About us
Talent is spread evenly. Opportunity is not.
A small organization in Fairfax working on the gap between the two.
Our mission
We are dedicated to discovering the hidden artistic talents of individuals with disabilities in Fairfax County, and to building the capacity for lifelong learning in children with hearing loss and their families. Through our programs we help people share their unique voices, integrate into the community, and achieve economic independence by showcasing and selling their artwork.
Our vision
To reach every family in Virginia who needs us, and in time, families in other states. We would rather do a few things properly than many things loosely.
Why art, and why education
Plenty of people with disabilities are told, gently and repeatedly, what they will not be able to do. Far fewer are handed a brush and a table and asked what they would like to make.
Art gets around barriers that language and formal schooling put in the way. It does not require a particular kind of speech, a particular reading level, or a particular body. It produces something real that can be hung on a wall, priced, and bought by a stranger who knows nothing about the artist's diagnosis and does not need to. That transaction does something a certificate of participation does not.
The education side exists because talent alone is not enough. A child who cannot reach the language happening around them starts school behind, and the gap widens. So we do both: remove the barrier, and open the door.
The scale is not small. In 2025, just 38 percent of working-age people with a disability were employed, against 75 percent of everyone else, and about 1.6 million adults in Virginia live with a disability.1
How this started
Our founder, Maha Nafai, is a trained speech therapy practitioner who has worked with deaf and disabled children for more than fifteen years across three countries.
Part of that work was organizing exhibitions of art made by students with special needs, and watching what happened to a young person when their work went up on a wall and strangers stopped to look at it. Advance Virginia is that idea, started in the place where she finally had the ground to build it.
What we believe
Every voice counts
We work with people from every background and treat them as equals. Nobody's past decides what they can make next.
Artists, not cases
The people we work with are artists and students. We use their names and credit their work.
Humility
Families know their own children. We listen before we advise.
Integrity
We say what we will do and then do it. If we cannot help, we say so and point you to someone who can.
Excellence
Specialist work needs specialist people, real materials and real exhibitions. Lowering the standard defeats the purpose.
Stewardship
Money belongs to the people it was raised for. We account for it and publish how it is split.
Who runs it
Maha Nafai
Founder and Chair
Ahmed Amara
Secretary
Eman Mahmoud
Treasurer
Who we are building
As we grow we are hiring and training specialists: educational audiologists, school psychologists, educational interpreters, captioners, braille transcribers and deaf education officers, alongside artists, art teachers and family support staff.
Legal status
Advance Virginia is a nonprofit, non-stock corporation incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Registered address: 13381 Brookfield Court, Chantilly, VA 20151.
Sources
Employment figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, People with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025. Virginia disability population: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Disability Impacts Virginia. Hearing loss figures: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
