I’m excited to welcome Ariam Alula as the SLN’s new Communications Consultant! We had a strong interest in this role and Ariam stood out as someone with the technical knowledge and journalistic skills, as well as an understanding of the disability and sibling community. Ariam is also a sibling! The SLN actually featured a story she wrote this past summer about her family’s future planning process with her brother who has autism called “No Plan for Daniel.” In November, she received an award for this piece from the New York Association of Black Journalists. She lives in New York City and recently graduated from The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She joined SibsNY in 2017. Please join me in welcoming Ariam!
As we welcome Ariam, we also say farewell to Emily Ladau. Emily has produced impactful work with the SLN’s communication over the years which has helped the SLN become more visible nationally. Emily has new exciting opportunities in her work and we wish her well in her future endeavors. We will continue to support her advocacy with the disability community at events, conferences and online forums.
Ariam will support SLN’s communications as we continue to grow as an organization. To share more about Ariam, she wrote the following about herself:
What impact do I want to leave on the world? I usually ask this question every day. I’m a fan of morning rituals. Usually, I drink a cup of hot water, shower with the lights off, and do an eight-step Korean skincare ritual. I also appreciate serendipitous moments with loved ones.
I am passionate about making the world inclusive for people like Daniel. I am an empath and grew up listening, reciting and dissecting hip-hop lyrics. One of my favorite lines is by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z titled “Feelin’ It” from his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt. “Nobody would fall because everyone would be each other’s crutches.” It represents looking after your own and each other, which is a principle my parents raised me to have.
I self-funded my graduate program which helped me cultivate skills in audience engagement, design thinking, impact and metrics, social media verification, using data to tell stories, and analyzing membership models. I’m passionate about serving under-heard communities and I want to amplify the voices of siblings of people with disabilities across the globe.
