Vilissa Thompson is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) from Winnsboro, SC. Vilissa is the Founder & CEO of Ramp Your Voice!, an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy and strengthening empowerment among disabled people. Being a Disability Rights Consultant, Writer, & Activist affords Vilissa the opportunity to be a prominent leader and expert in addressing and educating the public and political figures about the plight of disabled people, especially Black women and femmes with disabilities.
She has been featured in ESSENCE for its Black History Now 2019 series and its “Woke 100 Women” 2018 list; spoke about her entrepreneurship and activism work for Forbes; invited to be a panelist for the Know Her Truths conference at Wake Forest University; and appeared in Teen Vogue, CNN, MTV, Healthline, The Hill, NY Times, Black Women Radicals, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Bitch Media, Upworthy, Daily Dot, Daily Beast, and The Atlantic.
In addition to her activism work, she is represented as a public speaker by CCMNT Speakers, as well as co-hosts the Wheelin’ & Dealin’ podcast, which dissects politics from an intersectional lens.
Everything she does revolves around being unapologetically herself - Black, disabled, and making good trouble to shake up the status quo.
