Summit Agenda

Rebecca Vallas is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Rebecca brings two decades of experience shaping economic policy, with a career that spans federal and state policy, legal advocacy, and narrative strategy. Most recently, she was a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where she founded the organization’s disability economic justice work, and launched a national bipartisan campaign to modernize SSI’s outdated asset limits.

Rebecca is a former legal aid attorney and previously held leadership roles at the Center for American Progress, where she oversaw the organization’s antipoverty work and originated its disability work, and the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives.

In her personal practice, Rebecca is a trained astrologer, energy healer, and spiritual coach. When she isn’t in Washington, D.C., she spends her time on a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and four rescue cats.

Hanna Vohra is a Senior Legislative Assistant for Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), leading the Senator’s legislative work in health care, public health, and other issues. Before joining Senator Van Hollen’s office in 2023, Hanna served as a health policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Hanna has a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Liz Weintraub has a long history of leadership in self-advocacy and has held many board and advisory positions at state and national organizations. She is a full time member of the AUCD's policy team and also the host of "Tuesdays With Liz: Disability Policy For All," where she makes policy language understood by all.

Liz has served as a Fellow for Senator Casey of Pennsylvania, working in his DC Office where she helped lead the way on disability policy. Senator Casey said, "Liz has shown the Senate how important it is to have staff members who have developmental and intellectual disabilities. She's helped reshape the culture of the Senate." Liz has also shared her personal experience as a woman with disabilities in many venues, including written and oral testimony for Senate Committees on the topic of civil rights of people with disabilities.

Prior to coming to AUCD, Liz worked for the Council on Quality & Leadership (CQL). Liz is an alumni of the LEND training program at the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University. Liz was a past chair of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council. Liz has received numerous awards, recognition, and commendations for her work. Liz enjoys mentoring people with disabilities.

Valerie C. Williams is Co-Founder and CEO of Apokrisis Consultants, Inc., where she advises education systems, organizations, and leaders on special education policy, systems alignment, implementation, and strategy. She previously served as Director of the Office of Special Education Programs within the U.S. Department of Education during the Biden-Harris Administration, where she oversaw approximately $15 billion in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding and provided national leadership on issues affecting infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities.

Valerie has spent her career working at the intersection of policy, practice, advocacy, and systems change. She has served as a disability policy advisor on Capitol Hill, worked in national advocacy, and supported state and local education systems in strengthening special education services, inclusive practices, and outcomes for students with disabilities.

Her perspective is shaped not only by federal leadership and policy experience, but also by her lived experience as the parent of a child with Down syndrome. Valerie is committed to ensuring that students with disabilities are recognized as students first and that IDEA remains a strong, enforceable education law grounded in access, accountability, inclusion, and opportunity.