Marsha Saxton

Marsha Saxton was a founding scholar of disability studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and beloved by her students and colleagues. She was the Director of Research and Training at World Institute on Disability (WID) as well as a lecturer in Disability Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Marsha loved teaching and training, and presented workshops and classes in Australia, Japan, Britain, Finland, Qatar, Canada, and the U.S. She was the recipient of the Irving Kenneth Zola Memorial Lecture award and was interviewed on 60 Minutes about Wrongful Birth lawsuits and was a guest on Talk of the Nation with Ray Suarez, addressing issues of reproductive technologies, and the disability community’s view of selective abortion. She published three books, two films, and over one hundred articles and book chapters about disability rights, Personal Assistance, women's health, violence prevention and genetic screening issues. She was a board member of the Our Bodies, Ourselves Collective, and served on the Council for Responsible Genetics, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Working Group of the Human Genome Initiative. After Marsha's death in December 2021, several touching remembrances were published about her life and work. We encourage you to read them in the links below.