Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Spotlighting Sandy Ho

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month—a time to honor the history, diversity of culture, and immense contributions of the AAPI community. This month, we are proud to spotlight a phenomenal advocate working right at the intersection of cultural identity and disability justice: Sandy Ho.

Born, raised, and educated right here in Massachusetts, Sandy is a queer, disabled, Vietnamese-American community organizer, researcher, and activist whose work has shifted national conversations around inclusion and equity.

Local Roots to National Impact

Sandy’s path as an activist is deeply tied to the Greater Boston area. After graduating from Lesley University in Cambridge, she dedicated herself to youth mentorship and community empowerment. She completed a service year with AmeriCorps, managing a youth program at Roxbury Community College, and later spent years expanding Easter Seals Thrive, a program focused on supporting and empowering young disabled women.

Driven by a desire to fix systemic gaps, Sandy went on to study public policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Her work focuses on a vital truth: disability does not exist in a vacuum. It intersects with race, gender, and sexuality, and true accessibility means addressing all of these layers together.

Building Accessible Spaces

Frustrated by the lack of diverse representation in traditional advocacy spaces, Sandy took action:

• The Disability & Intersectionality Summit (DIS): Sandy founded this national conference to explicitly center the leadership, experiences, and art of disabled people of color.
• White House Recognition: In 2015, her grassroots impact earned her recognition as a White House “Champion of Change” during the Obama administration.
• Philanthropic Leadership: Today, she continues her work on a large scale as the Executive Director of the Disability & Philanthropy Forum, mobilizing the philanthropic sector to center disability rights and justice.

Sandy Ho’s work reminds us that inclusion is about empowering individuals to build their strengths as advocates, lead their own conversations, and define their own futures. This AAPI Heritage Month, we celebrate Sandy’s local legacy and her ongoing commitment to a more intersectional, accessible world.