Keely Cat-Wells
Keely Cat-Wells is an Entrepreneur and Disability Rights Advocate. While in the hospital, she founded a company that evolved into C Talent. Acquired by Whalar in 2022, C Talent represents Disabled talent, reshaping perceptions of Disability. Under her leadership, C Talent had an artist roster with a combined following of over 50 million people and placed talent in thousands of projects for brands like Savage X Fenty, HBO, and Disney, and they’ve represented Academy Award and Emmy-nominated Disabled talent. The acquisition marked a significant investment in Disabled talent and a pivotal milestone for the creator industry.
Following the acquisition, Keely established Making Space, a venture-backed, accessible talent acquisition and learning experience platform that allows companies to train and access pre qualified disabled talent pools. Designed to bridge the education-employment gap, Making Space creates tangible pathways to employment and career advancement through employer-supported courses. Making Space is a Techstars Economic Mobility 2023 company and a winner of Pepperdine’s 2023 ‘Most Fundable Companies’.
In collaboration with Disability Rights Advocate Sophie Morgan, Keely co-founded Making Space Media, a division of Making Space. They produce film, TV, and promotional content that centers the Disabled voice. Making Space Media has secured a first-look deal with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.
Keely has been a Disability subject matter expert in discussions with notable figures such as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She has had the privilege of serving on the Advisory Board for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and currently holds positions on the Board of Directors for No Barriers USA, 2-Gether International and Reelabilities Film Festival.
Keely played a key role as a youth leader in the inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum, hosted by MTV Entertainment Group in collaboration with the Biden-Harris Administration and leading mental health nonprofits. Selena Gomez, First Lady Dr Jill Biden, Surgeon General Dr Murthy and President Joe Biden were in attendance and conversation. The forum took place at the White House, driving mental health awareness to action through storytelling and media.
Keely became a laureate of the Youth Activist Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on the eve of the International Day for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2022. In 2023, Keely became a Storyteller in Residence at the Clinton Global Initiative and in 2024 Keely was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar. The program is a partnership among the Presidential Centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson and is designed for leaders who share a commitment to helping solve society’s greatest challenges.
Keely has received numerous awards and honours. Among these are Forbes 30 under 30 and The Diana Award, established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It is renowned as the most prestigious accolade a young person can achieve for their humanitarian or social action endeavors.
Leah Clark
McAllister & Quinn
Leah Clark serves as a Senior Research Analyst for the Advanced Technology, Defense & Homeland Security Practice. In this role, Leah assists the managing directors and team through research and development for technical-based clients. She provides analytical and managerial support in grant-seeking strategies and government relations projects for clients.
Leah is a recent graduate from the University of Michigan, where she earned her M.S.E. in Nuclear Engineering and two graduate certificates, the first in Science, Technology, and Public Policy and the second in Professional Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her research involved the characterization of detectors for neutron and gamma-ray radiation spectroscopy for nuclear nonproliferation efforts. She tested and compared different detection systems to determine best practices for underground nuclear explosion monitoring. Her work was supported by the Consortium for Monitoring, Technology, and Verification and was selected for poster and oral presentations at several conferences.
Apart from engagement with the scientific community, she has also spent several years advocating for patients with chronic illnesses and for improvements in healthcare through nonprofit and for-profit spaces. She is a program director for a nonprofit organization centered on improving the lives of young adults with inflammatory bowel disease and has mentored 25 fellows, including ten international fellows, over the past three years of the program. She also served as the Customer Service and Social Media Manager for the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and focused on communication with patients for their affordable medication needs.
Sneha Dave
Sneha graduated from Indiana University in May 2020 where she majored in chronic illness advocacy as well as journalism. She created the Generation Patient and its program the Crohn’s and Colitis Young Adults Network (CCYAN) to create support systems for adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions across the U.S. and internationally. She is proud to work with a team composed entirely of young adults with chronic medical disabilities and to keep Generation Patient transparent and independent from the pharmaceutical and insurance industry.
Sneha has completed an undergraduate research fellowship in health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has also interned at numerous places such as Pfizer Global Headquarters in health economics and outcomes research for Inflammation and Immunology. Sneha has spoken on Capitol Hill, featured nationally on C-SPAN, and is a past contributor for U.S. News and World Report. She has served on the Democratic National Committee Disability Policy Subcommittee and she is part of the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council, an independent appraisal committee of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. Sneha also serves on the patient engagement collaborative for the FDA. She was previously a national policy fellow at RespectAbility and now serves as the youngest director on the board for the national nonprofit. Sneha was awarded two academic fellowships with the Association of Health Care Journalists. For her work, Sneha was selected as one of the most influential teenagers in 2018 by the We Are Family Foundation and she was been recognized as an American Association of People with Disabilities Emerging Leader in 2020.
Charles Gore
Charles Gore is the Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). He took up the post in July 2018 to guide MPP in its expansion from communicable diseases to all health areas covered by the WHO Essential Medicines List. He led MPP’s response to COVID-19, including the licensing of three anti-virals and the creation of the WHO/MPP mRNA Technology Transfer Programme to prepare for the next pandemic. As a result MPP is now active in licensing and technology transfer across vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1995 and cirrhosis in 1998. In 2000 he set up The Hepatitis C Trust in the UK which he ran for 18 years. In 2002 he was treated and cured of the virus. He helped create the European Liver Patients Association and was its first President from 2004 to 2006. In 2007 he organised a meeting of hepatitis patient organisations from around the world to agree on co-ordinated global action. From this emerged the decision to hold an annual World Hepatitis Day and to create a new NGO, the World Hepatitis Alliance, of which Charles was the President from 2007 until the end of 2017. As a result of advocacy by the Alliance and its members, the World Health Organization adopted successive viral hepatitis resolutions in 2010, 2014 and 2016, making World Hepatitis Day an official day, celebrated on 28 July every year, and endorsing the first Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis with the goal of eliminating hepatitis B and C by 2030.
In 2024 Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in health globally.