Biography: Morénike Giwa Onaiwu
(Contact: Staff@AdvocacyWithoutBorders.org)
Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, PhD is a global activist-scholar, author, and community leader who is passionate about human rights, justice, and inclusion. A proactive, resourceful professional and disabled person of color in a multicultural, neurodiverse, serodifferent family, Morénike, who is American-born to immigrant parents, possesses undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Relations, Education, and Interdisciplinary Humanities.
Morénike is involved in various social justice advocacy endeavors including neurodiversity, public pedagogy, multimodal learning, anti-HIV stigma, participatory research, technology, disability justice, racial and gender equity, etc.
A prolific writer, Morénike has written for and/or been featured in numerous platforms including peer-reviewed journals, books, and digital media, often drawing from professional knowledge as well as personal experiences as a late-diagnosed Autistic/ADHD parent of Autistic and non-Autistic children, a twice exceptional person of color, and a survivor of intimate partner violence. Morénike is also involved in additional projects, including training and consulting.
Morénike has been a speaker in the White House, at the United Nations Headquarters, and a keynote speaker and/or presenter at numerous advocacy, education, disability, and research conferences. Morénike has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the “Advocating for Another: Health Activist of the Year” Social Health Network Award and the “Service to the Self-Advocacy Movement” Autistic Self Advocacy Network Award.
Morénike’s executive experience includes board membership of a number of national research, disability, advocacy, and family service organizations, chairperson of both a large HRSA-funded local planning body and an international NIH-funded community research network, and leadership roles within various entities in addition to a current appointment with the federal US Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, two consecutive terms as a Humanities Scholar at Rice University, and several years as Founder/Principal Operator of a grassroots nonprofit, Advocacy Without Borders. Morénike is a “lifelong learner” who is constantly growing and changing (hopefully for the better!) whose greatest accomplishment is raising six wonderful children (biological and adopted and all of whom have various disabilities).
Pronouns: (she/her/they/them)
Morénike can be contacted by email (via assistant) at Staff@AdvocacyWithoutBorders.org
(^This is derived from Morénike’s “real” bio. For a more casual/”fun”/informal version, visit the About page.) 