Sandra Harrell

Sandra Harrell (she/her) is the director of field and capacity building at Activating Change and her work focuses on helping individuals, organizations and communities across the country address violence against adults and children with disabilities. She oversees a variety of projects, including a federally funded program that helps communities across the United States improve their response to women with disabilities and Deaf women who have experiences domestic violence, sexual violence and stalking. Sandra has worked closely with the 85 communities funded by the Office on Violence Against Women’s Disability Grant Program, helping them to build multi-disciplinary collaborations to address the gaps within and between their systems to ensure that survivors with disabilities get the support they need. Additionally, Sandra leads Activating Change’s efforts to address trafficking of people with disabilities, and serves as an internal advisor to all projects focused on the intersection of disability and violence. She has also delivered trainings on violence against women with disabilities at multiple venues across the country, co-authored reports on the topic, and coordinated roundtables and meetings to expand the field.

Sandra began working in the anti-violence against women movement in 1990 working on her local crisis line and volunteering at the local domestic violence shelter. In 2000, Sandra was hired as the Project Director for Vanderbilt University’s Grant to Reduce Violence Crimes Against Women on Campuses where she provided education to students, faculty and staff on the topics of sexual violence, domestic violence and stalking. In 2005, she began working to address the complex barriers faced by survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors, first at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and then at the Vera Institute of Justice. She joined Activating Change in July 2022.