ASDAH Leadership Team
Angel austin, Executive Director
Angel (she/her) is the Black, infinifat, and disabled founder of Sacred Space for Fat Bodies, an online advocacy space focused on community-centered fundraising for fat, Black folks, on storytelling, and on spiritual reflection. She also shares tools for superfat+ people who are chronically ill and/or disabled and who are seeking support. Angel has unshakable audacity and strives to help those she supports move from survival toward thriving in community. Angel is a guest lecturer and has given frequent podcast and network interviews. She also offers consulting services to business owners, companies, and organizations seeking to make their offerings and spaces inclusive and accommodating to any person in any body. Her lived experiences give her a unique and relevant perspective and her goal is to build solid, supportive, and reciprocal community.
Angel has a BA in Mass Communications with a concentration in Public Relations (and a Music/Classical Voice Minor). In addition to her service to ASDAH, she also sits on the board of Me Little Me Foundation which hosts a Virtual Food Pantry in support of our online community to address food scarcity among Black and other marginalized community members and families.
ASDAH Board of Directors (Governing Board)
Pontsho pilane, Director
Pontsho (she/they) 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 l. harrison, director
Da’Shaun (they/them) 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.
MARQUISELE (MIKEY) MERCEDES, BOARD MEMBER
Marquisele (Mikey) Mercedes is a writer, educator, and public scholar from the Bronx, New York. Drawing critically from their public health training, they move between academic and public spheres to educate others on how racism, antiblackness, antifatness, and ableism have shaped health care, research, training, and promotion. Her goal is to serve anti-oppression movements and inform the ways they interact with and resist health science domains.
Mikey has written for outlets like The New Inquiry and Pipe Wrench Magazine and has been quoted for their expertise in Gizmodo, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Popular Science, among others. She has also worked with academic institutions, clinical, and public health organizations to promote weight inclusive practices and research. However, above all, she considers what she’s done in community with other fat, Black, Latinx, queer, and disabled people as the heart of her work, such as her co-creation and -hosting of the podcast Unsolicited: Fatties Talk Back.
Mikey is a proud former Ronald E. McNair Scholar and graduate of the City University of New York, where they earned their bachelor’s degree in English Literature, Language, and Criticism at Hunter College. She is currently a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UC San Francisco.
HANAH CYTRON, BOARD MEMBER
Hanah (she/her) is a fat public health professional located in Southern California. Having experienced fat phobia and fat bias at a young age, Hanah is driven to make sure other children and young adults do not share this experience. She is passionate about bringing fat phobia and weight bias discussions into the spotlight so that real, effective interventions can take place. Hanah’s lived experience as a fat woman, strengths in compassion and empathy, and strong scientific background make her a unique champion for fat liberation in the medical and scientific community.
She has earned her Master’s of Public Health and completed her capstone project on the topic of reducing fat phobia in healthcare through a historical lens. She has also presented this material at the American Public Health Association National Conference in 2024. This work has led to her own individual awakening to fat liberation, fueling a desire to support efforts of ASDAH and similar movements.
ASDAH Fundraising Board
Eliza cheng, Board Member
Eliza (she/her) is a registered dietitian based in Nashville, Tennessee, and a graduate student in Nonprofit Management and Leadership at Arizona State University. Born and raised in Malaysia, she brings a global perspective to advancing food security, health equity, and community resilience. Eliza’s work is grounded in the belief that access to dignified, weight-inclusive care is a human right. She is passionate about addressing barriers that prevent people in larger bodies from receiving equitable treatment and works to amplify the voices of those most impacted by systems of oppression. Drawing from both professional expertise and lived experience, Eliza integrates direct service, advocacy, and nonprofit leadership to build safer, more just communities. She is especially committed to ensuring that ASDAH continues to be a vital resource for the community- empowering individuals, providers, and organizations to advocate for compassionate, dignified care. Eliza believes every person deserves nourishment, respect, and a seat at the table.
We are accepting applications to the Fundraising Board on a rolling basis! Serving on the ASDAH Fundraising Board is a wonderful way to put your time and talents to furthering our mission and reaching as many people as possible with better care for fat folks.
JerVae anthony, Board Member
JerVae (they/she) is a fat artist, writer, organizer, and systems designer from Southeast San Diego whose work seeks to build the care infrastructure that communities and the healthcare system have failed to provide. Drawing from lived experience and a background in faith-based leadership, the performing arts, social work, and education, JerVae designs spaces and systems that support artists and marginalized people navigating crisis and systemic exclusion. They believe that art can illuminate community needs and serve as a powerful call to action.
JerVae is the founder of the Community Problem Solving and Solidarity Fund, an organization that coordinates care and connects isolated, under-resourced community members with vital material and emotional support. Grounded in the belief that collective care is both possible and necessary, JerVae works to dismantle the barriers that prevent people from accessing community, resources, and wholeness. Through their work with ASDAH, JerVae brings that same commitment to fat liberation because fat artists are not just here for your entertainment. Fat people and people of all sizes deserve care, respect, and healthcare access just like everyone else.
LISA DUBREUIL, licsw, BOARD MEMBER
Lisa DuBreuil, LICSW is a fat activist, and clinical social worker. Since 2003 she has been a psychotherapist doing individual and group work in Outpatient Psychiatry at Mass General Hospital in Boston, treating people with co-occurring substance use disorders and eating disorders as well as people with new-onset SUDs and compulsions following weight loss surgery. She also has a private practice in Salem, Massachusetts where she works with people diagnosed with binge eating disorder, people dealing with various issues following weight loss surgery, and people wanting to end their chronic pursuit of weight loss. Lisa helps people live peacefully in their bodies by improving self-care skills and teaching how to navigate our challenging body culture.
Additional Support Staff
JESSICA MEYER, LEADERSHIP SUPPORT COORDINATOR
Jessica (she/her) is a white, superfat, disabled, cisgendered butch lesbian. Jessica is passionate about liberation for all, particularly fat liberation, environmental justice, indigenous justice, and disability justice. She holds a B.S. Environmental Geography from Ohio University, a M.A. Rural Development from University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and a M.S. Geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Saint Cloud State University. As part of her M.A., Jessica participated in the Peace Corps Master’s International Program serving in Kratovo, North Macedonia. For her M.A. thesis “Positive Solutions for Rural Solid Waste Management” she went around Macedonia researching how illegal dumping and garbage leachate were polluting water sources. For her M.S. thesis “Groundwater Vulnerability to Hazardous Waste: A GIS-based Analysis of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site,” Jessica worked with tribal leadership at the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to have more information on how and where to clean up hazardous waste on their land.
Since May 2018, Jessica has worked in public safety GIS. As a GIS specialist, she works on projects to make sure maps are very accurate for 9-1-1 emergency vehicle routing and helping counties and regions meet the National Emergency Number Association’s Next Generation 9-1-1 data standards.
ASDAH’s mission is very important to Jessica due to herself and other fat people receiving poor treatment leading to a few life-threatening situations from medical providers. Jessica has attended NAAFA’s Fat Fridays for 3 years and has been a virtual bouncer since Fall 2025. She also has a rich online fat liberation community where she participates in virtual game nights, movie nights, book clubs, and more. Jessica has been volunteering with Feedists for Fat Liberation (FFL) since 2021 and on their core organizing team since 2023. Jessica is most proud of her collaboration with other FFL members on the Categories of Fat Access project..