About Mai
Mai Thor is the Chief Program Officer at The Arc Minnesota. She works to remove barriers and expand disability rights in Minnesota.
Her past roles include:
- Civic Engagement Coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, where she worked with community members on issues tied to the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
- Program Manager at the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), where she led work to improve transit and street access for people with disabilities in the Twin Cities metro.
- Bush Fellow, where she learned with leaders in disability and social justice movements and helped build training and leadership skills.
MCD congratulates Mai on this accomplishment, and thanks her for her ongoing work and leadership.
About the Champion of Change Award
The Champion of Change Award honors people whose service advances equity and unity across Minnesota. The Governor’s Council on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday presents the award during its annual celebration.
Q&A with Mai Thor
Question: What did receiving this award mean to you personally and professionally?
Answer: It was a humbling experience to receive this award. At first, I felt awkward and weird. Why am I getting an award for work that I’ve been doing for years? However, I realized that this award is given in the spirit of Dr. King, our most cherished civil rights leader. Once I understood that, I began to see what a huge honor it is. To have the work that I have done recognized in connection with his legacy is a great accomplishment.
Question: Your leadership has been recognized in a space that isn’t traditionally disability focused. How has your lived experience as a person with a disability shaped the way you lead?
Answer: Unfortunately, disability is often not recognized in most spaces. If it is, it’s typically done through a medical model lens. Fortunately, through advocacy and systems change efforts, disability is starting to be included in more spaces, and in meaningful ways. As a disabled Hmong woman, I have many intersecting identities that has shaped my worldview, my values, and how I approach the work that I do. While my focus has always been to lift inclusion and eliminate ableism, the identities that I hold also causes me to do advocacy in the Hmong community and in spaces that impact other marginalized community members. Disability can occur in any community and at any time, and it makes sense to me to insert myself as much as possible, to be present and engaged even when disability is not a central focus.
Question: What motivates or sustains your advocacy and leadership, especially when the work gets challenging?
Answer: The genuineness and authentic collective solidarity of the disability community is what fuels my advocacy. When I am in community with my people, I know that I am fully safe, seen, and heard. I know that my access needs will be met. Being among my people who understand how to navigate life as a multiply marginalized disabled person gives me the hope to continue working toward liberation.
Question: How do you connect this recognition to your sense of disability pride and identity?
Answer: This award is not a reflection of me, but of the community who have helped to lead this work. Disability justice is about community and collective power. This recognition reinforces and lifts the struggles of our past and future, and the importance of our accomplishments in the same breath of accomplishments in other social justice movements. That’s powerful.
Question: In what ways do you see this award intersecting with disability justice, access, or equity, either in your field or in your community?
Answer: Dr. King said, “There is power in unity and there is power in numbers,” and that holds true for disabled people. Disabled voices in the struggle are the same as Indigenous, Black, and Brown voices. As the 10 principles of disability justice tell us, through interdependence and cross-movement solidarity, victory for disabled people is a victory for all justice movements.
Question: How do you hope this recognition will influence your work moving forward, or open doors for others?
Answer: My hope is that disability justice work will continue to be elevated, and more light will be shed on disabled folks and the value they bring into achieving equity and inclusion for the broader community. Our issues, our struggle, our fight are the same. We welcome all allies to this work.
Question: What inspires you to keep doing this work, and what gives you hope right now?
Answer: I always get inspired and hopeful when I think of my kids. What kids are exposed to is essential in their ability to think critically about the injustices that exist in our world. Raising children to be good humans who care about the world and the people who live in it is critical to continuing justice work. My two boys were there to see me receive this award, and I know that by being present at that moment has instilled the importance to keep moving together in freedom work.