Board of Directors

After working at California's Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (now Disability Rights California), Daniel permanently returned to the East Coast and worked for many years as an attorney for low-income people at Legal Services of New Jersey. At age 45, he went back to school and earned a Midcareer Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School in 2015. Now, after many years of being unable to obtain adequate personal care benefits in New Jersey while working, he is now able to return to his career due to some changes in the law and his eligibility status, and is planning on starting a consulting business.

At DRF, Diana was also the main liaison to donors, raising more than $70 million and re-granting over $40 million of that to local organizations of persons with disabilities to advance the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including in achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Diana’s work has been featured in numerous philanthropic publications, including the book, Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do More Good By Giving Up Control and Candid’s Guide, Deciding Together: Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking.

Diana has over two decades of experience in disability, development, and human rights, more broadly. Previously, she directed a legal advocacy organization in Budapest, Hungary, which litigates abuses of rights of persons with disabilities who are institutionalized across Central Eastern Europe and East Africa. She also worked with the American Refugee Committee and ran the Russian and Eastern European programs of Doctors of the World, addressing access to reproductive health services, tuberculosis control, and deinstitutionalization. A mid-career graduate of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Diana has advanced degrees in Public Administration and Feminist Psychology. Diana has served on numerous boards and steering groups, including the Human Rights Funders Network, the United States International Council on Disability, and research boards of projects collecting global disability data at UCLA and Fordham University. She is currently on the boards of the Center for Inclusive Policy, the Climate Justice Resilience Fund, and the Harvard Alumni Disability Alliance.

Dr. Hayward's five-year training sequence included several years working with combat veterans and culminated in a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

As a spinal cord injured wheelchair user, Dr. Hayward has done humanitarian work aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities around the world, taking wheelchairs and other mobility equipment to Mongolia and Costa Rica, teaching positive psychology-based interventions in Thailand after the Southeast Asia tsunami, working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, and speaking at the United Nations about eliminating ableism across the globe. Two books for lay audiences, Metamorphosis: How and Why We Change by Polly Morland, and Upside: The New Science of Posttraumatic Growth by Jim Rendon, contain accounts of Dr. Hayward’s life and work. In her free time, she is racing a fellow Stanford alum to travel to 50 countries (he is at 41, she is at 42).

Kosti was a Faculty Coordinator at the Center on Causes and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) from 2019-2022, and was appointed to the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (DACDI), where he worked on the Strategic Planning and Implementation group.

An alumnus of Harvard Medical School, he received graduate training in Bioethics, pursuing an MBE degree at the Center for Bioethics of Harvard Medical School, having been awarded the Inaugural HMS Dean's Scholarship based on "academic excellence, persistence, resilience, and a commitment to advancing the position of the underserved and the underrepresented in the biomedical sciences." At HMS, he was elected President of Harvard Medical School's MS Council. He also served as the Community Engagement Fellow, employed by the Office of the President at Harvard, and the EDIB (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging) team.

Kosti was selected by the Dean of Harvard Medical School (Graduate Education) to give the student (valedictorian) address at the HMS graduation entitled: “In pursuit of A Moral Awakening in Medicine & Healthcare: An ethics of Sympraxis.” While authoring his speech, he sought input, advice, and feedback from Prof. Lisa Iezzoni, and his mentor Prof. Michael Stein of Harvard Law School and the Harvard Law School Project on Disability. An article with an excerpt from his speech, including words inspired by the late and great Paul Farmer, was published under news and research as an HMS article.

Kosti conducted his capstone research project on disability bioethics at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, investigating clinical and organizational ethics parameters of rehabilitation within Adaptive Sports Medicine Adaptive Sports Clinics (SASC). His research uncovered the rich process of making meaning of the intricacies of Adaptive Sports Medicine at Spaulding. When ethics was the lens through which the researcher approached this project, it necessitated delving deeper into this relatively nascent area that has largely been absent from the bioethics literature. The objectives were to: a) understand the elements of the unique nature of disability bioethics, b) accommodate discussions of bioethics principles in a disability/adaptive sport medicine context, and c) learn how to be a more inclusive clinical ethicist and practitioner. With freedom of movement as a goal, and self-determination as an ideal, it was shown that rehabilitation is more a quality of life (rather than/compared to life or death) matter and domain. It has to do with purpose and meaning, participation, and empowerment, leading to human flourishing.

Kosti also served on the Ethics Advisory Committee of SRN (Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.) He received a certificate in Exercise Prescription (Lifestyle Medicine program) from Harvard Medical School, as well as a certificate in Breast Cancer Survivors' Fitness Plan Training (Quality of Life program) from Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In 2022, he was awarded the International Emerging Scholar Award for his paper that was selected to be presented and published at the 13th International Conference on Sport in Society in Aarhus, Denmark, June 30th - July 1st. The specially themed conference was entitled: "Whose Body Is It? Sport And The Problem of Autonomy."

Throughout her professional journey, Courtney has been privileged to cultivate a unique set of skills, with her writing, photography, and post-production work featured in multiple books, as well as several national and international magazines.

Courtney's academic journey reflects her diverse interests. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and English from Rutgers University and a master's degree in biology from Harvard University. In her pursuit of knowledge, Courtney has also earned various career and specialization certificates, delving into advanced topics in patent law, data science, pharmacology, U.S. health law fundamentals, and multiple certifications in advanced and executive leadership.

In addition to her business ventures, Courtney leverages her skills and influence to make a positive impact. She proudly serves as the Co-President of a non-profit organization that works to address time-sensitive humanitarian crises, a role that allows her to contribute meaningfully to initiatives that align with her values, including public health, mental health, public policy, and human rights.

Having navigated the challenges of growing up with multiple chronic illnesses and rare diseases, Courtney is compelled to reach out and extend a supportive hand to those facing similar obstacles. Her mission is clear: to advocate for and support individuals with disabilities. Driven by deep empathy and an unwavering determination, Courtney is dedicated to working for a future that embraces inclusivity and fosters a culture of understanding, support, and widespread awareness.

During his time as a Dean's Scholar at Harvard Medical School, Larry explored how the inaccessible web impacts the health of people with disabilities. He has written on health topics for Vox and Harvard Medical School, co-authored public health op-eds in the Orlando Sentinel, Vancouver Sun, and KevinMD, and has served as a panelist and speaker at Harvard, FSU, and University of South Florida. His contributions and co-contributions to the natural and social sciences are highlighted by Fast Company and Gizmodo Japan, cited in "Real World Python" (No Starch Press), published in Practicing Anthropology, and quoted in "Community Engagement Through Collaborative Writing" (Routledge). He identifies as a person who stutters and serves on the board of Harvard Alumni Disability Alliance (HADA).