Jessica King, Founder of WDDA

​​Jessica founded White Dove Disability Advocacy with the aspiration to create a community-driven organization that empowers disability and accessibility through creative, educational, and innovative projects. As the founder and executive director, she prioritizes the everyday goal to learn, grow, challenge, and be a holistically inclusive scholar-activist.

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Connecting her disabled experiences to interdisciplinary studies, she engages in community psychology labs and presents at multiple conferences each semester. Exploring disability-focused topics across multiple disciplines, Jessica has presented at organizations such as the Southern California Writing Centers Association, Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association, Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues, and CSULB's Current Comparative Literature.

 

She also utilizes her neurodivergent and chronically ill experiences to advocate disability representation in nonprofit leadership and accessibility in operations. Her recent roles include Disability Pride Project Lead Coordinator at Words for the World, Submission and Accessibility Coordinator at DREAM-U Zine, and Director of Campus and Student Communications at The Orion Fund.

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As a first-generation and low-income student, Jessica graduated with her dual-BA in creative writing and comparative world literature and dual-minor in health humanities and and human development at California State University, Long Beach. She'd begun her disability advocacy at this campus, supported by faculty and staff with her makeshift independent study. Supported by her mentors and peers, she's now transitioning into a disability studies graduate program at City University of New York's School of Professional Studies.

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She welcomes everybody and every body to participate in WDDA to forward its mission of disability empowerment.