Stanford Conference on Disability in Healthcare and Medicine | MSDCI and SMADIE
Stanford Conference on Disability in Healthcare and Medicine | MSDCI and SMADIE
Photo credit: Rick Giudotti
Senior Director, Stakeholder Engagement
Disability:IN
Becky Curran is the Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement at Disability:IN, where she leads efforts to cultivate and sustain relationships with key stakeholders, including corporate partners, Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (DOBEs), and members of the disability community. She also plays a critical role in client-facing aspects of the Disability Index. Since joining the Index team in 2017, Becky has helped grow participation from 110 to 542 companies by 2024, quintupling engagement and significantly expanding Disability:IN’s impact.
Becky earned her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Providence College, where she first developed a passion for influencing change behind the scenes in media and entertainment. After graduation, she navigated a competitive job market, submitting over 1,000 applications, participating in 100 interviews, and completing three temp assignments, before landing a full-time position in the Entertainment Marketing and later the Comedy Touring departments at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the world’s leading entertainment and sports agency. She later joined CBS Television Studios, supporting casting for pilots and series.During her time in the entertainment industry, Becky also co-founded the Catalina Film Festival, serving as its Marketing Director, and founded DisABILITY In Media, a platform that promotes positive disability inclusion storytelling across social media.
After six and a half years in entertainment, Becky launched a successful public speaking career. She has spoken at over 600 venues worldwide, passionately advocating for disability inclusion across education, media, and the workplace.She later joined the Equity & Inclusion department at SAG-AFTRA, the world’s largest entertainment union, where she spent three and a half years supporting the implementation of a national diversity strategy to improve representation of historically excluded communities in media.In addition to her professional work, Becky is an active community leader. She currently sits on the Board of Advisors for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) at Arizona State University, Positive Exposure, the Providence College National Alumni Association Council, and Understanding Our Differences.
A tireless champion for inclusion who identifies as having both physical and mental health disabilities, Becky Curran continues to drive systemic change across industries, empowering people with disabilities and elevating diverse voices on a global scale.
Premedical Student
Brown University
TEDx Speaker
Founder: Touch and Create Studios
Rishika Kartik is a senior at Brown University creating Brown’s first major in Accessible Design and studying Biology. Her work integrates science and art to advance global conversations on disability. She is the founder of Touch & Create Studios, which has delivered 65+ art workshops for 1,000 blind participants. Recognized by the United Nations, White House, and Andy Warhol Foundation, Rishika is a viral TEDx speaker. In healthcare, Rishika was the only undergraduate among 80 national advocates on Prevent Blindness’s Legislative Advocacy Team, where she lobbied Congress for H.R. 8400, aimed at establishing nationwide childhood vision loss screening. At the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes she led research on making diabetes technology accessible to blind patients and published as first author in a top 10 field journal. She now helps disability advocates, healthcare professionals, and scholars reframe public understandings of disability.
CEO, Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P)
Masters of Public Health Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Suchita Rastogi is a former MD/PhD student at Stanford University, who had to
discontinue her medical training in 2021 due to complications from multiple chronic
illnesses. During her journey of reinvention, she joined the Board of Directors for the
Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity, became a student investigator in Dr. Lisa Meeks’ research group, and co-founded the Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P). While she aspires to return to Stanford to complete her MD training, Suchita is now focused on transitioning to a career in disability health equity research and policy. Currently, she is serving health professionals with disabilities as DM3P’s CEO and Executive Director and pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree through the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also interning at the Lotus Center for Rights Research, where she collaborates with legal scholars to build an evidence base that would support granting asylum to disabled refugees fleeing disability-based violence.
Anthropology PhD Candidate
University of Illinois at Chicago
Zoey is a PhD candidate and MS Epidemiology student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research explores the experiences and disability inclusivity efforts of disabled medical students and doctors and how support, community, and mentorship arise around and out of disability experience and identity amongst those in medicine. Zoey co-hosts, writes, and co-produces Docs With Disabilities’ Research & Resource Rounds Podcast. She is on the executive team of the Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P), and SMADIE board.
