning disabilities growing up.

Born and raised in Michigan, Mays’ career in the disability community began in high school while volunteering at a life skills center, the Healing Haven, a center for children on the autism spectrum. This volunteering opportunity eventually led to a job as a lead therapist. Mays was able to assist in curriculum planning, augmented communication creation, and social skills training. The role, which lasted three years, brought great fulfillment and joy every day when working for the disability community. This created a desire for Mays’ interests in research with people on the spectrum, which lead Mays to transferring to the University of Michigan (U of M) to have such research and academic pursuits.

U of M had many opportunities to explore the academic side of disability. Mays worked in the Early Start Denver Model research lab under principal investigator Constanta Colombi. The study examined the effectiveness of teaching parents of children with autism a parenting class on a social skills toolkit to promote maximum communication and play skills within the family. The opportunity to add to the body of disability research arose and Mays elected to write a thesis on employment barriers for employees on the spectrum. This piece on adults sparked Mays’ advocacy desires for adults with disabilities and the necessity of job training. Mays graduated from the University of Michigan in August 2019 with a bachelor’s in general studies with a focus in Psychology, Sociology, Women/Gender studies, and Disability Culture.

During the summers while as an undergraduate, Mays worked with children, and occasionally adults, on the spectrum, as a camp counselor at Camp Michigania. Counseling involved managing groups of around 25 children each week for children ages zero to six-years-old. Singing by campfires, zip lining, and ‘spotting’ magical creatures only heightened Mays’ naturally playful energy. Mays also created assistive communication devices to make camp more accessible for non-verbal campers.

While camp is Mays’ favorite place, understanding the gravity of public policy, Mays elected to pursue work in disability political advocacy one summer. As an intern at the American Association for People with Disabilities, she was paired to work with the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD). While at NACDD Mays was able to help individual state developmental disability councils, lobby for national policy from the developmental disability perspective, and assist at NACDD national conference. While at NACDD, Mays concretely saw how important national policy and social welfare is as an aid to even out inequalities in the lives of those with developmental disabilities.

Mays was delighted to join the RespectAbility team for Fall 2019, which meant coming back to the Washington, D.C., area. Mays is committed to explore the East coast. With a never fulfilled desire to travel, Mays has plans of visiting all East Coast states before 2021 and already has completed six of the fifteen visits. While searching for the right a capella family for this alto two, Mays has a love for singing and is commonly known to sing in the car, shower, or jamming with friends. After RespectAbility Mays is hoping to transition into a role as a teacher for people with developmental disabilities with prospects to attend graduate school to earn a master’s in education and education policy to eventually co-run a community center for people with disabilities across the lifespan.

Mays wrote two pieces during the 2019 Fall Fellowship. Check them out on our website:

• Debby Fisher: Diaries the Ultimate Tool for Emotional Management (October 24, 2019)
• New Jersey Gov. Murphy Celebrates Increase in State’s Disability Employment During Disability Employment Awareness Month (October 28, 2019)

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National Leadership Program, Fall 2019

Otilia Lampman

Otilia Lampman was a Public Policy and Employment Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall 2019. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Lampman was born in Romania and came to the United States in June 2004 for surgery. She stayed with the family that later adopted her. This past June, Lampman completed her Associates Degree in Communication at Northern Virginia Community College. She recently applied to George Mason University for the Spring semester 2020. Lampman will earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications or Journalism in 2022.

Lampman applied to the National Leadership Program because she believes in equality for all people. She also wants to have more knowledge about not only her own disability experience, but also about other’s disabilities. She wants to gain professional experience, especially in an office, and learn to present herself and her disability well. She also wants to know what careers and opportunities exist.

Lampman’s plan for the future is simple. She wants to work and not be poor and on the street. Beyond the necessities of a house, job, food, health insurance, she hopes, one day, to learn how to tell other people’s stories and promote their artistic and social work on radio or podcasts.

Lampan wrote several pieces during the Fall 2019 Fellowship. Check them out on our website:

• Gov. Hutchinson Encourages “Fellow Citizens to Realize the Contributions Individual with Disabilities Add to Our Workplaces” (October 23, 2019)
• “People with disabilities are equal to the task” Says Gov. McMaster (October 24, 2019)
• Gov. Whitmer Focuses on Michiganders with “invisible disabilities” in October Proclamation
  (October 31, 2019)
• Gov. Ducey Says Arizonans with Disabilities Have “Essential Role” in “Arizona’s Success” 
  (October 31, 2019)
• Gov. Michael Dunleavy reaffirms “Alaska’s commitment” to Jobs for People with Disabilities
  (October 31, 2019)
• Gov. Tim Walz Argues that Employees with Disabilities “Benefit Minnesota’s Economy”
  (October 31, 2019)
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee Recognizes “the Value of Employees with Disabilities.”
  (October 31, 2019)

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National Leadership Program, Fall 2019

Gloria Medina

Gloria Medina was a Public Policy and Employment Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall of 2019. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Medina is a graduate of Montgomery College in Maryland with an associate degree in international politics. Currently, she is a senior at the University of Maryland (UMD) working toward her Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics.

Born in Peru, Medina moved to Virginia at the age of seven and completed her primary education there before attending UMD. What inspires her to help the disability community is her own experience as a Latin immigrant and a transgender woman. She wants to help all communities living in the margins of society, as she understands what it feels like to not get the same opportunities as others and to have stigma attached to a part of one’s identity. She hopes that with the help of RespectAbility, she will not only help provide more opportunities for the disability community but also learn how to be more inclusive of the disability community in her advocacy for immigrant rights and transgender rights. Intersectionality is a big part of RespectAbility, so she hopes to take this element of RespectAbility to any organization she works for in the future.

This is Medina’s first internship with a nonprofit organization and hopes that after graduation she can continue working with organizations that help people advance in society. Medina hopes to work with immigrants and asylum seekers in America but also to contribute to other organizations that fight to further the rights for the transgender community both nationally and globally.

Medina loves to spend time with friends and family and go to art museums. This year she went to many art museums all over Europe with her mom. Her favorite art museum is the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands because of its vast collection of portraits and religious paintings from the middle ages. Close by she enjoys the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., which holds her favorite painting, Death of Ruben Salazar by Frank Romero. Medina hopes to return to Europe again someday and travel across the rest of the world.

Medina wrote several pieces during the 2019 Fall Fellowship. Check them out on our website:

• Employment for People with Disabilities Matters to North Carolina’s Gov. Cooper
  (October 11, 2019)
• Oklahoma’s Gov. Stitt is Committed to Continuing Employment Growth for People with Disabilities
  (October 12, 2019)
• Florida Gov. DeSantis commits to furthering opportunities for Florida’s Disabled Workforce
  (October 16, 2019)
• Virginia’s Gov. Northam shares plans to further employment for people with disabilities
  (October 17, 2019)
• “Wisconsin’s Focus is on the value of hiring job seekers with disabilities,” swears Gov. Evers in New Proclamation (October 18, 2019)
• Texas’ Gov. Abbott: “As a Texan with a disability myself … join me in commemorating the many achievements of Texans with disabilities” (October 19, 2019)
• Rep. Steve Bartlett Brings His Passion For Disability Inclusion to RespectAbility Fellows
  (October 24, 2019)

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