Cori Frazer 1st Year Trainee - Self-Advocate

Cori is a second-year Master of Social Work student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a transgender and Autistic community advocate. They received their undergraduate degree in Social Work and certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013. In their time at Pitt, they were strongly involved in student organizing, having worked with Rainbow Alliance and Campus Women’s Organization, spending two years on the board of directors of Campus Women’s Organization’s annual production of the Vagina Monologues. Additionally, they worked as a Peer Educator with Sexual Assault Services, and completed an internship in child and adolescent mental health service coordination with Human Services Administration Organization.

Cori has been an activist and advocate since their teens, beginning with pushing for change for LGBT+ students at their rural high school in 2007. In 2014, Cori founded Pittsburgh’s chapter of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which has grown to an independent organization, the Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy, under their leadership. The Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy is Pittsburgh’s only self-advocate run organization serving autistic people through advocacy development, policy initiatives, peer support, and community education. Last year, Cori served as an intern with Education Rights Network, a grassroots project of One Pennsylvania, which pushes for educational equity for students of color and students with disabilities in Pittsburgh Public Schools and across the state. Cori has also been afforded the honor of serving on the Mayor of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ Council and the City of Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Taskforce on Disability. Last summer, Cori was named one of the Incline’s Who’s Next in Education for their work as a young person in education advocacy.

Currently, Cori is privileged to serve their communities, both as a radical activist as well as in their formal roles as an advocate at LEND, director at the Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy, among others, especially during a time when access to healthcare and community living for people with disabilities hang in the balance. After their time at LEND, Cori plans to complete their MSW and continue their work as a community organizer and director of an Autistic-run nonprofit.