Ingrid Palmer

Ingrid Palmer is a professional speaker and founded Focus On Ability to promote resilience, personal power, and well-being. She also serves as first vice-chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities with a focus on human rights and community leadership and holds the role of Principal IDEAL Advocate at Realize where she leads research projects and educates on disability, intersectionality, employment, and social inclusion. 

As a connection and belonging specialist, she supports leaders committed to personal and systemic transformation to foster inclusive environments and practices through increased awareness, understanding, and relational skill building. Ingrid’s dedication to advancing principles of justice is deeply rooted in her own multilayered experiences of stigma and exclusion and underpins her approaches to driving systemic and social change as well as debunking myths of stigmatized communities. 

Ingrid has worked with many institutions including the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Ontario Youth Justice Taskforce, Elections Canada, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University, OISE, Holland-Bloorview, Humber College, George Brown, Tellus, Godiva, and Manulife. Ingrid has appeared on CTV, Global News, Citytv, Breakfast Television, and in publications such as Toronto Life, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and online zines. 

As a Maytree fellow, Ingrid will support growing comfort and knowledge of inclusive communication, connection, rights-based participation, and leadership of historically equity-denied communities.