Our Work
Announcing HPOD’s 2023-24 Annual Fellows
Projects will tackle intersections with race, criminal law, institutionalization, health care, and global peace and security
HPOD's 2023-2024 annual fellows will explore pressing disability rights issues. Image from Microsoft PowerPoint 2023.
Each year, HPOD invites outstanding individuals to participate in its annual fellows program and enrich HPOD’s efforts to strengthen civil society and empower all people to make the changes needed in their communities to promote disability human rights. The 2023-24 class of fellows will focus their talents and energies on an array of pressing issues regarding the intersections of race and disability, the treatment of persons with psychosocial disabilities in the criminal legal system, the history of institutionalization, inclusion in the global peace and security agenda, and representation in medical profession.
Alice Abrokwa
Alice Abrokwa is currently a Senior Counsel in the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. She most recently served as a Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, where she engaged in impact litigation on behalf of children and youth across the country focused on the areas of special education and children's mental health. Prior to that position, Alice was a Trial Attorney with the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and a Skadden Fellow at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, where she represented D.C. students with mental health disabilities in special education matters. She began her career as a judicial law clerk and is a graduate of Princeton University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School.
Benjamin Barsky
Benjamin A. Barsky is Initiative Fellow at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and a Ph.D. candidate in health policy at Harvard University. His work intersects health and criminal law, behavioral health policy, and disability justice. In particular, his dissertation research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to study the relationship between criminal law and health across three domains of application: controlled substances law and telemedicine; policing and alternative public safety interventions, and incarceration and its health and social sequelae. He received his J.D. and Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania and B.A. in Public Health and Psychology from Johns Hopkins University.
Alex Green
Alex Green studies the history of institutionalization of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and its relationship to contemporary human rights issues. He spearheaded the creation of the Massachusetts Special Commission on State Institutions, a first-of-its kind disability-led truth commission. From 2017-2020 he developed a nationally recognized community-focused and project-based high school disability history curriculum. He is currently writing a biography of Walter E. Fernald, the creator of special education, for Bellevue Press. He teaches political communications at Harvard Kennedy School.
William Pons
William Pons is an expert in international humanitarian law, international human rights, and international criminal law, focusing on the protection of persons with disabilities and accountability for disability-based crimes during armed conflict and humanitarian crises. His expertise on the intersections between disability rights and armed conflict, humanitarian action, international criminal law, peacebuilding, and disaster risk reduction has informed seminal works on utilizing the international criminal law framework to provide more inclusive accountability for atrocities targeting persons with disabilities, and on how Islamic law and international humanitarian law protect persons with disabilities. He has consulted and advised on disability-inclusive actions during armed conflict, humanitarian crisis, and peacebuilding for the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the World Bank, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Human Rights Watch, and the Geneva Academy. He also has lectured on disability, international humanitarian law, and peacebuilding at the University of Maryland School of Law, George Washington University Elliott School, and American University Washington College of Law.
Dorothy Tolchin Weiss
Dorothy W. Tolchin, MD, EdM is the Founding Director of the Integrated Longitudinal Disability and Anti-Ableism Curriculum at Harvard Medical School (HMS), bringing together a range of stakeholders to design, implement, and assess focused education for medical students in the principles and practice of accessible, equitable healthcare for individuals living with disabilities of all types. Dr. Tolchin also serves as faculty advisor for several student groups at HMS centered on disability advocacy, career mentorship, and scholarship. She presents locally, nationally, and internationally about comprehensive care for individuals living with disabilities, the landscape of disability education in undergraduate and graduate medical education, and the development of disability curricula and inclusive learning environments. At HMS, in addition to her disability work, Dr. Tolchin holds leadership positions in interprofessional education and in palliative care education. She also serves as the Director of Medical Student Education for the HMS/Mass General Brigham/Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Tolchin earned her AB summa cum laude, EdM, and MD from Harvard.
