Heather Sachs is the Policy & Advocacy Director for the National Down Syndrome Congress. She works with members of Congress and their staff, federal agencies, other national disability and civil rights organizations, and state and local advocates to educate them about policy issues that impact the civil rights and quality of life of individuals with Down syndrome. Heather oversees NDSC’s policy agenda in the areas of community integration, education, employment, financial empowerment, health care, housing and Medicaid. She also spearheads NDSC’s nationwide grassroots advocacy program, the National Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition (NDAC).  On behalf of NDSC, Heather serves as the Vice President of the Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination and is a Co-Chair of the Financial Security Task Force for the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities.

Prior to joining NDSC, Heather worked as the Senior ABLE Advisor for the ABLE National Resource Center, founded and managed by the National Disability Institute in Washington DC to provide consistent and reliable information about Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) tax-advantaged savings accounts for people with disabilities. Appointed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in 2015, Heather served on the Maryland Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Task Force.

Heather previously served as the Vice President of Advocacy & Public Policy for the National Down Syndrome Society and has over a decade of advocacy experience on the national, state and local levels. She is a founding member of the statewide Maryland Down syndrome Advocacy Coalition and a longtime member of the board of the Down Syndrome Network of Montgomery County, Inc. in Maryland. Heather received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. She lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and three children, one of whom has Down syndrome.