Anna Landre
PhD
Anna is a wheelchair-using activist and researcher whose work spans the disciplines of disability studies, humanitarian relief, international development, urban planning, human-computer interaction, and social care policy. Within these, she focuses on the disability law "implementation gap", in which progressive legal standards often fail to improve disabled people's lives in practice. Her PhD is focusing on how Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs/OPDs) network and collaborate across borders, and she aims to create a global DPO map and knowledge-sharing platform that fits the needs of the disability movement.
Anna also works as the Global Research and Response Lead at The Partnership for Disaster Strategies, a US-based disability-led disaster response organization. Recently, she also served as their Ukraine Crisis Focal Point, spearheading the creation of an evacuation and humanitarian aid mechanism for disabled Ukrainians being left behind in the international response to the war. In the past, Anna worked with The Partnership on disability justice-oriented pandemic relief policies and helped to expand the organization's presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Before this, Anna served the Washington, DC government as a twice-elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. There, she advocated for disability inclusion in DC's urban planning, social care, and pandemic-relief policies. Her achievements included successfully ending the city's de-prioritization of disabled people for COVID-19 vaccines and changing the DC Comprehensive Plan to reflect disability rights frameworks. Anna is also a member of the Governance Board of the UK's National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat) and is a Trustee for Independent Living Alternatives (ILA).
Anna recieved her BS in Foreign Service (Regional and Comparative Studies, Disability Studies) from Georgetown University and MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics. She grew up in Howell, NJ, USA and is a Truman and Marshall Scholar.
Anna's advocacy efforts have been featured in outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Vogue, and others. She was just named to the top ten of the Shaw Trust's Disability Power 100, a list of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK.
