Meet the Committee

Jonathan Mooney is a dyslexic neurodivergent writer, speaker, and social entrepreneur who did not learn to read until he was twelve years old. He holds an honors degree from Brown University in English Literature (a word he still can’t spell), is a Harry S. Truman Scholar for Public Service, and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.  He is the author of three books, Learning Outside the Lines (Simon and Schuster, 2000), The Short Bus (Henry Holt and Co., 2007), and the subtlety titled Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines (Henry Holt and Co., 2019). 

A lifelong social entrepreneur, Jonathan has created and co-founded a number of social ventures including, in MOCHAMP’s basement and with the support of the amazing Barrett Hazeltine, Eye-To-Eye National, a movement-building organization for students with learning and attention differences. He is currently the co-founder of The Divergent Fund, a venture philanthropy investing in high-impact social ventures that support and empower neurodivergent individuals and their families and speaks across the nation about neurodiversity and disability justice advocating for change.

Akash is a problem solver and relationship builder with cross-industry experience spanning higher education, government, non-profit, and strategy consulting. He currently works as Deputy Chief of Staff at On Belay Health Solutions and is a co-founder of Community Facilitators. He has a proven track record leveraging an engineering mindset in launching new initiatives, navigating complex organizational landscapes, developing insights for support of senior leaders, and forging strategic partnerships.

Graduating in the Brown University Class of 2020 with an A.B. in Engineering, Akash is a strong leader and has extensive experience in community building, leadership development, vision building, and social justice. He serves on the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors and the steering committee for the Disability and Neurodivergence Alumni Collective. In his time as a student at Brown, Akash found community at the Brown Center for Students of Color, South Asian Students Association, Leadership Development Initiative, and served as a Minority Peer Counselor. He began his career at Brown as Campus Life Fellow & Special Assistant to the Vice President for Campus Life building student engagement programs such as the Campus Life Student Advisory Board, Disability Justice Student Initiative, and JUST Lead (Justice-oriented, Understanding, Supportive, and Transformative Leadership). Akash collaborated with staff in the cultural and identity centers on a variety of student-centered programs and initiatives.

Akash enjoys watching/reading/talking about anything Star Wars, playing the trombone, and learning how to cook vegetarian food.

Vanessa (they/them), currently a Product Manager at Rose Health, is adept at strategically identifying innovative opportunities to launch disruptive products in digital healthcare and gaming that serve diverse markets. They have demonstrated cross-functional leadership to achieve business objectives through user-centric advocacy and processes. As a creative, life-long learner, Vanessa is passionate about building a future where disabled and neurodivergent individuals can thrive; they are deeply involved in mental health advocacy since being diagnosed with Schizoaffective Bipolar Disorder I in undergrad at Brown. They also have a Master’s in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship from Brown too! In their free time, they enjoy dancing latin and hip hop styles, co-working with their friends at aesthetic cafés, and playing Super Smash Bros as Kirby or Zero Suit Samus. 

I am a purpose-driven intrapreneur, equitable organization designer, disability activist, and DEIBA strategist and practitioner. I am passionate about leveraging the power and potential of people and I thrive leading transformation and driving results across diverse stakeholders. I specialize in organizational and culture design from ideation to execution. 

Equity, belonging, and transparency are top values: I lead by designing pathways and systems that optimize people, ideas, place, and culture. My sweet spot is orgs and programs simultaneously “building the plane while flying” to build infrastructure while meeting ambitious goals. My methods include dynamic facilitation, relationship building, coaching, and culture and system design. I bring an ethic of exploration, adventure, and continuous learning, a joy of working in the arduous and complex, and a flexibility of mind and process. These attributes have also led me to cycle cross-country, explore more than thirty countries globally, and work towards the long term goal of working from a sailboat. 

Strengthsfinder top 5: Individualization, Achiever, Activator, Strategic, Command. My natural way of working is making big things happen by leveraging the diverse strengths of teams and partners; I think like a community organizer having spent the first 10 years of my career in community-based nonprofits.

Resourceful, creative, and results-driven management and marketing executive with extensive experience in leading the development and execution of cohesive marketing plans that propel customer acquisition and business growth for both startups and leading corporations. Proven track record of building a strong brand presence across platforms, increasing revenue, digitizing marketing strategies, and leveraging passion for technology to drive continuous innovation while making a positive impact in the community. An expert in all areas of marketing, including business-to-business marketing (B2B), business-to-customer marketing (B2C), and public relations (PR). A methodical, data-driven leader adept at defining business metrics, setting content and marketing KPIs, and utilizing data and analytics to launch successful marketing campaigns in a fast-paced environment. An analytical storyteller with the ability to translate a brand’s value proposition into a compelling narrative to engage wider audiences.

A Physician Assistant by trade, graduating with a Health and Human Biology degree from Brown University, then securing a master's in Physician Assistant Studies from Lemoyne College, Dianne started her career as a surgical Physician Assistant. After sustaining a spinal cord injury in 2020 leaving her a quadriplegic, she has been tireless in redefining her life and creating a new identity for herself. Through her adversity, it became obvious that her true passion shines through her resilience and determination to adopt a perspective of hope and gratitude. This outlook on life has allowed her to pivot specialties into working as a psychiatric PA as well as to discover a profound purpose in being a spinal cord injury mentor and ambassador.

In her time at Brown, Dianne found community in the Brown Women’s Lacrosse team, which she played on all 4 years and became a co-captain her senior year. She recognizes the impact a strong sense of community can have on someone’s mental health, especially after a life-changing injury or disease. By leveraging her degree and integrating her own life experiences, story and trauma, she is able to instill hope in others while strengthening their emotional intelligence so that they can live happier, healthier lives. 

In her free time, Dianne enjoys traveling, adaptive sailing, cycling, and skiing as well as channeling her creative side by documenting her adventures on Instagram.  

As a queer, mentally ill, autistic, and disabled Chinese-Burmese Buddhist woman and child of immigrants, Yema (she/they) is a manifestation of communal love. Because of various communities that have brought her up—most notably, the Burmese Buddhist community in the Bay Area in California and disabled community at Brown—Yema has been able to become a mental health and disability justice scholar-activist-poet dedicated to working toward collective refuge, love, and liberation.

Yema graduated from Brown University in 2019 with a B.A. in their independent concentration, Critical Mental Health Studies, which investigated the medical and social models of mental illness and how both could be navigated for social justice in mental health. During her time at Brown, Yema became co-coordinator of Project LETS at Brown and then in 2019, alongside Malana Krongelb ‘19, she co-founded and led Disability Justice at Brown (DJAB). Some of DJAB’s most notable triumphs have been launching Brown’s first disability study space and building the Disability Justice Student Initiative (DJSI), which still runs today. To continue this work, Yema has worked in the mental health / disability nonprofit sector and recently graduated from York University with a Master of Arts in Critical Disability Studies.

Yema adores shopping for soft pastel feminine fashion, consuming romance anime and manga, savoring milk- and egg-based desserts, and curling up in bed.