Lauren Ridloff

Educator, Writer, Sign Language Consultant, and an Actress;

2018 Tony Award Nominee as a Leading Actress in The Children of a Lesser God

Born to deaf parents, Leah Katz-Hernandez was the receptionist of the United States during the Obama administration and was the first deaf person to ever hold this position. She studied government at Gallaudet University and has always been passionate about politics and volunteering. She has aimed to raise political awareness in the Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH) communities and has chronicled her journeys in ASL, she explains in part because not many . political have not been recounted in ASL. Therefore, iit is easy for the Deaf/HoH community to feel excluded. She wants to educate Deaf people about the importance of  volunteering, voter registration, voting, and voter turnout. Another one of her aspirations is to help young people with disabilities successfully transition into the workplace.

In her spare time, she works with the greater Washington coalition internship that supports the inclusion of those with disabilities. Her lifelong goal is to make the world of politics more accessible to people with various abilities.