Sara Minkara
Sara Minkara on Reframing How We Look at Disability
Sara Minkara
Keynote Speaker
Founder, In the Dark Methodology; Former U.S. Special Advisor International Disability Rights; Entrepreneur; Innovator in Authentic Leadership and Diplomacy
Sara Minkara is a global leader in disability diplomacy, leadership, and policy innovation. Appointed by President Joe Biden as the U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights, she has shaped policies across trade, technology, and climate action, advocating for sustainable, inclusive solutions in over 70 countries. A bold and transformative voice, Minkara challenges conventional leadership models, showing how true leaders embrace diversity, adaptability, and systemic change.
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Sara Minkara's speaking fee: $25K - $40K
Sara Minkara is a world-renowned, in-demand speaker and visionary who masterfully shatters conventional wisdom about leadership, disability, and human potential. Having served as U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights and leading foreign policy on disability, Minkara revolutionized how nations and multilateral fora approach diplomacy, leadership, and disability. Minkara’s diplomatic mastery spans 70+ countries and the highest levels of global governance, private sector engagement, and civil society consultation, transforming policy landscapes in trade, emerging technologies, climate action, and international security.
Minkara’s unique story as a blind Muslim woman and Arab-American entrepreneur, which has shaped her into a powerful voice for change, is one that will bring a fresh perspective. Minkara not only served as an ambassador on disability, fostering meaningful partnerships across diverse stakeholders — from grassroots organizations to ministerial meetings, she also founded and ran an International NGO for 10 years, Empowerment Through Integration (ETI), which worked systemically to break down barriers for 1,000+ youth with disabilities across the MENA region. Minkara pioneered her “In the Dark Methodology,” a groundbreaking framework that catalyzes profound transformation in Fortune 500 boardrooms, government chambers, and international forums, fostering an authentic dialogue that breaks down systemic barriers and builds bridges across diverse communities. Her ability to create scalable, sustainable impact has earned her prestigious recognition, including Forbes 30 Under 30, the Clinton Global Initiative, and Vital Voices.
Each session with Minkara is an unparalleled journey. Her style is interactive, hopeful, and impactful, creating space for authentic dialogues and difficult conversations to flourish and develop. Minkara does the work with her audiences; she leaves them feeling seen, heard, and valued. Through her groundbreaking work in disability diplomacy, social entrepreneurship, and adaptive leadership, Minkara equips organizations with actionable frameworks to drive systemic change.
Why Choose Sara Minkara?
- Global Impact: Minkara has played a pivotal role in historic milestones such as leading the first-ever G7 Inclusion and Disability Ministerial, co-hosting the ASEAN-U.S. High-Level Dialogue on Disability, and advocating for the adoption of the APEC Arequipa Goals. Her leadership in global forums and her bilateral engagements with countries like Kenya, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Ukraine, and Turkey have had lasting effects on how disability is integrated into international foreign policy.
- Authentic Leadership: Minkara’s unique background as a blind Muslim woman and Arab-American entrepreneur, coupled with her life experiences, has given her an unparalleled insight into authentic leadership. Having served as the most senior diplomate on disability, an entrepreneur, and an innovator, Minkara promotes curiosity through a lens of compassion, leading to effective and authentic leadership.
- Inspiring Change: Minkara’s engagements always inspire action. Through her words and frameworks, she creates space for difficult conversations, shared responsibility, and capacity so everyone can access the tools to make lasting change.
- High-Profile Engagements: In addition to her multilateral and bilateral engagements, Minkara has also given numerous speeches at world-renowned events and conferences, such as the Delphi Economic Forum, India G20, APEC, OAS, and the United Nations General Assembly. Regardless of the avenue, Minkara’s sessions are transformative, leaving a lasting impact on the audience.
Featured Videos
Sara Minkara
Sara Minkara on Reframing the Conversation
Sara Minkara
Sara Minkara on Reframing How We Look at Disability
Sara Minkara’s Speech Topics
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Authentic Leadership as a Growth Strategy: How Curiosity and Connection Drive Performance and Innovation
Your audience will leave with:
- Proven strategies for exercising leadership through curiosity, vulnerability, and authentic connections
- A concrete sense of the connection between authentic leadership, establishing a culture of openness and trust, and the subsequent free flowing of ideas and innovation.
- Practical strategies and playbooks for carrying authentic leadership forward in their daily lives.
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How We Helped Changed the State Department: Creating Transformational Change and Nimble Solutions in Complex Systems
Your audience will leave with:
- A clear lens to distinguish between quick fixes and the hard work of adaptive solutions – and the courage to ask the hard questions about whether a proposed solution is actually addressing the problem or just treating symptoms.
- Concrete strategies for leading adaptive work – how you can work across large, bureaucratic organizations to make space for difficult conversations, create expectations for shared responsibility, and build capacity for taking the real hard work forward.
- Lessons from the inside – based on real work at the U.S. State Department, this session offers tested insights on shifting institutional culture, navigating resistance.
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Reimagining the Future of Work and Technology: Leveraging the Disability Lens for Innovation
Your audience will leave with:
- A compelling vision of how the disability perspective fuels innovation and drives the future of AI, technology, and the workforce at every stage—from design and implementation to evaluation and beyond.
- A clear understanding of the concrete economic and societal gains realized when all stakeholders are embedded into every facet of technology and workforce development.
- Actionable insights on how prioritizing the disability lens in reskilling and upskilling initiatives leads to stronger, more resilient, and future-ready organizations and societies.
- A strategic perspective on building inclusive technologies and policies that inherently enhance outcomes for all, ensuring no perspective is overlooked.
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Why Disability Perspectives Belong in Every Global Conversation
Your audience will leave with:
- Actionable frameworks for integrating disability perspectives into policymaking, program design, and international negotiations, ensuring more resilient, innovative, and human-centered solutions across sectors.
- Real-world insights from Sara’s groundbreaking work in disability mainstreaming, including how she elevated disability rights in high-level global dialogues on trade, climate, security, and technology – even when it wasn’t on the agenda.
- A reimagined understanding of disability policy — not as a niche issue, but as a value-driver that strengthens governance, expands market access, and unlocks new dimensions of innovation.
- Tangible ways to be an effective ally and why including disabled voices in all conversations strengthens outcomes for everyone.
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Lessons From a Diplomat: How to Drive Action Around Your Cause When It’s Not on the Agenda
Your audience will leave with:
- Practical tools and strategies to build unlikely coalitions, bridge divides and establish common ground to advocate for issues and solutions that aren’t on the radar of your key stakeholders.
- Powerful stories from Sara’s lived experience and diplomatic career, including how she got global leaders to prioritize disability inclusion at forums where it had never been discussed before.
- An understanding of the value of disability policy and its implications for everyone — not just the world’s largest minority.
- Actionable insights on allyship, advocacy, and why the inclusion of people with disabilities strengthens outcomes for everyone.
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