ASDAH Staff Members
Angel, 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, Director
Pontsho 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, director
Da’Shaun 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.
ASDAH Fundraising Board
Eliza, Board Member
Eliza 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.