• Bob Lujano
  NCHPAD
• Daryl Coleman
  Write to Heal, Original Cohort
• Lorenzo Brown
  Executive Director, Is-Able Center
• Hasaan Hawthorne
  NCHPAD
• Allie B. Gorrie
  Inclusion and Accessibility Consultant & Musical Theatre Artist
• Jen Allred
  Lakeshore Foundation
• Jessica Blinkhorn
  Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator & Guggenheim Fellow
• Michael Fitts
  UAB Libraries (retired)
• Ingrid Pfau
  Lead Digital Media Producer, NCHPAD & Filmmaker

• Tosha Gaines
  Occupational Therapist & Photographer
• Lauren McCartney
  Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor
• Gina Beach
  Writer & Yoga Teacher
• Mark McColl
  Engineer, Philanthropist, former Chair, Lakeshore Foundation
• Kimberly Kirklin
  Director, Arts in Medicine
• Elizabeth Vander Kamp
  Writer, Artist, Write to Health Facilitator
• Lauren Edwards
  Program Coordinator, Arts in Medicine

Victoria Dugger

Victoria Dugger (b. 1991, Columbus, Georgia) is a visual artist who lives and works in Athens, Georgia. Her practice spans painting, mixed media works, and sculpture. Working across these forms, she produces objects that blur accepted categories, exploring novel modes of self-expression and embodiment. She dissects her identity as a Black, disabled woman through a blend of playful compositions and grotesque imagery. Dugger recently received her MFA in Painting at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. The artist had her debut new York solo show “Out of Body” with Sargent’s Daughters in July 2021, which was featured on Vogue, Hyperallergic, artnet, ARTnews, Whitehot Magazine, and artdaily. She is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.

Alie B. Gorrie

Alie B. Gorrie is an AEA actor, arts educator, and disability inclusion advocate based in Birmingham, AL. As an actor, some of her favorite roles include Gertrude McFuzz in the National Tour of Seussical, Helen in the world premiere opera, TOUCH, and Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical! Alie B. is currently bringing her solo show COCKEYED OPTIMIST to theatres across the Southeast.

She is the founder of SONGS FOR SIGHT, an organization serving children with low vision across Alabama. Additionally she serves as a disability inclusion consultant for arts organizations and businesses nationwide, offering trainings, keynotes, and workshops.

Alie B. holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Belmont University and an MA in Arts in Medicine from The University of Florida. Alie B. Is a tap and musical theatre educator at Red Mountain Theatre, The Dance Foundation, Access Acting Academy, and ActionPlay She is also an arts in health professional at an intensive outpatient eating disorders clinic. For more, visit www.aliebgorrie.com

On Instagram: @aliebg

Ali Stroker

Ali Stroker is a Tony Award winner for her role as ‘Ado Annie’ in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! She made history as the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway in Deaf West’s acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening and the first actor in a wheelchair to win a Tony. She was a series regular on the Netflix series, Echoes, and starred in the Lifetime holiday film, Christmas Ever After. Ali recurred in the final season of Netflix’s Ozark and in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. She co-wrote the novel, The Chance to Fly and its sequel, Cut Loose!; and she wrote the children’s book, Ali and the Sea Stars. She was recently seen opposite Matthew Broderick in Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC and played ‘Lady Anne’ in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Richard III. She’s performed her one woman show all over the country. Her mission to improve the lives of others through the arts is captured in her motto: “Turning Your Limitations Into Your Opportunities.”

Suzanne Costello

Suzanne Costello joined Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater in New York City in 1979 and became its Artistic Co-Director in 1984. During her career with the company, she has been highlighted as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and rehearsal director. As Director of Arts & Education and Arts & Healthcare Programs for the company, she coordinates and facilitates the many community projects SPDT has come to be known for nationally and internationally.

She has served as an expert at national conferences for the National Organization for Arts in Health as well as on panels for the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, COMPAS, and CultureWorks, among others.
Ms. Costello’s choreographic work has been honored with three Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and has been commissioned by national dance companies and individual artists. She has twice been a Cowles Guest Artist as well as Affiliate Faculty for six years at the University of Minnesota. She has also been a guest artist at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. Costello first began her study of dance under Annelise Mertz at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Dance.

Her latest project, Moving Beyond Bars is a creative program that engages participants in writing and movement to explore and express their full selves. Supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S., this program has been implemented in prisons and release programs for men, women, adults and adolescents. The core belief of this initiative is that guiding participants to acknowledge and express their sense of identity behind their offender label emboldens them and provides a new strength to move beyond bars.

As populations move from incarceration and through the parole/ probation system, ultimately it is the INDIVIDUAL who will succeed or not. How do we validate these individuals as full members of society? Research confirms that family connections and work provide a sense of stability. However, these individuals need a way to reclaim their sense of self. The power of the arts cannot be underestimated in providing this connection. Having the opportunity to express their true selves has been proven to be therapeutic but, more importantly, it is perhaps the most holistic method to address the reparation of these broken lives.

Anita Hollander

Anita Hollander has worked throughout Europe, Asia, Russia and America as an actress, singer, composer, lyricist, director, producer, and teacher.  She has premiered new works of composers and playwrights at Carnegie Hall, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Shakespeare Festival, where she sang original work of Philip Glass. She received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical for the Olney Theatre premiere of The Fifth Season and originated the title role in the award-winning play Gretty Good Time at the Kennedy Center in Washington. As a two-time cancer survivor, Anita has negotiated over half her 50-year performing career on one leg, using her disability not only to enhance her roles, but to enlighten the world about disability and promote greater visibility and employment for performers with disabilities.

The Kennedy Center presented her original one-woman musical Still Standing: A Musical Survival Guide for Life’s Catastrophes, which won the Audience Award at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC and has garnered critical praise and awards from the New York Times, ASCAP, Billboard, and Back Stage Magazine, for writing as well as performance. Still Standing won the Audience Award at the United Solo Festival Off-Broadway, and has been presented at The White House, Off-Broadway, Disney World, and as far away as Seoul, South Korea (CD on iTunes). In 2021 Roundabout Theatre’s Reverb Play Festival presented Anita’s play Lebensunwerten Leben: Life Unworthy of Life, and her second original solo musical, Spectacular Falls, premiered Off-Broadway and has toured the country.  Yet another solo musical, Walking to Canada, appears in the play collection Estrogenius 2003. She has also composed new works for The Village Temple (NYC) as musical director and Children’s Choir director.

Anita’s other theatrical work has included a triple role in Chicago’s Goodman Theatre production of The Matchmaker, a 3-legged Grizabella…..(Broadway World Top Ten),Emma Goldman in Ragtime, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, Meg in Damn Yankees, Aunt Eller in Oklahoma, Golde in Fiddler on the Roof, Sister Hubert in Nunsense, Blanche in Brighton Beach Memoirs, the title role in Shirley Valentine, and Mrs. Harcourt in Trump Plaza/Atlantic City’s Anything Goes. Off-Broadway, Anita starred in Theatre Breaking Through Barriers’ World Premieres of Bass for Picasso and Power Plays (which toured Japan), as well as The Artificial Jungle (directed by Everett Quinton), Richard Maxwell’s ADS at PS 122, and JoAnne Akalaitis’ Woyzeck at The Joseph Papp Public Theatre.

On TV, Anita has been a promo announcer for NBC Today Show and narrated the acclaimed PBS series People in Motion featuring Itzak Perlman, Marlee Matlin and John Hockenberry. She’s also appeared on FBI: Most Wanted, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Gotham, As the World Turns, Oz, The Sopranos, and All My Children (on which her husband and daughter, Paul, and Holland Hamilton, also appeared). BBC/London featured Anita on their program From the Edge, and MTV featured her in their Celebration of Diversity. Recent films include Handsome Harry and Susan Seidelman’s Musical Chairs, as well as the short feature Etude (starring role).

Having served on the National Board of SAG-AFTRA, Anita is National Chair of SAG-AFTRA Performers with Disabilities Committee and a member of the Actors Equity/Broadway League Diversity Coalition. A founding member of Inclusion in the Arts’ project DEAL (Disability in Entertainment & Arts Link), she adjudicates for the ReelAbilities Film Festival and VSA Arts Playwright Discovery Program. Anita served as a National Co-chair of the I AM PWD Campaign (Inclusion in the Arts & Media of People With Disabilities) and maintains a Watchdog Report of disability activity in film, TV & theatre. She has enlightened audiences in theatres and schools about disability with Boston’s Urban Improv, Joseph Chaikin’s Body Songs at NY’s Public Theatre, Heidi Latsky Dance, and Infinity Dance Theatre. She has toured as a Celebrity Against Cancer for the American Cancer Society and appeared at the United Nations with Betty Buckley and Tom Brokaw. Anita also appears in the documentary Joseph Chaikin: A Life in the Theatre.

From Where I Sit

 A new project to engage individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), MS and Spina Bifida from across the country to share their stories of challenge and triumph in an original stage work.

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater’s Artistic Co-Director Suzanne Costello will create and direct this new work incorporating movement, music, and monologues based on these stories. The culminating performances will be presented at the Alys Stephens Center, University of Alabama/ Birmingham (UAB) in May, 2025.

From Where I Sit grew out of Costello’s ongoing partnership with UAB. She created and directed Raising Our Voices in 2021 which featured Birmingham community members impacted by cancer. The culminating performance, based on the participants’ stories, was presented at UAB Alys Stephens. That same year UAB/AIM initiated an expressive writing program for individuals with SCI. The program included individuals in the Birmingham community as well as others across the country. Due to the program’s resounding success, UAB invited Costello to create an original performance work based on the participants’ writings.

 “I want to create performances that give voice to the unheard.”

The writings of the participants will serve as the creative focus for the development of the new stage work. The project will be developed at the Lakeshore Foundation April 27- May 10, 2025. Performances will be May 8, 10 & 11, 2025.