As the founder, CEO and Chief Disabled Officer of 2Gether-International, a Washington D.C. based not-for profit, Diego Mariscal utilizes communication technology to engage disabled and non-disabled youth into several disability issues ranging from education and employment to police violence and sexuality. His current area of focus is on developing supports that help disabled entrepreneurs achieve self employment.

An expert on youth, social media, and social entrepreneurship, Diego has collaborated with the U.S. Department of State, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization of American States, the United Nations and leading technology companies like Blackboard and Crisis Text Line to better engage youth on disability. Diego has been internationally recognized for his work, most noticeably by the Waldzell Institute in Vienna as an Architect of the Future and by the British Council as a Global Changemaker. In 2014, he was also a Youth in International Development and Affairs Fellow for the U.S. International Council on Disabilities. In 2016, Diego was nominated as  one of the 30 under 30 leaders in social entrepreneurship by Forbes magazine, and invited to the first United Nations World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul.

Early, this year Diego was invited to the international education conference SXSWedu to discuss “What Youth with Disabilities Want Out of their education” and was an honorary guest and spokesperson of the US Embassy in Panama for the 2017 Special Olympics regional games.

Born with cerebral palsy in New Orleans but raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Diego also represented Nuevo Leon in the Mexican National Paralympics from 2004-2009.