Bio – Fellow – Past Fellows

National Leadership Program, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Summer 2017

Eddie B. Ellis, Jr.

Eddie Ellis was a Criminal Justice Reform Fellow at RespectAbility. Ellis is a reentry advocate/consultant, trainer, mentor and motivational speaker. As a returning citizen with multiple disabilities and a person of color, Ellis’ experience provides invaluable insight and depth into his work that allows him to connect with and engage the community in which he serves.

He is the founder and CEO of OneBy1, an organization that works with communities and partners to provide youth development workshops and mentoring services to keep youth out of the corrections system and help those exiting the system stay out. Ellis also has written and published several resource guides offering service referrals, practical tips and inspiration to former offenders and parolees returning to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. He works hard to ensure that individuals reentering society are well informed and sufficiently equipped to make better choices for themselves and that they are truly given a second chance.

He recently wrote about his experience in The Washington Post: “I am one of the success stories from D.C.’s secondchance law for young offenders.”

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National Leadership Program, Summer 2017

Sneha Dave

Sneha Dave graduated from Indiana University in May 2020 where she majored in chronic illness advocacy as well as journalism. She created Generation Patient and its program the Crohn’s and Colitis Young Adults Network (CCYAN) with support from foundations such as the Helmsley Charitable Trust and Arnold Ventures to create support systems for adolescents and young adults with chronic medical disabilities across the U.S. and internationally. She is proud to work with a team composed entirely of young adults with chronic medical disabilities and also to keep Generation Patient and CCYAN independent from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.

Sneha has completed an undergraduate research Fellowship in health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has also interned at numerous places such as Pfizer Global Headquarters in health economics and outcomes research for Inflammation and Immunology. Sneha has spoken on Capitol Hill, featured nationally on C-SPAN, and is a past contributor for U.S. News and World Report. She has served on the Democratic National Committee Disability Policy Subcommittee and recently joined the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council, an independent appraisal committee of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. Sneha was awarded two academic fellowships with the Association of Health Care Journalists. Sneha has spoken at the Democratic National Convention, Stanford Medicine X, the National Academies of Medicine, and other major avenues. For her work, Sneha was selected as one of the most influential teenagers in 2018 by the We Are Family Foundation and was recognized as an American Association of People with Disabilities Emerging Leader in 2020. She is proud to be a former Policy Fellow for RespectAbility and looks forward to being part of the transformational advocacy work happening at RespectAbility as part of the board.

During Dave’s Summer 2017 Fellowship, she profiled Jonathan Kessler, Donna Meltzer and Calvin Harris. Read them on our website:

• What’s Your Goal? Advice on Connecting with People from AIPAC Strategist Jonathan Kessler
• Becoming a Disability Advocate – A Conversation with Donna Meltzer: A Role Model for Disability Advocates
• Learning is an Act of Compassion – Advice from Bipartisan Policy Center’s Calvin Harris

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National Leadership Program, Summer 2015 – Summer 2017

Justin Chappell

Justin Chappell was a Democracy and Outreach Fellow with RespectAbility beginning in the summer of 2015 and then served as a Communications Fellow in 2017. Chappell brought more than 15 years experience in public policy, resource development, marketing and community organizing to RespectAbility. During the fall 2015 and winter 2015-2016 cohorts, Chappell spent months on the trail engaging presidential candidates in the early primary states. In addition, he conducted research on the campaign’s policies and created contact databases. His reporting from the trail can be found on The RespectAbility Report.

Prior to RespectAbility, Chappell worked for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the National Council On Independent Living, AFSCME labor union and the White House, as well as an Independent Living Specialist helping consumers of his local Center for Independent Living. Chappell has served on several national non-profit and local civic organization boards, and as an elected official focusing on employment, affordable housing, education, environmental protection, LGBT and mental health issues. He received his B.A. in Politics from The Catholic University of America with a focus on American government, political theory, the impact of polling data and public interest groups. Chappell was proficient in American Sign Language, Russian, Spanish and Latin.

Chappell profiled Lisa Thomas, a guest speaker for the 2017 Summer Fellowship. Read it on our website:

• Cohesive, Consistent Messaging – Learning Effective Advocacy Strategies with Lisa Thomas of the American Federation of Teachers

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National Leadership Program, Summer 2017

Emma Adelman

Emma Adelman was a Nonprofit Management Apprentice at RespectAbility. She also managed the organization’s Twitter account and contributed to the Born This Way #BTWchat Twitter chats.

Adelman strives to make the world a better place, and is dedicated to the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Adelman joined Repair the World to help launch an innovative fellowship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Repair the World strives to engage millennials and other community members in service learning. Adelman later joined the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation as Program Coordinator. She organized a range of programs, which fought for better food access and an improved educational system, including the Fresh Food Challenge.

As a child in North Carolina, Adelman became accustomed to advocating for her own rights and the rights of her classmates. While in high school and at Mount Holyoke College, Adelman worked with faculty, staff and students to advance the status of students with disabilities on campus. After living in Peru and Spain, she recognized and appreciated the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act—too many students don’t know their own rights to be able to fight for them.

Adelman profiled David Trone, Patrick McCarthy and Geoffrey Melada, three guest speakers for the 2017 Summer Fellowship. Read them on our website:

• Leadership: Empathy, Failure, Respect – Lessons from David Trone, Founder of Total Wine & More
• Viewing the World Through a Kaleidoscope – Learning from The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Patrick McCarthy
• A “Chutes & Ladders” Career Trajectory – Lessons from Multihyphenate Geoffrey Melada

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National Leadership Program, Fall/Winter 2016

David Richman

David Richman was a Stigma and Communications Fellow with RespectAbility, where he worked on the #RespectTheAbility stigma campaign that spotlights model companies that demonstrate how hiring workers with disabilities benefits the employer, the employee and society. He also wrote about fair media representation of people with disabilities.

As someone who was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 11, his life has been affected by disability personally. Ridding the stigma around anyone with cognitive and physical differences is of the utmost importance to him.

Before joining RespectAbility, Richman was a congressional district office intern for Congressman John Delaney and has extensive experience in the field of broadcasting. He has interned for Sirius XM, Batlimore NPR, and Pacifica. Outside of work his biggest passion is learning and performing long form improv which has taught him the importance of collaborating with a variety of people with different backgrounds and minds to accomplish a common goal.

In May of 2014, he attained his Bachelors of Arts in English at The University of Maryland-College Park.

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National Leadership Program, Fall/Winter 2016

Adam Rothstein

Adam Rothstein was a Policy Fellow with RespectAbility. As a college hockey coach from 2014 – 2016 and a hockey mentor since a teenager, Rothstein has dedicated his life to uplifting others both on and off the ice. He continues to coach people both with and without disabilities.

Rothstein is interested in statistical projects. In college he wrote a baseball analytics program in which he analyzed what factors were the most effective for hitters and what the biggest contributors were to batting averages.

Rothstein graduated from Towson University in May 2016 with a Bachelors degree in economics and a minor in business. He intends to build a financial planning program to help people with and without disabilities be financially ready for the future.

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National Leadership Program, Summer 2016

Annie Tohill

Annie Tohill was a Communications Fellow at RespectAbility. An animation major, she was a rising junior at Regent University. Thanks to her experiences with chronic illness and autism, Tohill has become passionate about disability issues.

Tohill edited several videos during her Apprenticeship, ensuring that all had proper captions to be accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In addition, she wrote several press releases leading up to the second season premiere of A&E’s Emmy-nominated show Born This Way.

Prior to joining RespectAbility, she worked on multiple short films, including two collaborative projects and a mock title sequence that incorporated hand drawn animation. She was thrilled to work at RespectAbility to work to reduce the stigma around disability through media, in particular video.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2017

Matthew Wagner

Matthew Wagner was a Nonprofit Management and Policy Fellow with RespectAbility. His personal experience with hearing loss created a desire to increase access for all people, particularly in cultural institutions. Wagner worked on identifying potential funding sources for RespectAbility as well as contributing to several public policy initiatives. In addition, he became the resident Fellow on ensuring accessibility of all RespectAbility PowerPoints for those who are visually impaired.

Prior to joining RespectAbility, Wagner interned at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Mount Vernon. Most recently, he interned with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where he worked on increasing accessibility in the Q?rius Lab. He believes knowledge should be accessible for all. Remembering how he felt when visiting museums in the late 90’s when materials were not captioned and people unwilling to speak clearer, he aims to ensure museums are truly accessible through universal design. As an advocate, he believes that museums have the power to inspire all and wants all visitors to benefit from that inspiration.

Wagner is a 2016 graduate of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at State University of New York, a master’s program focusing on museum studies and community engagement. Wagner also graduated from James Madison University with a history and anthropology undergraduate degree.

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National Leadership Program, Spring 2017

Clara Li Ling Loh

Clara Loh was a Policy Fellow with RespectAbility. Her interest in the disability community started in her high school years through volunteering with organizations such as the Association for Persons with Special Needs and the Singapore Anglican Community Services’ mental health care centre. However, it was through her work at SPD, a nonprofit organization supporting people with physical and/or sensory disabilities in Singapore, where her awareness and interest in disability issues was significantly deepened.

While Loh is most interested in policies and programs relating to the employment of people with disabilities, she also has involved herself in other areas of the disability community, such as volunteering as a community note-taker for people with hearing difficulties. She also is a member of the Mental Health Community of Practice, which produced an introductory booklet for social service professionals who have limited prior experience in interacting with people with mental health issues.

Loh pursued an M.A. in Public Management and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Johns Hopkins University. She hopes to continue learning more about how the interests of people with disabilities can and have been advanced in different environmental contexts and apply that knowledge to promote a more inclusive society for everyone.

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