Power of Culture Blog
Card to Culture Shout Out – May
We are grateful to these 52 cultural organizations committed to a more accessible cultural sector
Charles Baldwin, Program Officer
Understanding the value of creativity and inclusion, Mass Cultural Council has aligned its public service with strategies for equitable practices, including the release of a d/Deaf & Disability Equity Plan in July 2024.
As recommended in the plan, the Agency is proud to announce the creation of a Disability Advisory Committee to review and counsel on steps moving forward.
The purpose of this committee will be to provide leadership and expertise on implementing our d/Deaf and Disability Equity Plan. Advisory Committee members will collaborate with Agency staff and leadership to evaluate systems and services, assess program design and delivery, and establish measurable, achievable benchmarks that advance the goals of the plan and center the voices of the disability community.
We welcome these leaders and their counsel over the next year!
Megan Bent is a lens-based artist interested in the ways image-making can happen beyond using a traditional camera. She is drawn to processes that reflect and embrace her disabled experience, especially interdependence, impermanence, care, and slowness. Her work has been exhibited domestically and abroad at venues including The U.N. Headquarters, NY, NY; Root Division, San Francisco, CA; form & concept, Santa Fe, NM; F1963, Busan, South Korea; and Fotonostrum, Barcelona, Spain. She was a recent recipient of the 2023 Wynn Newhouse Awards. Her work has been featured in Lenscratch, Analog Forever Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Too Tired Project, Rfotofolio, and Float Photography Magazine. She is proud to serve as the gallery and communications manager for Open Door Arts.
Maria Fernanda Cabrera has been an access advocate for over 40 years. Working at the Boston Children’s Museum and Museum of Science as Community Relations Manager/Supervisor from 1979-2019. In these roles she was a liaison to communities of color, diverse ethnicities and individuals with disabilities. As a Cuban born woman and one with a disability she has a deep understanding of barriers of underrepresented communities. Her goal therefore has been to engage these communities not only through visitation but by jobs, volunteering and advisory committees at museums.
Presently she continues the advocacy as Co-Director of Families Creating Together, an Arts program engaging youth with disabilities and their families in the arts, as well as a founding member of Cultural Access New England CANE and a freelance accessibility and diversity consultant.
Robin Capello is the Founding Director of Watch City Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting arts, culture, and tourism in Waltham, MA, and the proprietor of The Tea Leaf, a community-centered tea parlor and art gallery. Robin brings a multidisciplinary background that includes nonprofit governance, healthcare, business ownership, and legal advocacy. In recent years, she has actively engaged in civil rights and disability justice work, representing herself in court proceedings and filing formal complaints with the Department of Justice and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. She holds degrees in Healthcare Administration, Nonprofit Governance, Business Management, and Dental Hygiene. Robin is committed to advancing access, equity, and inclusion for people with disabilities and is honored to contribute her lived experience, cross-sector leadership, and advocacy skills to the Mass Cultural Council’s d/Deaf and Disability Equity Plan.
![photo of Donna Danielewski, a middle-aged white woman with shoulder length dark hair, wearing a navy-blue sleeveless dress.]](https://massculturalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DonnaDanielewski_DAC-1.jpg)
Donna Danielewski is the Executive Director of Accessibility at GBH. This position was created in 2021 and was the first dedicated accessibility executive role in the public media system — combining digital product and content accessibility with employee and member support. Reporting to GBH’s Chief Inclusion and Equity Officer, Donna identifies strategic opportunities and a shared vision for the future of accessibility at GBH, including broadcast and digital productions, partnerships, events, and communications. As part of GBH’s senior leadership team, Donna builds on the groundbreaking and ongoing commitment to accessibility at GBH and works to integrate issues of accessibility and disability into the larger discourse of diversity and equity. Donna came to GBH in 2008 — following deeply personal family experience with hearing loss — to build GBH’s National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)’s accessibility consulting business. NCAM is a research, development and consulting unit focused on ensuring and improving access to media for people with disabilities. Before becoming Executive Director, Donna was with NCAM for 14 years and served as NCAM’s Senior Director from 2018-2021.
Rhianon E. Gutierrez works at the intersection of education, media, and cultural inclusion. She has worked for the Boston Public Schools for a decade, where she leads instructional technology as the Director of Digital Learning. She is also an experienced facilitator and consultant on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), digital accessibility, and instructional technology. Rhianon has a BFA in Film Production from Chapman University, a MA in Digital Media and Education from the University of Michigan, a certificate in Assistive Technology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and she is currently working on a graduate certificate in Museum Studies at the Harvard Extension School. Her interests include travel, genealogy, national parks, and film. To date, she has visited 23 national parks.
Jeffrey Yasuo Mansfield (he/him) is a principal at MASS Design Group, where he works on a portfolio of projects that uplift the lived experience and cultural memory of the Deaf and Disability communities. For his work on The Architecture of Deafness, which traces the architectural history of the Deaf school as a typology located at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and power, Jeffrey was named a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, and an inaugural recipient of the Ford and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Disability Futures fellowship. Jeffrey co-authored The Architecture of Health and co-edited MASS Design Group’s first Monograph, Justice is Beauty. Jeffrey was also the 2023 Lifchez Visiting Professor of Practice in Social Justice at the University of California-Berkeley and the 2023 Bruce Goff Chair of Creative Architecture at the University of Oklahoma. He has taught design studios at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Jeffrey received his A.B. in Architecture at Princeton University and M.Arch at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been deaf since birth.
Rhys McGovern is a hard of hearing, bilingual speech language pathologist and teacher who has been working with children, teens, and young adults for nearly 20 years. In addition to direct language services, Rhys is also part of a deaf-centered clinical research team and provides consultation services for schools, organizations, and agencies on accessibility and deaf cultural competency.
Carl Richardson identifies as DeafBlind and serves as the ADA Coordinator/504/Diversity Officer for the Massachusetts State House. In this role, Carl works with the Governor and Executive branch, as well as with members of the legislature and leadership from state agencies to serve individuals with disabilities across the Commonwealth, ensuring that the State House is an accessible, inclusive, and welcoming environment.
Carl also serves as Treasurer for the Mayor’s Office for the City of Boston Disability Commission, as well as Treasurer for the Commission on the Permanent Status of Persons with Disabilities, president of the Guide Dog Users of Massachusetts, and is co-chair of the Audio description Project for the American Council of the Blind.
Carol Steinberg has been a trial attorney for 40 years, has had multiple sclerosis for 30, and has been a wheelchair-user for 21. Carol is a writer, speaker, and disability activist having served as chair and long-term member on the board of the Disability Law Center, long-term member of the Architectural Access Board, and present member of its subcommittee on regulations. She is a member of the Government Relations Committee of the MS Society and is involved with a number of other ad hoc organizations. Carol is also an avid consumer of cultural events in and around Boston.
Kerry Thompson is the Executive Director of Silent Rhythms, Inc. She has also worked at Disability Rights Fund since 2008. She was a 2014 Marshall Memorial Fellow and 2020 Harvard Dance Center Visiting Artist. She has served as the Commissioner for the MA Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, served as Vice-Chair for the MCDHH Statewide Advisory Council, and served on the Board of Directors for DEAF, Inc. She has also served on the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Advisory Council.
Heather Watkins is a disability rights advocate, author, mother, peer researcher, consultant, graduate of Emerson College with a B.S. in Mass Communications. Born with Muscular Dystrophy, loves reading, daydreaming, chocolate, and serves on a handful of disability-related boards and projects. Her site Slow Walkers See More includes advocacy efforts, reflections, and insight from her life with disability.
Jim Wice is the Program Director at On With Living and Learning (OWLL) having recently acted in one play and now has written a play where he will also play the role of narrator. He is retired having worked at Wellesley College as Director of Accessibility and Disability Resources for 23 years. He holds a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling. On a fun note, Jim plays Power Wheelchair Soccer for his team, the Commonwealth Cruisers in Boston.
