Meet the Leadership Team!
Who we are
Our leadership team has graduate and undergraduate students from Allen School as well as other STEM majors here at University of Washington. We are all excited to meet you at our events!
Lucille Njoo (she/her)
Drew King (they/them)
Co-chair
Hello! I’m Lucille, and I’m a third-year PhD student at the Allen School. The dog in my picture is my service dog, CeCe, who is much cooler than I am. I have an invisible disability myself that took me a long time to figure out, so I’m excited for Ability to help other students with disabilities grow together. Feel free to reach out any time, whether it’s with questions about Ability or to get cute pictures of my marvelous mutt!
Co-Chair
Hello everyone, my name is Drew and I am a transfer student at UW Seattle from Seattle Central College. I am joining as an Ability Officer because I would like to be more involved with the Disability community at UW. I am invested in getting more people involved with Ability since my core friend group at UW Seattle is primarily other students with disabilities. I have a multitude of invisible disabilities and the intersection of them has led to me feeling a sense of imposter syndrome. Being friends with other people who have disabilities has helped me to be more accepting of my own identity as an autistic person living with multiple disabilities. One area of interest of mine has been the debate in the autistic community between identity first and person first language. I hope as an officer of student relationships that I can strike a balance when using language to describe our events. I would also love to see an Ability event which focuses on invisible disabilities.
Theodoric Greenleaf (he/him)
Ethan LaPlante (he/him)
Joban Mand (he/him)
Vice Chair
Hello! My name is Theodoric. (It’s probably not pronounced like you think, so you should come ask me!) I went to my first Ability event at the end of my freshman year, and really enjoyed it, so I went to more, and eventually decided I wanted to join in. As someone with multiple disabilities, the hardest part of college for me is trying to keep up with the expectations of doing full-time classes and engaging in extracurriculars and trying to find work. As an ambulatory wheelchair user and service dog handler, I’m acutely aware of how our appearance can color others’ perceptions of us, which is why it’s awesome to work with a group focused on connecting students to inclusive organizations/employers. Also, if you see me and my service dog around campus while he’s got his harness off, feel free to come say hi and give him some pets!
Social Media Manager
Howdy. My name is Ethan LaPlante and I am a third year undergrad student in the College of Built Environments. I have a bi-lateral hearing loss that I have had since birth, and did not like anyone knowing about it. Since I have gotten older, I have learned to let go of the little things as they wont change who you are. I look forward to getting to know my fellow peers, both at CBE and UW as a whole.
Project Manager
Hello everyone! My name is Joban (pronounced “Jo-bin” but please talk to me in person to fully learn how to say it), and I am a first-year student coming straight in from high school to UW’s undergraduate Bachelor program. For the last 10 years of my life, I have had different inserts and orthotics in both of my shoes at almost all times. I have severe flat feet, a chronic disability that is usually permanent and lifelong, which makes it difficult to walk for longer periods of time without them. Nonetheless, I have maintained hobbies and sports such as swimming and running throughout my life, and I became truly drawn into CS by its revolutionary potential to not only advance society in technology that pushes forward the barriers of innovation but also to ensure that accessibility is enshrined in the future of our society
Photographer/Videographer
External Relations
History
Ability was founded in Spring 2021 by Nayha Auradkar , an alumni at the Allen School. Nayha founded Ability with a mission to promote disability community and accessibility awareness at the Allen School and at UW as a whole.
Allen School Staff Support
Hi everyone, my name is EJ Pinera and I have the privilege of serving on the Ability team as the Staff Adviser. This is my third year with the Allen School, but outside of work, you can find me cooking new recipes, playing piano, or watching tv shows with my partner at our place in Eastlake. The past few years, I’ve been learning how to navigate the world with an anxiety disorder, and understanding what it looks like to manage medications and work on healthy practices for myself–and for social dynamics/others around me!
