Young Adult Leadership Council

Stevie Mays is a disability justice activist. They started working with autistic children, focusing on floor play and social skills. As an undergraduate, Stevie valued playfulness in their work, which included four years as a therapist and four summers as a camp counselor. They worked two years as a research assistant in Costanza Colombi’s lab, studying ways to teach groups of parents how to use a social skills toolkit to play and communicate with their pre-K autistic child. Stevie had internships with the American Association of People With Disabilities and a fellowship with the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, which began their career in advocacy. They now work with Judy Heumann, an international disability rights activist, on her efforts to increase accurate disability representation in the media. Stevie also works part-time for Reach Every Voice, leading social hours with spell-to-communicate peers — a job they quickly came to cherish. They are thrilled to serve on the Young Adult Leadership Council to support and advocate for better education, employment, and holistic lives of disabled people.