Press Release
Rockville, MD: The American Association on Health and Disability is proud to announce our newest board member, Dr. Bonnielin Swenor. She comes to AAHD as a long-standing disability researcher and educator who has worked for critical changes to improve disability research and policy nationwide.
Dr. Swenor was a core leader in designating disability as a health disparities population through her involvement with the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Diversity Subgroup on Individuals with Disabilities. Her work has also played a major role in efforts to improve disability data collection across the federal government to support health program access and wellness outcomes. Her work has shaped the advancement of disability inclusion on an international stage.
Dr. Swenor is the Endowed Professor of Disability Health and Justice at Johns Hopkins University, where she is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center. She later founded and now co-directs the Disability Health Equity Research Network (DHERN), a national network that supports researchers in the field of health equity with a focus on disability. Since 2025, she has become the co-lead of the Disability Inclusion in Research Collaboration (DIRECT), an international network aimed at improving and expanding the inclusion of people with disabilities in health research as participants and researchers. Across her work, she is committed to advancing the inclusion of disabled people as leaders in research and advocacy.
She has also been committed to bringing her research into practice across a number of federal and state working groups and advisory roles. Notably, she serves as a member of the NIH Council of Councils Disability Health Research Working Group, which has supported the development of a national NIH Strategic Plan for Disability Health Research.
Dr. Swenor announced “I am delighted to join the AAHD Board of Directors. I look forward to working with my fellow Board members and AAHD leadership to improve the health of people with disabilities.” AAHD Executive Director, Karl Cooper affirmed “We are grateful to expand the diversity of disability representation across our Board of Directors with Bonnielin’s addition and look forward to working to improve our public health systems and research impacting all parts of the disability community.”
Explore Dr. Swenor’s portfolio of recent publications and Wikipedia bio.
About the American Association on Health and Disability
AAHD is dedicated to ensuring health equity for children and adults with disabilities through policy, research, education, and dissemination at the federal, state and community level. AAHD strives to advance health promotion and wellness initiatives for people with disabilities. AAHD’s goals are to reduce health disparities between people with disabilities and the general population, and to support full community inclusion and accessibility.
For more information, please contact:
American Association on Health and Disability
Michelle Sayles, Director of Communications
msayles@aahd.us
301-545-6140
https://aahd.us/