Rebecca Cokley joined the Ford Foundation in 2021 as the first U.S. Disability Rights Program Officer. Prior to Ford, she co-founded the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress. A three time Appointee for President Obama, Rebecca served at the U.S. Department of Education, HHS, and the White House where she oversaw DEI. In 2020 she was awarded the Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life from Brandeis. Rebecca has spoken at Netroots Nation, NY Comic-Con, Yale, given a TedX talk and been a guest on MSNBC and Last Week Tonight.  A Pister Scholar at UC Santa Cruz, she graduated with a B.A. in Politics.