Staff

Carrie Ingersoll-Wood joined the Disability Cultural Center (DCC) as the new director in May 2022. In this role, Carrie is focused on fostering a vibrant, inclusive learning environment, one that increases students’ sense of belonging and identity, reinforces disability as diversity and engages students with resources within the Intercultural Collective. She is committed to carrying out the mission of the DCC to empower students to practice personal agency in reassigning personal meaning to their lives as disabled people, connecting students to the disability community both on and off campus, and educating students on the history and culture of disability through opportunities to connect on campus to practice individual and collective action that challenges ableism.

Carrie is also a Ph.D. candidate in teaching and curriculum in the School of Education. As a first-generation student herself, she researches the motivation and educational identity formation of first-generation students, how students draw on forms of community cultural wealth to assist in building academic self-efficacy and positive educational identity to succeed in their pursuit of a degree. Like many first-in-family students, Carrie started her education at a community college (SUNY Broome) as an adult and worked full-time while completing associate, bachelor's and master’s degrees.

Growing up, Carrie was discouraged from higher education—that is why she became a teacher and scholar and has made education the focus of her life. She is passionate about carving out a path for every student and her diverse experience in community building and advocacy for students with disabilities ranges from her background as an English classroom teacher in the Syracuse City School District and as a graduate assistant for reading and language arts supervising English education students, to working with students in her professional roles in advising at Cornell University and student services at SUNY Broome.

Carrie was born and raised in the Greater Binghamton area, Apalachin, NY. She received an associate in arts in liberal arts from SUNY Broome, a bachelor of arts with honors in English, general literature and rhetoric at Binghamton University and a master of arts in English adolescent education at Binghamton University. Of her three degrees, the associate degree is currently her favorite because it signifies the beginning of her academic journey, but she is confident that when she earns a Ph.D., that degree will move to first place. She and her husband live in the Syracuse area and have three children and three dogs who all mean the world to her.

Harper is a graduate student in the SU Masters of Higher Education program. She joined the DCC in Fall 2023. As a queer disabled woman, Harper is passionate about fostering disability community and creating inclusive, intersectional spaces that allow everyone to thrive as their most authentic selves.

She holds a BA in Creative Writing and Disability Studies from Emerson College, where she co-founded Access: Student Disability Union. Harper is also a young adult novelist who writes about the intersection of disability and queerness.

When she’s not at the DCC or listening to readings for class, you can find her in the kitchen cooking up low FODMAP food. She is originally from Dallas, Texas and is happy to be in a (much) cooler climate.

Ciana is a senior from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, majoring in the communications design program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts' School of Design with a minor in innovation, design and startups in the iSchool. She is most passionate about the intersection of graphic design, accessibility and representation in the industry. On campus, she has created advertising materials for the iSchool, been a dedicated peer leader for First-Year Seminar and has worked as an undergraduate researcher to a thesis about the rise of self-taught designers. In the future, she hopes to work as a human-centered designer in a firm committed to "design for social good" projects.

When Ciana’s not at the Disability Cultural Center (DCC) or at the Warehouse design studio, she can be found with an iced latte, a film camera or listening to a new band. While new to the DCC, Ciana hopes to be an advocate for students on campus and contribute to the DCC’s incredible events in her role.