For Immediate Release: January 16, 2026
Contact: Jess Davidson at jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-975-0960
Sarah Shaw at sshaw@aapd.com; 771-243-3251
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is thrilled to announce the recipients of its 2026 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards, an award given to emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.
Paul G. Hearne was a visionary leader who was a passionate advocate for disability employment and cultivating leaders to advance the disability rights movement. He was also an AAPD co-founder and AAPD’s first Executive Director before his passing in 1998. Through the award, AAPD has continued Paul’s legacy by recognizing over 75 individuals over 25 years in Hearne’s honor. The funding provided by this award has supported advocacy, education, skill building, organizational infrastructure, and more.
AAPD proudly recognizes Katie Drackert and Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson as the 2026 recipients of the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award.
The Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award is given annually to two outstanding emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community. Awardees must have a bold idea to advance the movement for disability rights and justice, and recipients can be individuals or groups.
In 2025, in honor of the award’s 25th year, AAPD increased the award amount to $25,000: $10,000 in recognition of the recipients’ outstanding contributions to disability rights and $15,000 dedicated to furthering a new or existing project or initiative that increases opportunities for people with disabilities. In addition to funding, awardees also receive support from AAPD that helps bring their bold idea to fruition. Our Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award recipients will be honored at AAPD’s virtual National Community Event on April 30, 2026. More information about the National Community Event will be announced soon.
“AAPD is thrilled to name Katie and Brittanie as this year’s Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award winners,” said Maria Town, AAPD President & CEO. “Though their projects differ in subject matter and scope, their work underscores an essential theme – that disabled people thrive when we are connected to community and experience collective access. The efforts of these leaders are vital for the future of our community.”
Learn more about this year’s recipients:
Katie “KD” Drackert: Katie Drackert (she/her), otherwise known as “KD”, is a Disabled Sapphic focused on advocacy, organizing, public speaking, and creating art in Austin, Texas. Upon witnessing the government reduce access to critical public health information regarding airborne pathogens such as Covid, while simultaneously navigating the worsening of her disabilities due to Long Covid, KD founded Clear the Air ATX (CTA) in 2023. CTA is an organization dedicated to providing access to free high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifiers and community education to reduce the spread of airborne pathogens and impacts of post-viral illnesses. In addition to founding CTA, KD has advocated for Long Covid care to the FDA, organized against anti-mask legislation in Texas, and spoken at local events. Katie is a first-generation college student studying communications with an advocacy concentration at Texas State University and volunteers with Patient Led Research Collaborative. KD’s advocacy around the impacts of Long Covid and the importance of preventative measures can also be found in the Texas Observer, Teen Vogue, Austin-American Statesman, YES! Magazine, and more.
Funds from the Hearne Award will be used by KD and the Clear the Air ATX (CTA) team to expand Clear the Air ATX’s reach and services. The focus will be on creating joyful and educational events around clean air that center Disabled Texans, enhancing access to air purifiers, and sustaining the core operation of CTA through the Purifiers Distribution Project, which will allow CTA to collaborate with local organizations as well as strengthen its connections and support to multi-marginalized Disabled communities across the Austin area by providing access to clean indoor air tools.
Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson: Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson (she/her) is a multiracial disabled organizer whose work lives at the intersection of disability justice, care, and collective liberation. She has fought to expand Medicaid access, eliminate subminimum wages in Minnesota, and secure fair pay for home care workers, including helping win Hero Pay with SEIU during the pandemic. Based in Oakland, Brittanie serves as the California Lead Homecare Organizer at Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network and helps co-convene the Long TermSS4All Grassroots Coalition, a statewide network led by disabled and aging people fighting for universal access to home- and community-based care. Her leadership is rooted in interdependence, access, and the belief that care is a practice of love, survival, and shared power.
Funds from the Hearne Award will be used to build out a new program called “Our Stories, Our Care”, which is a disability justice storytelling and care-rooted advocacy project to defend Medicaid and home care in California. Through accessible trainings, one-on-one coaching, and fully supported advocacy trips, disabled and aging people supported by Medicaid and Home- and Community-Based Services will be resourced to share their stories with lawmakers and their communities. The project centers collective access by providing interpretation, attendant care, travel, and other supports so no one is excluded from participation. These stories will become both testimony and movement, a living record of what it means to fight for a world where care, dignity, and survival belong to all of us – no bodymind left behind.