This week I am sitting down with Rebecca Cokley, someone I have always looked up to in the little person and disabled communities. Rebecca is currently serving as a program officer in the President’s Office of the Ford Foundation, a global grant-making philanthropy that challenges inequality, where she is developing the U.S. disability rights program strategy. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Rebecca was the co-founder of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, the executive director of the National Council on Disability, and a presidential appointee under President Obama where she worked in the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. We discuss her career, what it means to be a disabled advocate in 2021, and the changes she wants to see and make in the world. 

Follow Rebecca: Twitter: @RebeccaCokley 

Ford Foundation: https://www.fordfoundation.org

Follow me: Instagram: @jill_ilana ; @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.com This episode was edited by Benjamin Curwin