Assistant Disability Rights Jobs in Fairfax, VA (NOW HIRING)

About AAPD
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) works to increase the political and economic power of people with disabilities. As a national disability-led and cross-disability rights organization, AAPD advocates for full civil rights for over 60 million Americans with disabilities. We do this by promoting equal opportunity, economic power, independent living, and political participation through our programs and advocacy. We are looking to hire staff who embody our mission and are invested in building the disability rights movement.
AAPD is an equal opportunity employer. Our office collaborates across initiatives to actively uplift and center the diversity of the disability community in our work. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with a disability. Applicants with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply.
AAPD has an office headquartered in Washington, DC, but also has flexible workplace and remote work policies. AAPD follows strong COVID-19 Prevention Policies in our DC office and whenever our staff are in-person.
We offer a competitive benefits package including:

• • Unlimited PTO
  • Flexible work schedule
  • 403(b) with 5% employer match
  • 100% employer coverage of Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance for each employee and up to 2 dependents
  • Access to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Professional development and career advancement opportunities

• Position Title: Executive Assistant to the President & CEO
• Position Level: Assistant
• Job Type: Full-time
• Reports To: President & CEO and Senior Executive Assistant
• Location: Washington, DC
• Format: Full-Time, In-Person with expectation to travel with President & CEO, with hybrid and flexible schedule
• Travel: Short-term 50% travel with President & CEO for Listening Tour in the fall (estimated 10 stops August - early November 2026); usually 10%, plus a few monthly DC local events
• Salary: $70,000 - $85,000
AAPD is hiring for a traveling Executive Assistant that thrives in a hybrid work environment and is passionate about directly helping nonprofit leaders maximize their efficiency. The Executive Assistant plays an integral role in the President & CEO's daily work and helps streamline internal and external processes to help the President & CEO achieve the strategic goals of the organization. The Executive Assistant will support the President & CEO with in-person local and national travel; meet regularly with her at the office to complete administrative tasks; be the main point of contact for President & CEO's in-person and hybrid meetings, ensuring meeting materials and hybrid meeting technology runs smoothly; draft and send official communications from the office of the President & CEO; work closely with stakeholders that need information from the President & CEO to perform their duties or take appropriate action, and more.
This role will work closely with other direct reports of the President & CEO including the Senior Executive Assistant and other AAPD staff. We are looking for someone who is willing to travel, is a self-starter, and enjoys a challenge while working in a team setting. If you are a strong communicator with problem-solving and organizational skills who wants to support the strategic goals of a growing civil rights organization, this role and AAPD are great for you. There will be opportunities for growth and expanding technical skills in the role.
Roles and Responsibilities
AAPD's Executive Assistant is responsible for the following:
Supporting Travel for President & CEO (In-Person)
• Travel with the President & CEO to local and national events throughout the year. These events may break down into:
• Assist President & CEO traveling on National Listening Tour (one-time)
• 2-4 local (DC area) daytime events a month
• 1-3 long distance travel events a month
• Opportunities to attend evening events, dinners, and other networking events alongside the President & CEO or other senior staff.
• Modes of transportation can be flexible. Ideally, a candidate will travel with the President & CEO, by meeting at a local DC airport, for example.
• Coordinate accessible travel arrangements and reservations for President & CEO and VIPs on an as-needed basis.
• Keep the President & CEO calendar updated with all travel details and coordinate with local staff, board members, and other stakeholders as appropriate. Set up formal and informal meetings with local stakeholders in advance to maximize travel.
• Help document our work by taking photos of President & CEO and assist with ensuring photos and captions are posted to social media in a timely manner.
Distributed Office and Meetings
• Schedule, coordinate, and manage in-person, hybrid, and remote meetings and small internal and external hybrid events for the President & CEO. Attend in-person President & CEO meetings at the office to ensure in-person guests adhere to office COVID and other protocols and that hybrid technology such as Zoom is running smoothly on the back-end and in the conference room.
• Responsibility level may vary, but work involving meetings and events may include: working with key stakeholders to find meeting times, ensuring accessibility requests are taken care of, coordinating catering that meets diverse dietary and allergy needs, ensuring President & CEO's in-person guests adhere to COVID and other office protocols, and managing hybrid meeting technology in the office conference room and back-end tech set up for virtual meetings.
• Record accurate minutes from key meetings, with a focus on documenting key decisions and actions, especially for the President & CEO.
• Post reminders and key messages from the President & CEO to the key stakeholder groups as needed, both external and internal, including meeting materials like agendas or minutes.
• Follow up with President & CEO, internal and external stakeholders on action items to ensure timely completion.
• Coordinate with Administrative Assistant on in-office mail for the President & CEO, both incoming and outgoing.
• Help maintain digital filing system for key documents and correspondence; working collaboratively with all of the AAPD team.
• Conduct research as requested by the President & CEO.
• Provide general administrative support to the Executive department including assisting with gathering items for the annual audit.
• Set the tone carrying out AAPD values related to using our in-person facilities and online platforms.
• Assist operations team to provide support to leadership team and perform other duties as assigned.
Email, Communications, and Scheduling
• Maintain and address daily incoming to the President & CEO's inbox. This includes reading, sorting, and distributing incoming correspondence in a reliable and appropriate manner. Handle incoming with discretion and confidentiality, being trustworthy with personal and professional information that's sensitive and/or confidential, whether it's marked as such or not.
• Act as the primary point of contact for the President & CEO among key external and internal contacts, including staff or others who rely on input from the President & CEO to be able to perform their work. Contacts may also include current and former board members, but this role will not directly support the board.
• Be the point person for communications coming from the President & CEO, drafting and sending emails, making follow up calls or checking on action items, with potential to also draft personal work-related social media posts on President & CEO's behalf.
• Safeguard President & CEO's productivity by screening calls and emails, using good judgment to triage appropriately.
• Co-manage the President & CEO's calendar and help strike a balance by delegating, blocking internal focus time, PTO, and more.
• Work with internal teams to provide essential context to the President & CEO for meetings and speaking engagements.
• Think ahead and respond in a timely manner when priorities, operational needs, or schedule changes are needed in order for the President & CEO to be successful.
• Surface daily action items for the President & CEO based on to-do list, email and calendar
• Manage key President & CEO contacts for gifts, mailers, and acknowledgements as needed in coordination with relevant teams, sort received business cards and regularly update contact list
• Represent AAPD professionally and sincerely, modeling the organization's values to be and help others be collaborative, accessible, empowered, informed, ethical and responsible, values-driven, and transparent for the sake of accountability and community.
• Anticipate future scheduling or other business needs of the President & CEO or other senior leadership.
Qualifications
• At least 2-3 years of experience as executive assistant or administrative assistant, successfully balancing multiple tasks and schedules, or equivalent professional experience.
• Experienced with both front end and back end of Zoom (other platforms okay but Zoom highly preferred). Comfortable with setting up meetings on behalf of others, changing settings in advance, and managing technical aspects of Zoom during a meeting, such as assigning a virtual live captioner.
• Knowledge, experience, and working comfort with technical aspects of Google Meets, Google Suite including Drive and Calendar, Slack, and Microsoft Word.
• Strong writer; able to draft accurate, clear, human-written correspondence on behalf of an executive such as President & CEO, as well as on behalf of yourself.
• Strong analytical skills and able to work with discretion and confidentiality.
• Trustworthy with personal and professional information that's sensitive and/or confidential, whether it's adequately marked as such or not.
• Outstanding organization and attention to detail; able to prioritize projects and complete tasks on time.
• Flexible, able to adjust plans or priorities in a proactive and responsive way.
• Creative problem solver who can think outside the box.
• Able to work alone or across teams to do research or compile other documents for the President & CEO.
• Able to work with varying levels of stakeholders; reliably shares information that others rely on for their work, or can find out the answer they need working with the President & CEO or alone.
• Coordinate and take direction from the President & CEO and others, while also working well without a lot of explicit and detailed direction, direct oversight, or continual reviews especially for daily tasks.
Nice to Have
Preferred candidates will also have some or all of these qualities:
• Previous experience with traveling to assist senior staff such as an Executive Director.
• Software knowledge, experience, and working comfort with Bonterra, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Outlook and Teams, other video calling platforms, and/or a willingness to learn new tools and platforms as needed.
• Preferred candidates will have knowledge of and/or experience with accessibility best practices, such as Plain Language or how to make a PDF screen reader accessible.
• Ability to create systems especially in a hybrid work environment.
• Prior experience or demonstrated understanding with AAPD's work portfolio and federal policy.
• Interest in ongoing learning and professional development at work.
• Comfort with reading maps and giving or interpreting travel directions
• Personal connection with the disability community
• Personal driver's license and comfort with driving a car, minivan, or SUV while on out-of-town travel (not a requirement).
• Ability to lift 40 lbs (not a requirement).
Benefits
AAPD offers an exceptional benefits package that includes paid time off; health, dental, and vision insurance; short-term and long-term disability insurance, all federal holidays off, end-of-the-year holiday paid leave between Christmas Day and New Years Day, flexible religious holidays, 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution; professional development, and generous bereavement policy and transit benefits. AAPD also provides a relocation package.
Application Process
Please submit your application materials on the following job application link, including:
• Resume
• Cover letter
• In addition to providing your reason for being interested in the role and organization, please confirm your ability to meet the in-office and travel requirements outlined in the job description.
• Responses to application questions including:
• Writing Samples (Memos to staff, meeting minutes, leave-behind documents, etc.)
• Two professional references
If you have any inquiries or need to make an accommodation request, please email jobs@aapd.com with the subject line "2026 Executive Assistant Inquiry."
AAPD will accept applications on a rolling basis until April 30, 2026 at 11:59pm ET.
The pay range for this role is:
70,000 - 85,000 USD per year (AAPD Office)