Lauren Appelbaum
Senior Vice President, Communications and Entertainment& News Media, at RespectAbility
Lauren Appelbaum (she/her) is the Senior Vice President, Communications
and Entertainment & News Media, at RespectAbility, a diverse, disability-led
nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and
values people with disabilities, and that advances policies and practices that
empower disabled people to have a better future. She brings more than 15
years of experience in strategic and crisis communications, writing, video and
web production, news gathering and social media to the disability agenda.
Previously she served as a digital researcher with the NBC News political unit
for the 2006 midterm and 2008 presidential elections with Chuck Todd and
Andrea Mitchell.
As an individual with an acquired nonvisible disability – Reflex Sympathetic
Dystrophy – she works at the intersection of disability, employment,
Hollywood, and politics. From entertainment professionals to presidential
campaigns, journalists to philanthropists, she conducts trainings on the why
and how to be more inclusive and accessible.
Appelbaum partners with studios, production companies and writers’ rooms to
create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of
people with lived disability experience throughout the overall story-telling
process. These initiatives increase diverse and authentic representation of
disabled people on screen, leading to systemic change in how society views
and values people with disabilities. She has consulted on more than 100 TV
episodes and films with 9Story Media Group, A&E, Bunim-Murray Productions,
DreamWorks Animation, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Nickelodeon, ViacomCBS, The
Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Discovery, among others. She
represents RespectAbility on the CAA Full Story Initiative Advisory
Council, Disney+ Content Advisory Council, MTV Entertainment Group Culture
Code and Sundance Institute’s Allied Organization Initiative.
Appelbaum also increases hiring initiatives of people with disabilities behind
the camera and enriches the pool of disabled talent in Hollywood by
connecting them to those who can assist with their careers, both on the
creative and business sides of the industry. She is the author of The
Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit, which was created to help
entertainment professionals to be as inclusive of people with disabilities as
possible, and the creator of an innovative Lab Program for entertainment
professionals with disabilities working in development, production and post-
production. She is a recipient of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact
Award for this Lab.
Appelbaum is a sought-after expert and has been quoted by many national
publications including Associated Press, Deadline, The Hollywood
Reporter, IndieWire, The Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The New York
Times, RealScreen, Reuters, Tablet, USA Today, Variety and The
Washington Post. She has spoken on panels at the Association of Health Care
Journalists Conference, ComNet, RealScreen Summit, Sundance Film Festival
and SXSW, among others.
Appelbaum also is the Managing Editor of The RespectAbility Report, a
publication at the intersection of disability and politics. During the 2016
election season, Appelbaum led a team of Communications Fellows in
interviewing all of the presidential candidates about the importance
of disability employment, reporting all interviews via accessible video and
articles in The RespectAbility Report.
She also supervises several Apprentices through RespectAbility’s
Apprenticeship Program. Her Apprentices ultimately want to go into careers in
journalism, public relations, political communications or the entertainment
industry.
Outside of work, Appelbaum is active in community theater. She has served in
a variety of behind-the-scenes roles for more than a dozen musicals and
plays. Having organized volunteer ASL interpreters and coordinated ADA
seating at performances, as well as directing a nonverbal actor with cerebral
palsy who uses a wheelchair, she understands first-hand the importance of
inclusion of both performers and others with disabilities.
Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Appelbaum has a master’s degree in
Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University; she also has undergraduate
degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She
serves on several national and local nonprofit boards. Appelbaum currently
lives in Maryland with her husband, daughter, and dog. She travels nationally,
often to the Los Angeles area.
You can learn from Lauren at WIN Summit 2023 on April 19, 2023.
Join us for WIN Summit 2023
For real change, we're going to need more feminine energy in leadership roles.
Let's create a more equal future for all. Join us for the leading negotiation and leadership summit for women!
RESERVE MY SPOT
Let's create a more equal future for all. Join us for the leading negotiation and leadership summit for women!
