Keynotes and Panels

Coming Soon

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2025).  Schooling for Students with Disabilities:  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  Invited keynote address for The San Diego County Board of Education’s Equity is Love in Action Conference.  San Diego, CA, May 28-30, 2025.


Helena was invited to keynote to the educators of San Diego, CA and asked to speak about her journey as a disabled student from grades kindergarten through tenth-grade.  She addresses the good, the bad, and the ugly and continues her global platform of urging educators to become champions of inclusion.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2025).  The Only One:  Why Educators of Color Matter to Me.  Invited Keynote for the Virginia 2025 Summit on Educators of Color Conference, Richmond, Virginia, May 31, 2025.


In her on-going work with educators around the nation, Helena was invited to keynote at this conference where she addressed being a Black, disabled girl in America’s school system.  Although she is in tenth-grade, she has only had a single Black teacher in her entire school career.  She addresses why this matters and continues to urge America’s educators to celebrate and be mindful of diversity.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2025).  Invited Keynote Speaker for Washington Initiative for Supported Employment (WISE) Invited Keynote.  June 4, 2025.


WISE, founded in 1985, is an organization dedicated to expanding and sustaining employment opportunities  for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. WISE consults with people with disabilities, families, employment agencies, national and state governments, school districts, and private businesses to provide training and technical assistance for those who wish to create employment in their communities.  WISE plays a vital leadership role focused on the employment of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the organization strives to be a catalyst for change in the pursuit of full inclusion.

Invited Keynotes

CTA Region II Leadership Conference

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Address on Disability Justice.  California Teachers Association Region II Leadership Conference, Reno, NV, October 6, 2024.

Helena was again invited to speak to the educators of California Teachers Association at the leadership conference for CTA Region II in Reno.  She spoke on the topics of disability rights and inclusion, intersectionality, anti-bullying, and youth empowerment.  Helena shared the story of her traumatic birth and its enduring consequences — how it led to multiple non-apparent disabilities and the problems she faces as a disabled student in school.  Helena also shared stories of those educators that championed her disabilities to provide her a fair and equal education.

CTA Region I Leadership Conference

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Address on Disability Justice.  California Teachers Association Region I Leadership Conference, San Jose, CA, September 15, 2024.

Helena was honored with an invitation to speak to the educators of California Teachers Association at their leadership conference in San Jose.  Her keynote centered on disability rights and inclusion, but also touched on the topics of intersectionality, anti-bullying, and youth empowerment.  Helena shared her birth story, how her early medical trauma led to multiple non-apparent disabilities, the problems she faces as a disabled student in school, and told stories of those educators that championed her disabilities to provide her a fair and equal education.

NJ education association impact conference


“One of the major conferences we traveled to over the summer was in Princeton, New Jersey, where I was honored with the invitation to deliver a keynote for the amazing educators of the New Jersey Education Association. Thank you, New Jersey Education Association, for your warm reception, the standing ovation, countless loving affirmations, and most importantly for allowing me to share my stories and goal of making schooling more equitable for students with disabilities. You are all Champions!”

  — Helena Donato-Sapp

#genz #youthactivism #disabilityjustice #poetry #changemakers #july4  #disabilityadvocacy #disabilityrights #disabilityinclusion #disabilityjustice @neatoday

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Address on Disability Justice.  New Jersey Education Association’s Impact Conference, Princeton, New Jersey, July 17, 2024.

Helena was invited to speak to the educators of New Jersey at a professional development conference.  Her keynote was on disability rights and inclusion – a topic she is known for world-wide.  Helena shared her birth story, how her early medical trauma led to multiple non-apparent disabilities, the problems she faces as a disabled student in school, and told stories of those educators that championed her disabilities to provide her a fair and equal education.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Address on Disability Justice.  New Jersey Education Association’s Impact Conference, Princeton, New Jersey, July 17, 2024.

Helena was invited to speak to the educators of New Jersey at a professional development conference.  Her keynote was on disability rights and inclusion – a topic she is known for world-wide.  Helena shared her birth story, how her early medical trauma led to multiple non-apparent disabilities, the problems she faces as a disabled student in school, and told stories of those educators that championed her disabilities to provide her a fair and equal education.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  An introduction to disability justice and poetry reading at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, July 21, 2024.

Helena was invited to do the Sunday morning talk for Disability Awareness Month and share with this local congregation on the topic of disability justice.  She also – in her new role as Youth Poet Laureate of the city of Long Beach shared two new poems.  One poem was titled “Neurodivergent Activist Poet” and spoke on the topic what it is like to be neurodivergent in the poetry community.  The second poem, titled “I Don’t Know This God of Yours” was her critical look at evangelicalism as an activist and atheist.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  The inaccessibility of emergency preparedness plans in schools and how they often leave young disabled students behind.  For the Disabled Disrupters Town Hall, Washington, DC, July 17, 2024.

Disabled Disrupters is a national youth disability justice coalition based in the United States that aim to lift up disabled people’s social, political, and economic rights through advocating for legislation that centers on equal access for the disabled and neurodivergent community.  Founder Kira Tiller invited Helena to speak on an experience she had during an active shooter drill at her high school and how the school segregated her into a small room by herself for math and then didn’t inform her of the active shooter drill.  Since Helena was keynoting to the New Jersey Education Association on the same day, she made a video that they shared at the Disabled Disrupters Town Hall as a way to introduce the important topic of how schools fail to prepare for disabled kids during emergency drills.

Nusbaum, E. (Moderator), Ocasio-Stoutenburg, L., Armstrong, E., Donato-Sapp, H., Donato, E. S., and Sapp, J.  Bridging worlds:  Intersectionality, disability, and culturally responsive collaboration.  The National Education Association’s Conference on Racial and Social Justice, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 30-July 2 2024.

Helena and her two fathers were invited by the NEA to be on this esteemed panel of disability scholars and activists to speak to intersectional activism in the work of disability rights and inclusion.  This moderated critical panel discussion navigates the complexities of intersectionality within the sphere of disability and explores the best practices for culturally responsive and sustaining collaboration among educators, students, and families.  This session aims to foster an in-depth understanding of how various social identities overlap with disability and how these intersections impact students’ experiences in schools.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Girls Are Limitless.  Invited keynote for 4GIRLS of Long Beach.  Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA, March 24, 2024.

4GIRLS inspires and empowers middle school girls to identify themselves as authentic, confident, and resilient, preparing them for real-life success.  Helena was asked to keynote to 100 middle school girls on the theme of girls being limitless.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Speaker for the Morris County Council of Education Associations 2024 Overnight IPD Conference, Morristown, NJ.  The Madison Hotel Morristown, NJ, March 15-16, 2024.

In Helena’s ongoing relationship with The National Education Associate, she was Invited by the New Jersey Education Association to present and host a conversation on disability rights, the children who show up in our classrooms, and the larger issue of identity and how it impacts each of our lives, both personal and professional.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2024).  Invited Keynote Speaker for the Rainier Educators of Color Network’s Equity Conference 5.0.  Washington Education Association, February 2-3, 2024.

Helena was invited to Keynote for this conference and address the conference themes of working with students with disabilities, reforming school discipline, healing harm in school, history of the N-word, and LGBTIA+ issues.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (October 23, 2023).  Conceptualizing the promise and the power of critical special education:  A virtual conversation.  October 27, 2023.

Helena was featured as the key voice in this conversation about this new field of study.  The purpose of the conversation was to advance the theoretical and pragmatic understanding of Critical Special Education research.  A focus of this conversation was to advance the vision and advocacy of scholars of color and members of culturally diverse communities and the object of the conversation is to collectively define what critical special education is and how it can leverage scholarship from the field of special education and existing critical disability fields, like DisCrit and Disability Studies in Education.

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2023).  The power of intersectionality to save us.  Invited Keynote Speaker for the Community Colleges of Appalachia’s Exploring Inclusion and Belonging in Community Colleges Fall Conference, West Virginia University Potomac State College Davis Conference Center, Keyser, WV.  October 19, 2023.

Sponsored by the Allegany College of Maryland, WVU Potomac State College, and Eastern West Virginia Community & Technical College, Helena was invited to give a keynote address to the Presidents of the Community Colleges of Appalachia.  She addressed the power of youth voice, the power of storytelling, the power of women, the power of the outsider, and the power of intersectionality.  “Our collective liberation is bound up with each other.”

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2023).  Be inclusive, be anti-racist, be affirming, and be anti-bullying:  A 14-year-old speaks to MTEA.  Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association Representative Assembly and Convocation, Washington Park Center, Milwaukee, WI.  September 13, 2023.

Helena was invited to keynote at the MTEA by their President and asked to cover four important topics:  (1) Make schools inclusive for children with disabilities, (2) Be an anti-racist educator, (3) Be affirming of all families, and (4) Be affirming and stop bullying.  President Amy Mizialko said, “This message from Helena is impactful and brought us to tears.  Helena is powerful.  Helena hit on relevant points of teaching intersectionality with race, anti-racist teaching, homophobia, and bullying.  She appealed to us as teachers to get in the way of negative behavior displayed, as she put it, ‘right under our noses.’”

Donato-Sapp, H.  (2023).  The power of youth voice and intersectionality.  Invited speech at the Long Beach Women’s Fair & ERA Centennial.  City Hall, Long Beach, CA, July 18, 2023.

Helena was thrilled when local feminist icon Zoe Nicholson invited her to give an  address at the 2023 Women’s Fair & ERA Centennial.  Helena has long been a feminist activist and it was an honor to be included among so many esteemed and veteran feminists in her own beloved city.

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