Stacey Milbern

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Stacey Park Milbern
Born(1987-05-19)May 19, 1987
Seoul, South Korea
DiedMay 19, 2020(2020-05-19) (aged 33)
Stanford, California
NationalityAmerican
Education
OccupationDisability rights activist
Years active2003–2020

Stacey Park Milbern (May 19, 1987 – May 19, 2020) was an American disability rights activist. She helped create the disability justice movement and advocated for fair treatment of people with disabilities.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Milbern was born at the U.S. Army Hospital in Seoul on May 19, 1987 with congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD).[1][2] She was mixed-race, her father being white and mother Korean.[1] She grew up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina in a military family, as her father was in the United States Army.[3] As a child she relied on her family as caregivers, but when she began to identify as queer, she feared her evangelical Christian parents' judgement and planned to move out, a choice made more difficult by her need for help in daily activities such as eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom.[3]

Milbern began serving in disability rights leadership roles at 16 years old,[citation needed] including as Community Outreach Director for the National Youth Leadership Network.[4] She later was a founder of the North Carolina Youth Leadership Forum[5] and Disabled Young People's Collective to empower youth with disabilities to engage in advocacy and leadership.[citation needed] She was appointed by the Governor of North Carolina to the North Carolina Commission for the Blind from 2006 to 2008[citation needed] and to the Statewide Independent Living Council from 2004 to 2010.[5] She was instrumental in the writing and passing of the 2007 North Carolina law establishing October as "Disability History and Awareness Month" and requiring disability history curriculum to be taught in all schools.[6][7] In 2005, Milbern helped to establish the disability justice movement through conversations with other disabled queer women of color activists.[2][8]

Milbern graduated from Methodist University in 2009.[1]

Bay Area[]

Milbern moved to the Bay Area when she was 24,[1] due to the San Francisco area being "one of the most accessible places for people with physical disabilities". The Bay Area had been the historical center of the disability rights movement,[3] and there she continued to organize, write, and speak for the movement,[1] becoming the director of programs at the Center for Independent Living, Berkeley.[5] California ranks highly among the states for spending on in-home care benefits, and she was able to obtain Medicaid support for an in-home attendant,[3] enabling her to live independently in Oakland[9] and hold a position in human resources at a financial banking company.[3] She credited that nursing assistance for her ability to remain active in the community and avoid institutionalization in a nursing home.[9] She contrasted her independence and the care she was able to receive in California against her experiences in North Carolina, and defended the necessity of Medicaid programs funding home attendant and nursing services against reductions proposed during efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.[9] Milbern advocated for fair medical care for people with disabilities, including both access and biases in the system, speaking against unnecessary surgery.[1]

In 2014, Milbern was appointed by President Obama to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.[10] She advised the Obama administration for two years.[11]

Milbern earned a master of business administration degree from Mills College in 2015.[1]

In early March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the Bay Area, Milbern and four friends constituting the Disability Justice Culture Club distributed homemade disease-prevention kits, including hand sanitizer, disinfectant, and respirators, to residents of Oakland homeless encampments. She raised concerns for the well-being of the community and its most vulnerable members. Milbern noted her DIY solution as an example of "crip—or crippled—wisdom". She warned that the pandemic's demands on health services threatened her community's access to dialysis and other life-saving treatments needed by some to survive. Her group also organized mutual aid food and care support for disabled people in need. Milbern continued pandemic relief work despite her own growing health problems. Surgery to remove her own fast-growing kidney cancer was postponed due to shelter-in-place orders.[12] Milbern died in a Stanford hospital on her thirty-third birthday, May 19, 2020, due to surgical complications.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Genzlinger, Neil (2020-06-06). "Stacey Milbern, a Warrior for Disability Justice, Dies at 33". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Tso, Tiffany Diane (28 May 2020). "5 Disability Justice Activists to Know This Asian Pacific American Heritage Month". Rewire.News. Archived from the original on 2020-09-30. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Raff, Jeremy (2017-07-10). "Why Americans With Disabilities Fear Medicaid Cuts". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  4. ^ "Stacey Milbern". The VoiceAmerica Talk. 2011-09-20. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Katayama, Devin; Guevarra, Ericka Cruz; Montecillo, Alan (May 29, 2020). "What Disability Justice Activist Stacey Park Milbern Taught Us". KQED. Archived from the original on 2021-05-26. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  6. ^ "Interview with Stacy Milbern". Mixcloud. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  7. ^ "Senate Bill 753 (2007-2008 Session) - North Carolina General Assembly". www.ncleg.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  8. ^ "Disability Justice". Project LETS. Archived from the original on 2020-08-19. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Milbern, Stacey (March 31, 2017). "Four Videos Show Why Medicaid-Funded Personal Care Services Matter". Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  10. ^ "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". whitehouse.gov (Press release). 2014-06-19. Archived from the original on 2017-02-16. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  11. ^ "Stacey Milbern". Wright State University. Archived from the original on 2020-07-19. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  12. ^ Green, Matthew (March 17, 2020). "Coronavirus: How These Disabled Activists Are Taking Matters Into Their Own (Sanitized) Hands". KQED. Archived from the original on 2021-07-16. Retrieved March 8, 2021.

External links[]

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