ASDAH Staff Members
Angel, Advocacy & Community Leader, Interim Executive Director
Angel (she/her) is the Black, infinifat, and disabled founder of Sacred Space for Fat Bodies. She is dedicated to the creation of and increased access to self-care experiences for superfat and infinifat people, especially those who are Black, disabled, members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, indigenous, Latine, Asian, or members of other groups who exist at myriad intersections and who are also substantially marginalized. She also fights to make their voices heard and for their overall well-being as they are often excluded from participation and representation in society and even within the framework of fat liberation. Her lived experiences give her a unique and relevant perspective. Her goal us to build solid community.
Angel also works to facilitate direct care via various mutual aid initiatives. She advocates and fundraises for individuals and families in the aforementioned marginalized communities and at all relative intersections.
Angel has a BA in Mass Communications with a concentration in Public Relations and thoroughly enjoys writing. She was the Guest Editor for Vast Magazine during Black History Month, when she curated works from various artists and wrote the Letter from the Editor for that month. Most recently, she was asked to do a social media takeover for Mindless Mag and featured all superfat and infinifat powerhouses. Angel has also been interviewed on multiple podcasts.
In addition to her service to ASDAH, she also sits on the board of two organizations created and driven by HAES®️-informed Black women who saw and met the glaring need for free eating disorder (and other forms of) support specifically for Black people, but also for members of other marginalized groups. Angel serves Body Reborn, a virtual cohort that provides peer support and community for its members, by helping to develop and steer programming from the perspective of an infinifat black woman. She serves as Treasurer for the Me Little Me Foundation and also led the free Black Racial Trauma Virtual Support Group created by the organization’s founder during the time the she needed to edit and promote her film, “Me Little Me”, at SXSW earlier this year. Angel is currently working with the organization in anticipation of the rollout of a Virtual Food Pantry in support of our online community to address food scarcity among Black and other marginalized individuals and families.
On any given evening, you’ll find Angel sharing funny Tiktoks and snort-laughing with her partner of 12 years, all while getting pummeled by their almost two-year-old, 90-lb Rottweiler, Boomer, as he tries to break up the fun and get all the attention.
ANI, OPERATIONS & Projects LEADER
ani, MPH, RD, is a fat activist and Health at Every Size® advocate in Minneapolis, MN. They are the Operations & Projects Leader for ASDAH and before this position served on the board of directors for three years. They are the proud co-founder and co-admin of the fat liberation group, Twin Cities Fat Community, which works to connect fat people through community and activism. They founded the Radical Health Alliance, a nonprofit with the mission of championing the multidimensional and weight-inclusive health of fat people in Minnesota. Through education, support, and advocacy, Radical Health Alliance strives to eliminate weight bias, increase access to health services, and protect people from weight discrimination. ani has a BS in Dietetics, a Masters in Public Health Nutrition, and their Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credentials. As a fat person and health professional, ani is most passionate about the intersection of access to healthcare and fat rights. They believe that fat liberation and HAES®, though they are different perspectives that aren’t always used in conjunction, are both necessary to truly create equitable healthcare for fat people.
ASDAH Board of Directors
Pontsho, Director
Pontsho has worked in the media and communications, academia and civil society sectors at a national, regional and international level focusing on gender, health and social justice. She’s worked as a journalist where she has covered and trained journalists on HIV, sexual and reproductive health and public health in general. She’s also trained activists and community organisers worldwide on leveraging communications and media for advocacy. Since 2020, she has worked as a social impact communications strategist and consultant for health and social justice non-profit organisations, research institutes and global movements.
Pontsho is a PhD Fellow under the South African Research Chair in Science Communication at Stellenbosch University. Her research focuses on the public communication of obesity research and the discursive narratives underlying the scientific, mass media and public policy texts, particularly concerning Black women.
She has a wealth of experience in corporate governance gained through participation on numerous civil society boards and advisory committees.
Pontsho spearheaded the #FreeToBleed campaign, which advocates for free menstrual products for learners who menstruate in South Africa. In 2016, she wrote and presented a policy briefd to the Committee on Multi-Party Women’s Caucus in the Parliament of South Africa. She recommended developing a national policy that addresses period poverty and works towards menstrual justice for all people who menstruate in South Africa.
Da'Shaun, director
Da’Shaun is a Black, fat, queer and trans theorist and abolitionist in Atlanta, GA. Da’Shaun is the award-winning author of Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness — which won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction — and lectures on Blackness, queerness, gender, fatness, disabilities, and their intersections. Da’Shaun currently serves as Editor-at-Large at Scalawag Magazine and is the co-host of the podcast “Unsolicited: Fatties Talk Back.” Between the years 2019 and 2021, Da’Shaun served as Associate Editor — and later as Managing Editor — of Wear Your Voice Magazine.
Da’Shaun penned their first published piece in the summer of 2017 while navigating heightened poverty and homelessness. This would become the genesis of their writing career. Da’Shaun writes not only as a means of survival, but with the belief that if the marginalized wish for a future where their history is depicted accurately and their stories are told correctly then they must document them. Writing, for Da’Shaun, is not solely a passion or talent, but it is the foundation on which their home—their love, their survival, their creativity—is built. It is their expression of self; their contribution to the documentation of the histories of oppressed/colonized peoples.
Da’Shaun’s writing has appeared in PhiladelphiaPrint, Medium, THEM, Black Youth Project, BET, and other online publications. They have also been featured in/interviewed by The Fader, Everyday Feminism, Buzzfeed, Teen Vogue, the New York Times, and other local and national publications.
Angel & ani also serve as ex-oficio directors of the board.