Meet Our Founder
Dr. Donna R. Walton, EdD
The loss of her leg, her dreams and nearly her life to cancer when she was just 18 had a dramatic impact on every aspect of Donna Walton’s life.
Over the following years, she learned much about surviving and thriving with a visible disability and the threat of triple jeopardy (being black, female and disabled). As she overcame multiple struggles in her life and ultimately reinvented herself, she knew she wanted to help others and dedicated her life to doing so.
After earning a doctorate in rehabilitation counseling in 2005 and training in cognitive behavioral therapy, Donna founded The Divas With Disabilities Project in 2012 as a Facebook group to support other black and brown females with disabilities. The organization has since grown into a global movement and is striving to serve more girls and women in the future.
“I believe in my heart that DWD can help other women, and I feel that if I don’t take it as far as I can, many women with disabilities will fall through the cracks of a world that wasn’t made for them. I want to make sure that they have all the tools they need to navigate that world and overcome all the obstacles it puts in their way.”
Find our why we call her “The Dream-Doer.”