Our Team
Sharon daVanport
Executive Director
Sharon daVanport is a disability justice advocate, speaker, and educator who serves as the founding executive director of the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN). Sharon’s work encompasses several aspects of the wider and cross-disability…
Continue reading »Lydia X. Z. Brown
Director of Policy, Advocacy & External Affairs
Lydia X. Z. Brown is the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network’s Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs. They are a disability justice advocate, organizer, educator, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work has largely focused on interpersonal…
Continue reading »Rieko Shepherd
Policy Manager
Rieko Shepherd is the Policy Manager for AWN. Rieko is a civil rights advocate with a passion for centering and uplifting marginalized populations. As a Black and Asian woman, she grew up navigating an array…
Continue reading »Tony Alexander
Policy Manager
Tony Alexander is a policy advocate who has devoted his professional and personal life to improving and empowering marginalized groups. He is committed to using an approach rooted in intersectionality to create real, long-lasting change…
Continue reading »Morénike Giwa Onaiwu
Equity, Justice & Representation
Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, PhD(c), MA (she/they) is a global advocate, educator, disabled person of color, non-binary woman, and parent of children on the autism spectrum in a neurodiverse, multicultural, twice-exceptional serodifferent family. A prolific writer…
Continue reading »Erin Casey
Art Director
Erin Casey is a neurodivergent artist, writer, and mother of two. She grew up in New England and attended Rhode Island School of Design before graduating with a BA in Art and Writing from Marlboro…
Continue reading »Lori Berkowitz
Director of Web Development
I am Lori. I am from New York and currently live in Baltimore, MD (US) with Karen, my wife and partner of 20 years, and our 2 cats Nikkyo and Buster. I learned that I…
Continue reading »Ellis Z. Sardorian
Education & Program Assistant
Ellis Z. Sardorian (they/them) is an advocate, educator, and storyteller. They began advocating for themselves and their fellow disabled classmates in middle school. They are interested in creating spaces and systems to support people, rather than…
Continue reading »Lei Wiley-Mydske
Community Outreach Coordinator
Lei Wiley-Mydske is an Autistic activist, wife and homeschooling mom. After being misdiagnosed for many years, Lei was diagnosed as Autistic when she was in her thirties. Lei is also the director and founder of…
Continue reading »Kayley Whalen
Communications & Digital Marketing Consultant
Kayley Margarite Whalen is an advocate and communications professional who has devoted her career to building connections across social justice movements. She brings to her work her lived experience as an autistic transgender Latinx woman….
Continue reading »Court (Alison) Falk
Digital Media Content Manager
Courtney (aka Court) is an activist and a parent of 3 amazing children. Court is proudly autistic and multiply neurodivergent. Court has an array of disabilities/chronic health issues which cause intense pain and fatigue. Prior to…
Continue reading »Jean Winegardner
Administrative Registrations Coordinator
Jean Winegardner is an autistic woman who was diagnosed at 38 after learning about autism because of her neurodivergent kids. She has three of those, all born in the early aughts, and lives in the…
Continue reading »Corina Becker
Board President
Corina Lynn Becker lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. As well as autistic, she is nonbinary, asexual, chronically ill, and ADHD. Corina graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008 with a B.A. in English, and is…
Continue reading »Jessica Horvath Williams
Board Vice-President
Jessica Horvath Williams is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota. She serves as the co-chair of the Critical Disability Studies Collective and as a healthcare activist-educator in the…
Continue reading »Mara Fritts
Board Secretary & Treasurer
My name is Mara Fritts and I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome in 2008. I have been married for fourteen years to my husband who was also diagnosed with AS in 2008. We have four…
Continue reading »Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán
Board of Directors
Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán is the Senior Policy Manager for AIDS United, where she brings her own unique intersectional specialties to the fight against the HIV epidemic. Particular areas of expertise and focus are the intersections…
Continue reading »Kayla Rodriguez
Executive Advisory Board & Divergent Committee
Kayla Rodriguez is Puerto Rican, she was diagnosed with Aspergers when she was a child, but she prefers to identify as Autistic. Kayla is originally from New York, currently resides in Buford, Georgia. Throughout her…
Continue reading »Elesia Ashkenazy
Executive Advisory Board
Elesia Ashkenazy lives in Portland, Oregon. She is passionate about Disability Rights and self-advocacy, and seeks to promote widespread understanding of the needs and rights of autistic individuals, especially females. She is also a parent…
Continue reading »Amy Sequenzia
Staff Writer
I am an Autistic activist. I also have epilepsy and cerebral palsy. I write poetry – I published three small books – and articles on autism, disabilities, being autistic and advocacy. I type to communicate….
Continue reading »Reese Piper
Staff Writer
Reese Piper is a New York based writer and performer who travels often for work and fun. Her work has appeared in the Establishment, Upworthy, Ravishly, and BUST. She discovered she was autistic when she…
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