Welcome to our new accessibility and disability justice staff!
“Disability Justice builds on the disability rights movement, taking a more comprehensive approach to help secure rights for disabled people by recognizing the intersectionality of disabled people who belong to additional marginalized communities. Disability justice is a framework that acknowledges the intersection of oppression, and centers the ways that disabled people experience the world through systems that are not built for us, especially the twice, thrice and more oppressed among us.” - Rev. Amanda Schuber, Side With Love Disability Justice Associate
Welcome our new staff!
We are excited to welcome two new colleagues to the UUA, both of whom are holding accessibility and disability justice in their portfolios. At Side With Love, we recognize that accessibility must be part of our prophetic vision for Beloved Community and we’re grateful to be working with Gretchen and Amanda!
Gretchen Maune (she/they)
Accessibility Resources Coordinator in Ministries and Faith Development's LGBTQ and Multicultural Ministries
As Accessibility Resources Coordinator, Gretchen will provide virtual resources for Unitarian Universalist congregational and organizational leaders to create spaces, events, programs and communities which are accessible and inclusive to disabled participants.
Gretchen is a white, queer, autistic, blind, disabled UU living in Columbia, Missouri. She serves the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia (UUCC) as a Worship Associate, and has previously served on its Board of Trustees, and as a multi-time delegate to GA.
In 2017, Gretchen co-founded UUCC’s Disability Justice and Inclusion Team (DJIT), and has chaired it for over five years. UUCC’s DJIT seeks to foster an inclusively designed environment, with a congregational commitment to combating ablism, where all individuals feel radically welcome and are able to participate in every aspect of the church and community. She has consulted on accessibility for nonprofits, companies, and government entities across the country. She is excited to apply her experience and knowledge to help the UUA and its congregations do their work with a lens to disability justice and accessibility lens.
Gretchen holds a Master’s of Public Affairs from the University of Missouri’s Truman School of Public Affairs, and a Bachelor’s in English, also from MU. She’s worked as a Community Organizer in the fields of both economic and reproductive justice for GRO—Grass Roots Organizing, and for NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. She’s also worked as a public education lobbyist for the Missouri National Education Association, the largest union in Missouri. Gretchen has been appointed to the Columbia Disabilities Commission, and the city’s Public Transit Advisory Commission. In addition, she has served as a board member with multiple nonprofits, and volunteers her time with Missouri Faith Voices, bringing a disabled perspective to their work.
In her free-time, Gretchen enjoys reading, playing D&D, and hanging out with her Seeing-Eye Dog, Royal.
Rev. Amanda Schuber (she/her)
Disability Justice Associate in Side With Love’s Organizing Strategy Team
My pronouns are she/her, or anything said in love. I have lived in the deep South for most of my life and consider myself a dedicated Southern Minister.
My wife, Wanda, and I have been married for 18 years and live with two of our three children in Middle Georgia. I spend most of my free time engaged as a taxi and sports mom extraordinaire for my two youngest children, Joseph (almost 11) and Nora (13). Our oldest child, Samantha, and her husband, Cody, are stationed in South Dakota, serving in the United States Air Force. When not at the ball fields, our family loves to camp and hike all over the country. I am also an avid gardener, crafter, and theater patron.
I have served the UU world in various capacities over the last 29 years, including sitting on the Boards of EQUUAL Access, Interweave, and CUUYAN (Continental UU Young Adult Network). I spent two years living in Boston, working at the UUA in the Office of Congregational Fundraising. Additionally, I have been a Beyond Categorical Thinking facilitator since 2004 and have been privileged to work with well over 50 congregations in that time. Congregationally, I have held many positions, including social action chair, worship chair, and DRE.
A graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry, I’m honored to serve as Minister for High Street Unitarian Universalist Church in Macon, GA and as the Disability Justice Associate for the Side with Love Organizing Strategy Team.
I am an advocate for disability rights and visibility in the wider world and within our denomination. Specifically, I strive to create a welcoming and supportive space for those living with mental health challenges and their families.
Subscribe to UPLIFT Access, our newsletter uplifting accessibility in and beyond Unitarian Universalism which Gretchen maintains. You can read the most recent issue here.