Policy and Systems Change
Examine how policies affect people, identify barriers, and develop practical recommendations for change.
A policy can sound reasonable until you are the person trying to use it. I help teams ask who can get through, who gets left out, and what needs to change.
Hire me for: Policy and program reviews, research and curriculum advising, public health communication, and subject matter expert support.
Policies shape who can access services, whose needs are recognized, and how much control people have over their lives. Those effects reach into health, education, relationships, employment, and community participation.
I draw on public health, sociology, and sexology to help organizations and advocates connect written rules with the experiences of the people affected by them. My work brings public health, disability justice, cultural humility, and bodily autonomy into policy and program review.
Sexual autonomy is a public health issue
Sexual health is shaped by more than individual knowledge. It is shaped by which students receive sexuality education, whether information is accessible, whose relationships are respected, and whether policies support meaningful choices about bodies, intimacy, and reproduction.
I bring sexual health expertise to research, curriculum, and policy review. We can examine assumptions that disabled people are asexual, incapable of consent, or less entitled to relationships and parenthood. We can consider how rules protect privacy, support decision-making, and respond to concerns without treating control as care.
My perspective combines community-based sexuality research with broader public health experience: research coordination at Kaiser Permanente, healthcare needs assessment with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, and national HESPA III panel work on access, inclusion, and cultural humility. The goal is clear recommendations grounded in both evidence and the knowledge of people affected.
Who I work with
I work with nonprofits, schools, community organizations, public health and service teams, professional associations, researchers, and advocates. Support can help you review an existing practice, communicate the implications of a proposed change, or develop recommendations in response to concerns.
Ways we can work together
Policy review and development: Review policies, procedures, forms, and codes of conduct involving access, consent, disability, sexuality, boundaries, and respectful conduct. Develop clearer language and practical recommendations.
Program and systems review: Examine how policies work in practice, including eligibility requirements, communication, participation, decision-making, and responses to concerns.
Research and curriculum advising: Provide subject matter feedback on research projects, educational materials, curricula, and public health campaigns involving blindness, disability, ableism, consent, access, and sexuality.
Public health communication: Help explain how a policy or institutional practice may affect health, access, and participation. Support clear communication for leaders, communities, and decision-makers.
Subject matter expert support: Advise on writing, media, podcasts, conference sessions, and educational projects within my areas of expertise.
Advocacy and strategy support: Clarify the problem, identify priorities, and develop recommendations and language that support informed action.
What guides the review
We examine ableism in assumptions about competence, independence, capacity, and whose needs count. Disability justice brings attention to overlapping barriers and to the knowledge and leadership of the people most affected.
Consent culture needs practical support in policies: meaningful choices, understandable information, respect for privacy and boundaries, and clear ways to raise concerns. Cultural humility asks whose experiences have shaped the rules and what the organization may need to learn.
We can ask:
- Who benefits, who encounters barriers, and who has been left out?
- Can people understand their options and influence decisions?
- What evidence and community knowledge inform this approach?
- What would implementation require, and who is responsible?
- How will the organization review whether the change is working?
What you can receive
Deliverables may include written recommendations, proposed policy language, revision notes, curriculum or research feedback, briefings, educational resources, facilitated planning discussions, and an implementation plan.
This work connects to building healthy public policy.
See my work in action
Disability & reproductive justice
Watch Permission, Pleasure & Power with Rebecca Cokley (ASL & captions). Our keynote conversation connects consent, sexual ableism, and reproductive autonomy.
Health information & policy
Read my Section 504 public comment. I explain how accessibility delays affect information, participation, and autonomy.
Rehabilitation & public health
Read When Ableism Becomes Policy. I examine the public health costs of delayed rehabilitation and the systems that shape access.
More work samples & experience
Explore articles, recordings, and educational resources alongside related experience. My full CV includes additional roles, presentations, and professional credits.
Fellowship film & keynote
Fellowship film: Carrie Buck Fellowship 2025: Autonomy, Consent, and Sexual Ableism. Watch with audio description & closed captions.
Full keynote conversation: Permission, Pleasure, and Power, with Rebecca Cokley, October 28, 2025. Watch with ASL interpretation & closed captions.
Professional experience
- 2007–2009 | Public Health Intern, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Designed and analyzed a healthcare needs assessment for children in mother-child prison programs and developed program and policy recommendations.
Teaching & speaking
- October 2025 | Brandeis University. Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship keynote conversation with Rebecca Cokley and guest teaching in the Disability Seminar. Watch the full keynote (ASL & captions).
Research, policy & community projects
- May 2026 | Public health advocacy. Authored a public comment on a Section 504 accessibility delay. Read the public comment.
- 2024 | National HESPA III panelist. Participated in the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis III and developed recommendations on access, inclusion, and cultural humility for consideration by the steering committee.
- 2017 | American Printing House for the Blind. Provided review feedback on the sexuality education chapter of Health Education for Students with Visual Impairments: A Guidebook for Teachers.
- Additional professional service. External book-proposal reviews for Routledge / Taylor & Francis and community-based research on sexual health information, education, and service access. See a published citation of my consent education work (PDF).
Writing & public comments
- Fellowship film & context, published May 2026
- 2026, May 21. Public comment on the Section 504 accessibility delay. Authored a public health and disability access response and a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- 2026, August 30. When Ableism Becomes Policy: The Public Health Cost of Delayed Rehabilitation.
- 2026, May 21. Blindness Is Not the Public Health Crisis. Ableism Is.
- 2026, April 26. Rideshare Ableism: Naming the Public Health and Consent Crisis. Series overview.
- 2026, April 26. Ableism in Rideshare: Naming the Public Health and Consent Crisis Behind Service Dog Denials. Part 1.
- 2026, April 26. From Rideshare Ableism to Accountability: Consent, Enforcement, and Public Health Reform. Part 3.
Further recordings & public resources
- Fellowship film, closed captions. Captioned film without audio description; the audio-described version appears above.
- Read the fellowship film transcript. The complete descriptive transcript appears below the article on this site.
- How Systemic Ableism Shapes Perceptions of Disability. Lurie Institute short with audio description and captions.
Pricing and next steps
Consulting is quoted by project. Rates depend on scope, preparation, timeline, deliverables, and whether you need a focused review or an ongoing partnership.