Class of 2019

“Disabled people are often isolated, and many of us have been taught to doubt our own capabilities and worth. Mentoring is a crucial way to counter this isolation and self-doubt while helping one another forge our own paths, which in turn open up new possibilities for others. Through mentoring, we support individuals’ growth as a way of strengthening our communities.”

We are proud to induct Allegra Heath-Stout into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.

Allegra Heath-Stout (she/her) has served as Fellowship Director and Trainer at Jewish Organizing Institute and Network (JOIN) for Justice since 2016. In this role, she trains and coaches Jewish young adults through the Jewish Organizing Fellowship, a year-long community organizing training program. Allegra has spearheaded the creation of the Empower Fellowship, an initiative dedicated to supporting disabled Jewish organizers and training local justice organizations and all JOIN Fellows and to work against ableism. Through the Empower Fellowship, Allegra mentors young adults with disabilities as they find jobs as community organizers; explore the intersections of disability, Judaism, and justice work; and deepen their skills as social justice leaders.

Prior to coming to JOIN, Allegra organized low-income people with disabilities at Boston Center for Independent Living, starting with her own Jewish Organizing Fellowship year. Her work focused on affordable housing, healthcare, and transportation issues affecting the disability community in Massachusetts. Among other victories, Allegra organized a campaign that won increases of over one million dollars in state funding for affordable housing for people with disabilities.

Allegra’s writing on disability identity and student activism has been published in Empowering Leadership: A Systems Change Guide for Autistic College Students and Those with Other Disabilities, Barriers and Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability, and Disability Studies Quarterly. Allegra serves on the board of Disability Policy Consortium, in Malden, MA, and trains Autistic college student leaders at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s Autism Campus Inclusion Leadership Academy each summer. She lives in Somerville, MA, with her partner. She has a B.A. in Psychology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Wesleyan University.