Fannie Lou Hamer Leadership Program

Ollie Henry (they/them) is a yoga instructor, community organizer, budding poet, and public speaker studying Government and Women and Gender Studies at Georgetown University. Their practice of holding space on the yoga mat centers healing and embodiment for folkx of the Black Diaspora and has led them to present workshops at the Healing While Black Summit and teach classes in D.C. Furthermore, Henry has done extensive community organizing work around reparations, leading Hoyas Advocating for Slavery Accountability and the GU Protects Racists campaigns at Georgetown University. They have spoken extensively in the public sphere about the intersection of queerness, blackness, and (dis)ability, from being the first non-binary person to speak at the March on Washington to their 2022 TEDX talk.

Saphire Murphy ( she/ her) is a graduate student applying for her doctorate this fall. She is currently involved in her local community ( Cleveland, Ohio ) advocacy work and hopes to continue it after her studies. Representation is a key to Saphire’s work, professionally and personally, and she wants people in her local community to understand the power in holding intersectional identities in her local community. 

I’m Qualik Ford, a 22-year-old from Maryland. I use he him pronouns. I am blind and partially deaf, I find joy in listening to books, engaging in debates, and playing goal ball.

Hello, My name is Kaysia Corbett. I am originally from Hamden, CT but I moved to Baltimore to pursue my degree as a nursing student at Morgan State University. In 2019, I suffered through a near-fatal car accident which resulted in a TBI, a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the outermost part of the skull. I have always been in admiration of my ability to alchemize knowledge in attempts to connect with and understand the world around me. After my car accident, it became a lot harder to understand and remember pretty much everything. Through this experience, I was able to gain a larger sense of compassion and empathy for those with intellectual disabilities, as well as for myself. I finally realized that perfection does not exist, only the idea of it does and to not be so hard on myself over things that were written into existence since this world was created. Through my passions for both health care and community, I aspire to help others heal through social action development and community empowerment. I pray that through this wonderful experience, I can gain the wisdom and knowledge that this life requires to help others and make a real difference in the community for those with disabilities.