Kayla Rodriguez

Kayla Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican autistic adult in Georgia by way of her native New York. She was trained in the Bobby Dodd Institute (BDI) Ambassador Program, the Georgia LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities) Program and the My Voice My Participation My Board Program to be a skilled advocate. She has spoken on several panels and she has been honored with a Golden Goal Goldie Young Community Advocate Award as well as the BDI Empowers Luminaries Award. Kayla, who identifies as a woman of color and a lesbian, completed a policy internship at the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, previously served as Vice President and Chief Ambassador of Autistic Self-Advocacy Atlanta, an affiliate group of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), and authored a chapter in the edited collection Sincerely Your Autistic Child. Kayla is the Executive Advisory Committee Co-Chair for AWN, a founding member of the Women Enabled International U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance, and works as the social media coordinator for the Foundation for Divergent Minds, a national nonprofit that seeks to ensure equity, access, and fulfilled lives through inclusive, practical, and affirming neurodiversity-based programming and education.