Lydia X.Z. Brown

Disability Justice Advocate, Educator, Attorney, & Writer

Lydia X. Z. Brown (they/them) is a disability justice advocate, organizer, educator, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work has largely focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people, especially institutionalization, incarceration, and policing. They co-lead the project on disability rights and algorithmic fairness at the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, teach for Georgetown University’s disability studies program, and support the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network’s policy and advocacy work. They are also founder and director of the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment.

 

In 2018, NBC featured Lydia as one of 26 Asian Pacific American breakthrough leaders for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and Amplifier featured Lydia as part of the We The Future campaign for youth activism. In 2015, they were named to Pacific Standard’s 30 Top Thinkers Under 30 list, and to Mic’s list of 50 impactful leaders, cultural influencers, and breakthrough innovators. Their work appears in numerous scholarly and community publications, and they have received many awards for their work, including from the Obama White House, the Society for Disability Studies, the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Washington Peace Center, the Disability Policy Consortium, and the National Council on Independent Living.