As CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA, Susan Sygall (she/her) is an internationally recognized expert in the area of international educational exchange and leadership programs for persons with disabilities. Susan, a wheelchair rider, has had a personal and professional commitment to disability rights and women's issues for more than 30 years. Read Susan's full bio here.

Dr. LuanJiao Aggie Hu completed her PhD in the International Education Policy program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Originally from a rural village in South China, she proudly identifies as a person with a disability, an activist scholar, an international and first-generation college student, and a feminist. LuanJiao Aggie has taught and published research on disability, gender, and education. She frequently shares her research on disabilities as an invited speaker at universities and organizations in different countries (U.S., China, South Korea, etc.). She is the founder of an international disability interest group (Disability Without Borders) that gathers more than 300 scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and advocates from four continents. She has been granted several competitive fellowships and awards for her research and advocacy, including the distinguished Asia Foundation Development Fellowship, and a visiting research fellowship at Lund University, Sweden. She also gave a talk on disability and education at a TEDx Maryland conference in 2015. Currently Dr. Hu works as a consultant with the World Bank.

Samyuktha Neeraja is an Indian-American woman with dwarfism living in Chicago. She is a Chapter Relations Manager at a national membership association for nurses. Prior to starting her career, Samyuktha received her Master's of Public Health degree from Benedictine University. Over the years, Samyuktha has volunteered her time in many areas of the community, including Little People of America (LPA), which is a national organization for people with dwarfism and their families. She also serves as Vice President on the Benedictine University's Alumni Association board. In her free time, Samyuktha mainly enjoys traveling.

The experiences she encountered on her travels have led her to start a travel blog, which she invites everyone to check out and follow at www.justaliltraveling.wordpress.com. Samyuktha also takes pleasure in doing yoga, reading, trying out new restaurants, and spending quality time with family and friends.

A question that Samyuktha would like the students to ask her is, "What are some challenges she had in requesting accommodations on her travels, and what tips does she have for people with disabilities in asserting their rights?

Check out organization website: https://www.herowomenrising.org/

Neema was born in a remote mountain village of east Congo. At the age of 2 years she contracted polio, but with the big love and support of her Mom, when she was around 9 years old, Neema was enrolled in school and made her way each day by leaning on a stick. Education was important to Neema and so in spite of the daunting social stigma and personal hardships, Neema persevered to become the first handicapped woman from her tribe to graduate university, which laid a foundation for a career in public service that eventually brought her to serve as chief advisor to Congo’s Minister of Gender and Family. In 2007, Neema moved from Kinshasa back to Bukavu and started a NGO to enable and empower women with disabilities. In 2012, Neema started the Maman Shujaa (Hero Women) movement and the Hero Women Rising organization – with a mission to enable and empower all Congolese women.

Neema’s heart is as a grassroots leader, working alongside her Congolese sisters to lift them into a different future. Through Hero Women Rising, her work has spawned a number of transformative programs for women, girls, and their communities; everything working together to influence a right-side-up future.

Having secured the coveted Fulbright Scholarship to pursue Masters in Special Education from Boston University, USA, Khaula Rizwan is an accessibility advocate and a strong proponent for inclusion and empowerment. As an educational advisor with a double Masters and 8+ years of work experience in health sciences, NGOs, private schools, and corporate organizations, Rizwan learned advocacy and self-development through countless seminars and consulting conferences. In 2015, she formally launched her educational consultancy, to counsel families and students with disabilities to succeed academically.

Having observed students fall through the cracks in both Pakistan and USA due to lack of early intervention, forced segregation to special schools, or lack of access to guidance counselors, Rizwan decided to start mentoring students with disabilities to go on exchange programs and continue their academic career, advocate for accessibility and financial challenges.

For fun, Rizwan likes to hike, reads fiction, and blog on her consultancy pages. Feel free to ask about my international exchange experience as a hard-of-hearing person in the USA compared with Pakistan.