2026 Scholarship Recipients

Pronouns: She/Her

Nasreen is an award winning cinematographer whose work illuminates historically excluded voices. Her lens has captured the Emmy award series UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN, the Emmy award feature film CAN’T LOOK AWAY, Julie Dash’s HOMEGOING which won a 2026 Telly award in cinematography, the Netflix series SUPREME MODELS: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion, which Nasreen was the recipient of the Telly Award in Cinematography, Wanda Sykes Netflix special LEGACY, and the Apple series DEAR… episode with Billy Porter. Nasreen’s first feature, SHE RUNS THE WORLD, about Allyson Felix, premiered at the Tribeca Film festival in 2025, and won best film at DOC LA. Recipient of the “Wild Card” awarded by her NASA peers, Nasreen has been a fellow of the American Film Institute Conservatory, a vision mentee of the American Society of Cinematographers, The United States Artists with a grant from The Ford Foundation, The Center for Cultural Power, The Sundance Institute, Women in Film, and Getty Images. Forbes has described her as “breaking barriers.”

Stephanie Farmer is a multidisciplinary artist and organizer for the disability community. Her art and research are largely devoted to the practice and theory of Deaf Sound Art. Stephanie graduated with Honors from NYU after receiving a full scholarship, studying global media abroad in Ghana, Argentina, and France, and completing a minor in creative writing. She will be attending Columbia University in the fall as a Master of Fine Arts candidate concentrating on Sound Art. Stephanie is also a creative accessibility organizer with experience designing accommodations and workshops for Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, NYU Tandon’s Ability Project, FACESTRAPPED (an accessible rave), the Queer Nightlife Community Center, and more. Stephanie artistically blends expanding sound beyond the ear with expanding empathy and collaboration in disability first community organizing.

Pronouns: He/Him

Gabriel S. Laveso is a Digital Accessibility Coordinator for Martin County and a passionate advocate for mental health and inclusion, drawing from his own lived experiences with chronic depression and anxiety to champion authentic representation. Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media and Visual Communication at Indian River State College, Gabriel holds the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) credential and dedicates his career to bridging the gap between compliance and creative storytelling. His ultimate goal is to design deeply inclusive communication frameworks and fiercely advocate for digital accessibility rights, while actively campaigning to see more people with disabilities holding leadership and decision-making positions within the media business.

Pronouns: She/Her

Dorothy Lolagne is a second-year Screenwriting MFA student at Boston University whose work explores themes of discovery, transformation, and redemption through an unflinching examination of human complexity. A first-generation Haitian American raised in Florida with chronic mental health diagnoses, she draws on her lived experience of hardship and joy to craft stories that blend darkness and light—narratives centered on those living at society’s margins. As a screenwriter, advocate, and aspiring television writer, Dorothy is committed to expanding how audiences understand disability, particularly chronic mental health conditions. Her written pilot centers patients in a modern mental health facility deemed “other,” using comedy as an entry point to examine the serious emotional realities of psychiatric care while asking what happens when society fails to treat people as fully human. Beyond her screenwriting, Dorothy publishes personal essays on her Substack newsletter with the pen name Dorothy Dorcine. Through these essays, she explores healing, transformation, mental health challenges, and her journey of arriving right on time as a late bloomer.

Pronouns: He/Him

José André is a pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader who began teaching himself piano at the age of four, quickly discovering a lifelong passion for jazz. Known for his expressive artistry, technical virtuosity, and distinctive compositional voice, he has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the White House, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A student at The Juilliard School, José performs with leading jazz ensembles and continues his studies under the mentorship of renowned pianists Cyrus Chestnut and Ted Rosenthal, while also studying jazz theory, composition, and arranging with Michael Mossman. His honors include recognition as one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT 50 Leaders, the 2019 VSA International Young Soloist Award, and finalist honors in the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. José’s debut album, Jazz Journey, showcases his evolving artistic voice, blending jazz tradition with contemporary influences and deeply personal storytelling. Whether performing as a soloist, with a trio, or in larger ensembles, he strives to connect with audiences through music that celebrates creativity, resilience, and joy.

Pronouns: They/Them/Él

Héctor is a lifelong disability rights advocate who is Two Spirit, Autistic, a psychiatric survivor, Hard of Hearing, and living with Long COVID and chronic pain. Living on the unceded lands of the Fernandeño Band of Mission Indians in what is now called Los Angeles County. Hector is an incoming graduate student in the Communication Master of Arts program at CSUN, they see Disability Rhetoric and Policy Research as the “Command Center” of the disability rights movement — the place where movement memory is translated into permanent systemic standards rather than lost from one crisis to the next — and they want to use research as a leverage point for integrating intergenerational wellness and Indigenous knowledge into large-scale media campaigns, reshaping how public systems are designed from the ground up.

They are especially motivated by the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, aiming to help its communication infrastructure become a global model proving universal design is genuinely better communication for everyone — moving past “outreach” toward sustainable infrastructure rooted in the lived history of disabled elders and youth alike.

Pronouns: He/Him

Noah Schmidt is a college senior studying Communication and Media Studies at Bridgewater State University. After transferring from Cape Cod Community College. He would like to pursue a career in media writing as well as open the café for people with disabilities and due to social media for the café. He is grateful for so many people’s support, especially his radio Professor Prof. Lisa Zinsius and his parents’ support.  He also has certifications in Media Content Creation and Radio and Podcasting.

Pronouns: He/Him

​Liam Whitworth is a poet, experimental filmmaker, and curator from rural Oregon.

He has performed at The Moth, the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art for Marina Abramovic’s 2011 gala performance of “The Artist Is Present”. ​Whitworth was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Portland Parks and Recreation, Poet in Residence for Oregon State University’s Trillium Project. For his work in the pandemic remotely supporting LGBTQIA+ Oregon-based working-class artists, he was named 2020 Queer Hero for the G&L Archives of the Pacific Northwest. Whitworth is a 2026 Oregon State University Story Lab fellow and North Coast Project fellow. In 2025, he served as a New Media Fellow at ​​Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow and a Pride Foundation Scholar. Previously, he was a 2021 Fellow at Lambda Literary and a 2018, 2021, and 2025 Fellow at Tin House.