Mia Ives-Rublee, MSW, is a civil rights activist who found her voice through adapted athletics. She will speak about her experiences growing up, getting in to wheelchair track, attending college, and working in advocacy. In a world with so much chaos and noise, it’s hard to find a way to talk about the issues. Ives-Rublee will connect story telling to activism, showing that no matter who you are you can make a difference in your community.
Mia Ives-Rublee is a disabled Asian American activist who founded and coordinates the Women’s March Disability Caucus. She got her undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and obtained her Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For six years she worked helping disabled people gain access to employment opportunities at the NC Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. In 2016, she broke into the national spotlight by helping organize the first Women’s March in Washington, DC. She pushed to ensure that their platform was inclusive of disabled women and ensured that their march would be one of the most accessible in history. She was honored with the Glamour Women of the Year Award and the UNC School of Social Work Distinguished Alumni Award for her work. Currently, she contracts with numerous businesses and organizations to help them use a disability justice lens in their own work and increase the integration of disabled people.
