About Nancy
Nancy Yang
Nancy (they/them) is a community advocate, academic, and organizer who has developed their skills, expertise, and research on disability and disability justice both in and out of the Hmong community.
Nancy’s journey in advocacy began when they were a student activist fighting for a Critical Hmong Studies program at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire (UWEC). Not too long after, Nancy became disabled and rerouted their advocacy journey to include Mad pride, psychiatric survivorship, and eventually, disability justice.
As a Hmong-American queer disabled person, Nancy has always been an advocate for Hmong issues in some way, while also always bringing their intersectionality to the table. Nancy has been a domestic violence advocate for Hmong women, a youth program coordinator for Hmong youth, and an avid advocate for disability justice in Hmong disability and larger Hmong communities.
Previously, Nancy held a leadership role at United Hmong with Disabilities (UHD), the only national disabled-led organization for Hmong people. Nancy co-facilitated UHD’s first national virtual conference on Hmong disability and served as UHD’s inaugural Associate Director. Beyond their work with UHD, Nancy leads the Hmong disability community in its path towards disability justice-centered practice and language, supporting peers in their own journeys of disability identity and co-creating liberation.
Nancy is a committed Project Coordinator with the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN), where part of what they do is organize AWN’s Liberating Webinars series on disability justice and neurodiversity-related topics. Nancy is also active in the community in various other ways, including working with other community members to bring disability justice to the Midwest in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Nancy was inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame in the Class of 2022. Nancy earned a Bachelors in Geography from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (UWL), and they are currently working towards their Masters in Disability Studies at the City University of New York School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS).
“I think it is so important that scholars do research from a place of love that is informed by who they are and what they’ve gone through, not what they interpret others to go through.
There is a kind of liberation that research provides when we can not only contribute to the world, but contribute to the world through the knowledge and expertise we have that is informed by our lived lives.
We get to explore who we are, where our place is within the world, and find ways to reimagine what that place could mean.”
Nancy’s Skills
Nancy is available to contribute to your community projects, whether it be through speaking engagements, workshop development and facilitation, consulting, writing, or another idea that you may have. Take a moment to reach out!
As a community advocate, Nancy has previously provided consulting for disability justice movements in the Midwestern United States and beyond, presented and facilitated workshops on disability justice and ableism, and led efforts in capacity- and community-building within formal and informal organizations and collaboratives. Nancy is also a powerful writer whose voice and perspective brings a much needed challenge to our existing colonial systems.
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Community-Building
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Facilitation & Presentation
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Organizational Skills
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Writing & Communication