Bio – Fellow – Past Fellows

National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Jaimie Ninan

Jaimie Ninan was a Policy Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. She graduated from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) with a degree in Political Science and History in 2006, obtained her Master in Public Administration degree in 2010 and is currently attending Catholic University, Columbus School of Law.

Ninan has advocated continuously for those with disabilities whether mental, physical, intellectual or sensory for the past 15 years of her life. After becoming a volunteer for Literacy Volunteers of America, she realized the lack of special education classes for students with learning disabilities in the city school district. Her insight grew at an exponential level when she experienced the many trials and tribulations after her husband acquired disabilities while fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a military spouse, she is committed, alongside her husband, to create an environment where all people with disabilities can contribute to society, as they wish.

After many years of helping the disability community at an individual level, whether through support programs or resource assistance programs, she will now enmesh herself in public policy initiatives at RespectAbility.  Her goal is to not only help create sound legislation, but also educate communities on what a disability is, and how people with disabilities have an inalienable right to not only live, but live life to the fullest.

Ninan believes it is imperative to support those from the military community and to enhance the opportunities available to disabled soldiers and veterans so that they are able to contribute at an impactful level during and after their military careers. Many times, after being released from the hospital, or continuing outpatient therapies, veterans are often forgotten. Social security disability benefits, and service related entitlement programs do not meet the needs of our veterans, or their families. Quite often, these veterans feel a necessity to re-enter the workforce, however are unable, due to various impediments, ranging from cramped workspaces, to accessibility issues, to undiagnosed disabilities.

Robert M. Hensel once said that “there is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more.” Ninan strongly believes in changing the stigma associated with persons with disabilities and would like to help catalyze our society into employing persons with disabilities, at an equal rate to people without disabilities.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Emily Counts

Emily Counts was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. She originally is from the beautiful coastal town of Kennebunk, Maine. She is finishing her final semester at University of New Hampshire where she will graduate with a degree in Recreation Management and Policy. She hopes to attend graduate school in the fall to receive a master’s in public health. After receiving her graduate degree, she would like to work in communities with barriers to healthcare access, healthy food and physical activity. Counts is passionate about making sure all have access to opportunities – access to healthcare, education, recreation and employment.

Counts became passionate about working with people with disabilities through her work with Friends in Action. Friends in Action is a nonprofit based in New Hampshire that brings social and recreational opportunities to adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. She helped run their theater program, even stepping in a few times when the director was out. Before coming to RespectAbility, Counts was a research assistant for the Recreation Management and Policy Department of the University of New Hampshire.

In her free time, Counts enjoys reading any Jane Austen novel she can get her hands on. She also enjoys cooking for herself and friends and trying the many recipes she finds on Pinterest. She has recently enjoyed exploring Washington, D.C., and looks forward to seeing more of the city in her spare time.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Ana Lucia Figueroa

Ana Lucia Figueroa was a Policy Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. Born in Mexico, she grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico. In contrast to Washington, Hermosillo is located in the dessert, and it is very hot. At the age of 23, she already has experienced working as a process analyst for the government in the Institute of Educational Credit of the State of Sonora. In the government, she learned that inclusive education is the only path for people with disabilities in a humane society. Figueroa worked in a program that pays for interpreters for students with hearing impairments. She also has participated as a translator in events like “Vosh Arizona Ophthalmology day” in Hermosillo.

Figueroa finished her Bachelor of Business Administration in July 2017. She has participated in exchanges such as “Hands Across the Border Program” between the states of Sonora, Mexico and Michigan, USA. She has been part of leadership groups since she was in elementary school, but mostly in high school and university. Her professional interests in the future include helping people with disabilities by focusing on inclusive education. She believes that being a Fellow with Respectability will help her gain knowledge and a broad vision of the problems facing people with disabilities. Beyond that, she believes this experience will give her the tools to help people with disabilities in her country. She aspires to work in social media and in government programs that help those who need it the most.

Figueroa loves to travel. She believes that when you visit new places, your mind expands as you experience different perspectives of life. For this reason, she has attended many seminars, including Public Ethics and Integrity, Conflicts and Mediation, Emotional Intelligence in Service Institutions and others. She enjoys listening to music, which makes her feel happy, and she believes that a positive attitude can solve most problems. Her mantra is “Stay positive.”

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Juliet Arcila Rojas

Juliet Arcila Rojas was a Nonprofit Management Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. She is a graduate from The Catholic University of America with a degree in Sociology. She planned on going to graduate school for Public Health.

Arcila Rojas is interested in working in either the private or public sector to ensure that all populations are fairly represented. She feels a sense of responsibility to ensure that people are treated fairly, with mutual respect and dignity.

At RespectAbility, Arcila Rojas researched foundations with missions that match RespectAbility’s mission to fight stigmas and advance opportunities for people with disabilities. She took part in collecting data that helps to advance RespectAbility’s mission. She attended conferences that look at issues of disability such as job opportunities, and has met with various leaders in the disability community. She also assisted in writing letters of inquiry to potential funders.

In her free time, Arcila Rojas practices photography and daydreams about owning a dog. She likes to talk with people who are more experienced in life than she is. She understands that there is a lot of wisdom to be learned from others.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Ryan Knight

Ryan Knight was a Communications Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. Born three months premature, resulting in spastic cerebral palsy, he gained a stutter at age three and learning disabilities later in life. A passionate writer, his goal is to write on behalf of the disability community.

Becoming involved in the disability community felt natural to him because he wants to help others with disabilities so that they will not struggle like he has. At Linganore High School in Frederick, Maryland, Knight was a member of Best Buddies, a club that pairs a person with a disability and a person without a disability to engage in social activities together. Living with a disability has not deterred Knight from reaching his professional goals so that he can create the life he wants to live. Knight has never given up and will never give up on his dream of helping others through the written word.

Before writing about issues affecting people with disabilities, Knight first wanted to get a college education and volunteer. At the age of 25 in 2006, he enrolled at Frederick Community College and majored in Human Services with a concentration in Developmental Problems. While at Frederick Community College, he volunteered at The Arc of Frederick County and The Arc at Market Street, nonprofit organizations that serve adults with disabilities in supported employment and provide respite care for adults with disabilities. Although he struggled in science and math classes, Knight never gave up; he just kept going like the Energizer Bunny until he finished classes. He was the first of his mom’s children to walk across the stage when he earned his associate’s degree in Human Services with a concentration in Developmental Problems in May 2012.

After taking classes in an Occupational Therapy Assistant program and realizing that was not where his talents lie, he returned to his first love – writing. Knight knew he wanted to write for a career, but he did not know what he wanted to write – until he made the choice to enroll at Hood College, which Knight says is the best decision he has ever made.

While enrolled at Hood College, Knight learned from skilled writers: a Hollywood publicist who has worked with Tom Cruise and Channing Tatum; a sports reporter who has written for The Washington Post, a Herald Mail news editor and a news reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He has focused on the disability community by creating an employment blog “The Discarded Eighty-Three;” the blog title refers to the then appalling statistic that 83 percent of people with disabilities were unemployed in 2016. The blog also helps people with disabilities to know that they have a voice that deserves to be heard just like the voices of everyone else in society. He also is a member of the academic honor society’s Delta Alpha Pi, a club that works to dispel myths about disabilities by spreading awareness of the community on campus.

After graduation in May 2018, Knight wanted to use his journalism knowledge to create a magazine for people with disabilities by people with disabilities and to increase awareness of the disability community through motivational speaking.

Knight wrote nine pieces during the 2018 Spring Fellowship. Check them out on our website:

• Murphy Learns a Lesson in Discrimination (January 29, 2018)
• Deafblind Lawyer Haben Girma Advocates for Disability Rights (February 5, 2018)
• One Woman with Disabilities Fights for Freedom For All (February 11, 2018)
• Derek Shields: The Importance of Mentoring (February 21, 2018)
• Individuals with Autism Overcome Challenges in the Workplace (May 9, 2018)

He also wrote four pieces for The RespectAbility Report:

• 3,823 new jobs for people with disabilities in Minnesota (March 9, 2018)
• 3,477 people with disabilities lose jobs in Rhode Island as State Ranked 47th in America (March 9, 2018)
• New Governor of New Jersey Promises Jobs for People with Disabilities is a Priority (March 15, 2018)
• 14,479 new jobs for people with disabilities in Virginia (March 15, 2018)

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Eric Ascher

Eric Ascher was a Communications Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility, and is now RespectAbility’s Senior Communications Associate. He graduated from Goucher College in May 2016 as a communications major and political science minor. He previously has completed internships at PFLAG National, Maryland New Directions, NIH, Verasolve and StartFinder.

Ascher joined RespectAbility because he knows that people with disabilities are capable of doing great work, just like everyone else. He is excited to help RespectAbility build upon its messaging because he cares about the work that RespectAbility does every day.

Through his coursework and internship experience, Ascher has gained experience writing short and long form blog posts, social media posts and press releases. He also has filmed and edited videos, designed websites and print flyers, proofread documents and completed research projects. In his free time, he enjoys watching and writing about reality talent competition shows, going to concerts and playing video games.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Adrienne Baez

Adrienne Baez was a Public Policy Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program. Working with RespectAbility staff, she researched special education and employment programs for people with disabilities nationwide to help state and federal agencies improve their programs and services.

Baez is a graduate of Butler University, with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology; during senior year her capstone project was desperately searching for an accessible place to live where the human population was higher than the number of cornstalks. She found it in Washington, D.C., where her academic passion developed into discovering pathways between what motivates the disability community and the assistance society can provide. Baez combined it with her amorphous disabled-do-gooder period in college and her personal battles for accessible options to become an advocate.

Before working at RespectAbility, Baez studied the connections between physical disability and its psychosocial effects at American University, with the generous support of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation and her OI community. Bolstered by her experience at RespectAbility, she hopes that she will contribute to disability research and services as a program/policy manager in the future. She hopes to land somewhere in the nonprofit sector where community interaction and policy change meet, where she can be an active and helpful part of her own disability community.

Baez wrote three pieces during the 2018 Spring Fellowship. Read them on our website:

• RespectAbility Submits Comments to New York State Boards of Regent to Promote the Success of Students with Disabilities (January 19, 2018)
• Steve Bartlett: Becoming a Better Advocate – Someone Who’s Been There (February 15, 2018)
• New York State Falls to 40th in the U.S. in Jobs for People with Disabilities (February 22, 2018)

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Bryan Munguia

Bryan Munguia was a Communications Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility.

As of 2018, Munguia was a second-year college student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communication at Pepperdine University. Being a son of Mexican immigrants and a first-generation college student, he has become deeply invested in the variety of issues that minorities face in our society. As a child growing up in Simi Valley, California, which is only a highly congested freeway ride to the hub of Los Angeles, he became passionate about professional acting and went through cycles of extensive acting workshops and talent agencies. Like many other LA rookie actors, the industry was simply not opening the door for him when it came to work.

Munguia’s passion for the entertainment industry then shifted to behind the camera in the business sector, and he soon started interning for a local talent agency that represented a variety of professional talent. This was the first internship that provided a hands-on experience in the casting process of television and film projects. He soon realized that the industry was not as glamorous as he thought because he had a closer look at the alarming lack of diversity that exists in the entertainment industry.

Leaving that internship, Munguia knew from that day forth that he would invest his own energy and time into changing Hollywood and bringing in the necessary diversity that can break many negative stereotypes in society. Being a Communications and Diversity in Film & Television Fellow at RespectAbility, he hoped to achieve Hollywood diversity by effectively communicating with entertainment leaders and creating an inclusive working environment for talented minorities with disabilities.

Munguia wrote two pieces during the 2018 Spring Fellowship. Check them out on our website:

• Heidi Daroff: Using Social Media to Inform and Campaign (January 26, 2018)
• Solange Knowles: Role Model for African American Performers with Disabilities (February 2, 2018)

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2018

Nicholas Olson

Nicholas Olson was a Policy Fellow in the National Leadership Program at RespectAbility. He is passionate about the world of health and managing epidemics through publically provided medical services. Much of his inspiration toward health comes from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has changed shape over the years and presented new challenges. Through his academic study, family history and professional experiences, Olson also has studied advancements in cancer treatments, epigenetics, psychological and behavioral disorders, health insurance and the concepts behind the “social determinants of health.”

RespectAbility’s Public Policy Fellowship caught Olson’s attention because of its focus on transitioning young adults with differing abilities from school into the workforce. As a young adult transitioning from his formal education into the workforce, this program was an excellent fit. Public health ties into education and jobs because, as young adults exit school, securing a job means better access to health insurance and health care. However, many workplaces present potential risks to personal health and having health insurance does not guarantee access to a doctor.

As of June 2017, Nicholas completed a Master of Public Policy degree through the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany. Before that, he attended Oberlin College for his Bachelor of Arts with a double major in politics and classical civilizations. After ending 2017 by spending time with his family in Phoenix, Arizona, and volunteering with the Human Rights Campaign and Arizona Citizens for the Arts, Olson is hungry to start his career. His previous work includes internships with Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema’s Legislative Office, Arizona Citizens for the Arts, Vitalyst Health Foundation (Phoenix), Smart + Strong Publications and Goodman Schwartz Public Affairs.

After the program, Olson hoped to manage projects that provide relief for people facing complex medical needs and to lobby legislators about the impact of policies on the health of minority communities. RespectAbility will prepare Olson to incorporate the perspective of the disabilities community as he continues his interest in health work.

Olson wrote one piece during the Spring 2018 Fellowship. Check it out on our website:

• RespectAbility Recommends New Strategies to Promote the Success of Youth with Disabilities on Benefits (January 26, 2018)

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