My name is Michael Neil and I am a fellow from Denver with Spina Bifida and Upper Motor Neuron Dysfunction. I grew up in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver. I began political organizing in 1998 by phone-banking with the Gail Schoettler for Governor campaign in 1998 and was a part of both my Amnesty International Chapter and Colorado College Fair Labor from 2000-2003. In graduate school at the University of Denver, I joined the Center on Rights Development from 2006-2007 and the DU Task Force on Modern Slavery from 2007 to 2008. From 2004-2006, I began my first stint as a precinct committee person in Denver, and I joined the Diversity and Outreach Committee of the Denver County Democratic Party from 2007-2008. After I began my dissertation work, I stepped back from my official political duties for a few years to focus on my academic work on John Rawls and the intersection of theories of democracy, disability politics, and membership in a sociopolitical community. Upon my dissertation completion in 2013, I became a very-part-time ADA Compliance Investigator for the Civil Rights Enforcement and Education Center. From 2015 to 2016, I was appointed by the Governor to the Disability Benefit Support Contract Committee, which became the Disability Funding Council in 2016, and which I chaired from late 2017 until late 2020. I also joined the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition in 2015 as a legislative liaison. More recently, in September 2019, I was appointed liaison from Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition to the Colorado Civic Engagement Roundtable and, in April of 2019, I was also appointed as a liaison to the Women’s Lobby of Colorado.
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