Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award

The AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards recognizes outstanding emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.

Through the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) recognizes outstanding emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community. Two (2) individuals or groups will each receive $2,500 in recognition of their outstanding contributions and $7,500 to further a new or existing project or initiative that increases opportunities for people with disabilities. The recipients of the 2025 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards will be honored among national disability leaders at the 2025 AAPD National Community Event in the Spring.

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The 2026 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award application will open by late Summer 2025

AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award Application Process

Who can apply?

In order to apply for the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, you must self-identify as an emerging leader with a disability.

Applicants will not be required to disclose their specific disability. However, by filling out an application, you agree you are a person with a disability. AAPD defines disability broadly, including people without a formal diagnosis but experience disability, chronic medical conditions (including long COVID), and will not request proof of disability.

Emerging leaders are not tied to age, education status, employment, or specific experience or involvement in the disability community.

We encourage you to apply regardless of U.S. citizenship, incarceration status, or age. We especially encourage people who have experienced intersecting forms of discrimination and from historically excluded backgrounds, rural areas, and U.S. territories to apply. The proposed project or initiative should have ties to U.S. or U.S. territories.

When applying for the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, you can either apply as an individual or as a group. If you are applying as a group, only up to four (4) people can be recognized in the award even if the group is larger than four people. Everyone in the group applying for the award must identify as an emerging leader with a disability.

How do I apply?

Candidates for the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leadership Award must submit all of the following required documentation through the online application portal:

Applicant information
Project information
Current resume(s)
Two (2) letters of support. It is strongly recommended the letter of support is from people who will support and/or collaborate with you on your project. If submitting a group application, group members are not allowed to write letters of recommendation for each other in the group.

You can view the application in the Google Application document. In addition, AAPD has developed a document with suggestions and guidelines for your application process. View the 2024 Paul G. Hearne Award application tips Google document. If the online portal or Google document is not accessible or you would like to request a disability accommodation to fill out the application, please email programs@aapd.com.

It is recommended that you complete the essay questions in a separate word processing program and then copy and paste them into the online form to prevent loss of information while applying. Incomplete or late submissions will not be considered. We will not consider any materials in excess of the stated requirements.

Recipients chosen for the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award release all information contained in their application for use on the AAPD website and in public press releases, including releases to the program funders, and potential employers.

Conflicts of Interest

Please note that to avoid conflicts of interest, applications will not be accepted if a letter of support is written by a member of the AAPD Board of Directors, an AAPD staff member, or a relative of any of these individuals. View a list of AAPD Board and Staff. If applying as a group, group members cannot write a letter of support for each other.

Selection Process

An AAPD internal review team will evaluate all eligible applications. The review team will identify the finalists who will be interviewed via video conference or another accessible format. The finalists will be recommended to the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Awards Selection Committee (comprised of AAPD Board members, staff, previous Hearne Awardees, and other partners), who will then select the two award recipients.

All applicants will be notified of a decision on their application by December 2024.

Awardee Requirements

Individuals or groups will receive the $10,000 award ($7,500 for the project and $2,500 scholarship left to the discretion of the individual/group).

The project year will be from January 2025 through December 2025. Recipients of the 2025 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award will have several responsibilities, including but not limited to the following:

Attend the AAPD Community Event in Spring 2025
Complete quarterly reports and calls with AAPD staff regarding the status of their initiative
Submit a final report detailing the outcomes of their initiative, including an accounting of all expenditures
Present their final report to AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Awards Selection Committee
Discuss their work and career path with AAPD’s Summer Internship Program class
Actively promote the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Awards program as well as other AAPD programs—such as the REV UP Campaign, Disability Equality Index (in collaboration with Disability: IN), Disability Mentoring Day, and the Summer Internship Program—to help grow the strength and outreach of AAPD nationally
Contribute to AAPD’s social media and other communication channels to amplify and elevate their work and the work of AAPD

If you have any questions please contact AAPD at programs@aapd.com or at (202) 521-4316.

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Paul G. Hearne: A Legacy of Leadership

This award is named in honor of Paul G. Hearne, an advocate and visionary leader with a lifelong disability who achieved success as a nonprofit executive, foundation president, federal agency director, and mentor to countless people with disabilities. A passionate advocate for increased employment of people with disabilities, Paul opened doors for thousands through his leadership of Just One Break, an employment agency for people with disabilities in New York City and The Dole Foundation for Employment of People with Disabilities in Washington, DC. Until his passing in 1998, Paul pursued two core passions: 1) to create a national association that gave people with disabilities more consumer power and a stronger public voice, and 2) to cultivate potential leaders to carry on the disability rights movement. Paul achieved his first goal during his lifetime with the 1995 creation of AAPD, now recognized as a powerful force for organizing the disability community and catalyzing change. The AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Awards were established in 1999, not only as a way to honor his lifetime of leadership and advocacy, but to help realize Paul’s second goal by highlighting and supporting emerging leaders with disabilities.

Meet the 2025 Award Winners

Fabiola Amaya

Fabiola Amaya (she/her) is a disabled activist, organizer, and writer based in Austin, Texas. She is an undergraduate student at the University of Texas, majoring in social work with a minor in critical disability studies. Passionate about disability advocacy, she founded On the Moov, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing accessibility through community-driven support.

Fabiola’s advocacy extends across various initiatives, including serving as a fellow in the Crip Narratives Collective and playing a leadership role in the Restroom Revolution, a movement focused on making UT’s restrooms more accessible. Her experiences community activism and disability justice continue to shape her work.

In her free time, Fabiola enjoys reading, painting, and engaging in arts and crafts.

With the support of the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Award, Fabiola Amaya is creating a documentary that amplifies the voices of disabled students navigating accessibility barriers in higher education. Through On the Moov, the documentary will highlight the real experiences of students at UT, showcasing both the challenges they face in having their access needs met and the power of peer support in fostering independence. By elevating these stories, Amaya aims to drive institutional change and expand On the Moov’s impact, encouraging students to join On the Moov and provide support to more disabled students.

Dr. Ather Sharif

she/her

Dr. Ather Sharif (he/him) is a Researcher, Software Engineer, Author, and Disability Advocate. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington in 2024. His research focuses broadly on human-computer interaction and specifically on the intersection of accessibility, visualization, and customization. The main objective of his research is to make data visualizations accessible to screen-reader users. His work has been published at top-tier academic venues and received several accolades and recognition from several media outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer. As an expert in data visualization accessibility, he is currently working on a research monograph on this topic, which will be published by Springer in 2025. He is also a Principal Associate at Capital One and the Founder of EvoXLabs, an initiative dedicated to bridging the gap between technology and people with disabilities. He has pioneered several initiatives, including the evoHaX Hackathon, Accessible World Conference, and UnlockedMaps. Through his initiatives, he is dedicated to increasing the accessibility of information technology and the full participation of people with disabilities in computing.

With the Hearne Award funds, he will enhance and scale his initiative, UnlockedMaps, an online map that assists users with mobility disabilities in making informed decisions regarding their commute. UnlockedMaps is currently deployed in six North American cities; with the help of Hearne Award funds, he will onboard more cities to the UnlockedMaps platform in collaboration with like-minded advocates and organizations.