Skip to content
CREATE at UW

Advisory Board

The CREATE Advisory Board is composed of leaders in accessibility and accessible design. The board helps guide and amplify our work in accessibility research, education, and translation.

CREATE thanks ChrisTiana ObeySumner for their service

CREATE thanks ChrisTiana ObeySumner for two years of service on the Advisory Board. With a background in social equity, change management, and disability justice, ObeySumner supported CREATE by providing invaluable expertise about community perspectives, consulted on the launch of CREATE’s Race, Disability & Technology initiative, and helped ensure grants were awarded to projects that were appropriate and meaningful. ObeySumner continues their contributions to the UW with a course on “Contexts of Disability and Anti-Ableist Practice,” offered through the UW School of Social Work.

ChrisTiana ObeySumner: a Black, queer, non-binary, and multiply disabled researcher in front of a bright red background
Amy Hurst, a white woman with brown hair and glasses, holding a microphone and talking in front of a large display screen that casts a purple light.
Amy Hurst, she/her

Amy Hurst

Associate Professor, New York University (NYU) with joint appointments in Occupational Therapy, and Human Development and the Technology, Culture and Society Department in the Tandon School of Engineering. Director, NYU Ability Project

Hurst website

Shaun Kane has grey hair and a grey beard and bright green glasses. In this image he is posing in front of a frozen lake in Iceland.
Shaun K. Kane, he/him

Shaun K. Kane

Research scientist in Responsible AI at Google Research. Founder, the Superhuman Computing Lab at CU Boulder

Kane website

Jonathan Lazar, with a big smile and wearing a suit and multi-colored tie.
Jonathan Lazar (he/him)

Jonathan Lazar

Professor, College of Information Studies (iSchool) University of Maryland
Executive Director, Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility (MIDA)
Core faculty, Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL)

Lazar website

Headshot of Ed Summers, a white man with brown hair, wearing a black t-shirt and a brown and black checked blazer.
Ed Summers he/him

Ed Summers

Head of Accessibility at GitHub. A blind software engineer and accessibility executive whose personal mission is to enable people with disabilities to realize their full potential in the classroom and the 21st century knowledge economy.

Summers’ LinkedIn profile

Past Advisory Board members

We thank these former Advisory Board members for their perspective and expertise in guiding CREATE’s work.

  • Mary Bellard, Principal Innovation Architect Lead, Microsoft and Microsoft AI for Accessibility program manager
  • Rory A. Cooper, FISA Foundation – Paralyzed Veterans of America Distinguished Professor; Founder and Director of Human Engineering Research Laboratories
  • Juan E. Gilbert, Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor & Chair, Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department, University of Florida 
  • ChrisTiana ObeySumner, Master of Public Administration; Master in Not-for-Profit Leadership; Advocate for social equity, change management, and disability justice
  • Ebele Okoli, Business Program Manager for Microsoft’s Accessibility Innovation Program