Being a mentor means building connection and pride, not just for yourself, but for your community.

Abby Ritter (she/they) is a disabled music therapist and activist from Worcester, MA. She lives there with her partner, Steph, and their cat, Apollo. She completed both her bachelor’s and her master’s degrees from Nazareth College (now Nazareth University) in Rochester, NY, and has dedicated her professional life to working in and with the disability community.

She is the South Carolina Pathways Project Coordinator at Able South Carolina, a center for independent living in Columbia, SC. She, alongside the rest of the SCPP team, is working with the South Carolina Department of Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, and many other partners to build a disability-led transition model for disabled students transitioning to adulthood across the state. 

Prior to her work at Able SC, Abby was the Youth Advisory Specialist at the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, an independent living membership organization that aims to represent the issues of the rural disability community. During their tenure at APRIL, Abby developed the APRIL “Lead On” Collaborative, a leadership development program that connected youth and young adults with disabilities from across the United States and its territories to one another while building their self-advocacy and employment skills.

Outside of their employment, Abby serves as the secretary of the Board of Directors at Disability EmpowHer Network. She joined the board after spending several years serving as a mentor as part of EmpowHer Camp, a year-long leadership and mentorship program for disabled teenage girls and nonbinary youth. Abby has had the pleasure of formally mentoring (and being mentored by) four young leaders through the program: Anja, Ace, Lonny, and Aurelia. Each of these young leaders, while very different from one another, has fundamentally shaped the way that Abby looks at the world. They hope for anyone who has the opportunity to mentor that their experiences are just as life-changing.