Secretary: Judy’s League
Baltimore, Maryland
Summary
Rachel Leeds serves as Secretary of Judy’s League where they take minutes for weekly board meetings, provide input about the initiatives and activities of the organization, and help organize documents to ensure our compliance with all 501(c)(3) rules and regulations. They are also a multiply disabled student at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law and incoming President of the National Disabled Law Students Association. Before law school, they worked for two years as the Accessibility Advocate at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. They strive to ground their work in Disability Justice principles.
Rachel became involved in disability advocacy through Equal Access, their college’s disability support and advocacy group. As an undergrad, they fought to create a reliable entrance to the dining hall for students who use mobility aids when the lift failed to function over 50% of the time. Rachel started considering a law career after their mentor told them how much disability rights laws shape public perspectives on disability. In Rachel’s advocacy efforts, everyone at least agreed that disabled students should be able to eat on campus. Before the ADA, no such expectation existed. Steps to dismantle legal protections for disabled people are steps to return to a world that bars disabled people from participating in public life and exercising autonomy. Rachel joined Judy’s League to defend the rights Judy Heumann fought so hard to obtain.
Disability Rights Experience
- Incoming President and Previous Director of Law School Relations: National Disabled Law Students Association
- Co-President: University of Maryland Disabled Law Students Association
- Former Accessibility Advocate: Walters Art Museum
- Former Co-President: Equal Access (student disability advocacy organization at Goucher College)
Education
- Incoming Third-Year: University of Maryland Carey School of Law
- B.A. in Literature | Minors in Philosophy and Creative Writing: Goucher College (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa Inductee)