Leslie Templeton ’16 | Boston College

Leslie is the current chapter leader for her SSDP chapter at Boston College, where she studies psychology. Leslie has multiple disabilities, including learning disabilities, mental illness, and epilepsy. As special education student, Leslie’s activism started in disability rights in high school. She realized that those with disabilities were not given a voice or empowered, and often were afterthoughts and thought of as less-than their nondisabled peers. With this, Leslie strove to empower young disabled voices. She currently serves as an Administrator for the Women’s March on Washington Disability Caucus, where she stresses inclusivity of all marginalized disabled voices. With her chapter, Leslie has made it a priority to create harm reduction resources for her community, ensuring accessibility. She focuses on how the War on Drugs has affected disabled people, especially those of color; medicinal uses of stigmatized drugs; how prescription limitations affect those with disabilities; the inaccessibility of harm reduction and drug policy spaces; making accessibility a prerogative instead of an afterthought; drug use and disability; and disability rights. Leslie believes that drug policy is an important part of disability activism and vice versa. Her priority on the board is to raise awareness of all marginalized populations and how the War on Drugs affects them, giving them more of a voice within the organization.