Amy Silverman is a journalist. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She writes about social justice, including disability. Her younger daughter Sophie has Down syndrome. In 2021, she was a Nieman Knight visiting fellow at Harvard University. When she was there, she created WORDSLAW. WORDSLAW is a storytelling event for people with IDD.

Amy worked with ProPublica and the Arizona Daily Star in 2020. She wrote stories about disability services in Arizona. That is when she started working with Beena, Becca, and others.

Amy is on the board of the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ). She edits the NCDJ’s style guide. The style guide helps journalists know how to write about disability.

Amy is also executive producer for The Show. The Show is a radio show for KJZZ, the NPR station in Phoenix. You can learn more about Amy at amy-silverman.com.

Becca Monteleone works at the University of Toledo. She is an assistant professor of disability studies. She works on projects about:

Technology

Healthcare

Journalism.

Becca focuses on making sure people with disabilities have a voice in these spaces. She has won awards for her work. She has been a:

Fulbright Scholar (2014-2015)

National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow (2016-2018)

Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow (2019).

She is one of the editors of Disability and Social Justice in Kenya: Scholars, Policymakers, and Activists in Conversation. This book comes out in 2022.

Beena Raghavendran is a journalist. She works on connecting to communities. Beena works at the New York Times. She is an editor who works on storytelling online and training journalists. Beena won the 2021 Online News Association MJ Bear Fellowship for her work making journalism accessible to people with IDD. She will be teaching at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in 2022. Beena used to work at ProPublica and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Amy Silverman is a journalist based in her hometown, Phoenix. She covers issues related to social justice, including disability -- a particular interest because her younger daughter Sophie has Down syndrome. As a Nieman Knight visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2021, she created WORDSLAW, a storytelling event designed to allow people with IDD to tell their own stories. In 2020 Amy worked with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network and the Arizona Daily Star on a project about services for Arizonans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), which led to a collaboration with Beena, Becca and others, designed to make the work accessible to the people covered in the project. As a member of the advisory board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism, Amy has edited the last two editions of NCDJ's disability language style guide. Amy's currently working as executive producer for The Show, an original production of KJZZ, the NPR member station in Phoenix. Learn more about her work at amy-silverman.com.

Becca Monteleone is an assistant professor of disability studies at the University of Toledo. Her research, teaching and practice focus on centering the expertise of people with disabilities in fields including technology design, healthcare, and journalism. She is a Fulbright Scholar (2014-15), a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow (2016-2018), and a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow (2019). She is also the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Disability and Social Justice in Kenya: Scholars, Policymakers, and Activists in Conversation (University of Michigan Press, 2022).

Beena Raghavendran is a journalist who specializes in crowdsourcing and community engagement, and currently works at The New York Times as an editor focusing on digital storytelling and training journalists. Beena was awarded a 2021 Online News Association MJ Bear Fellowship recognizing her efforts to engage with and make journalism accessible to communities with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the 2022 spring semester, she will be an adjunct lecturer at CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Beena was formerly an engagement reporter at ProPublica and an education beat reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.