Ady Barkan was a lifelong organizer and campaigner, who Politico deemed “the most powerful activist in America.” Over his career, Ady specialized in bringing policy makers face to face with the people whose lives their decisions shape, and generating public attention and political pressure out of those confrontations.
Since 2017, Ady’s work focused on health care, marshaling his own paralysis from A.L.S. to urge Americans to demand more of our government. Ady was listed as one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2020. In September, he received the Freedom from Want award from the Roosevelt Institute in recognition of his unapologetic work fighting for freedom from economic want and for a more just health care system in the United States.
Ady earned his juris doctorate from Yale Law School and lived in Santa Barbara, CA with his wife Rachael King and their two children Carl and Willow. Up until his death, Ady worked as the founder and Co-Executive Director of Be A Hero. His story is told in the documentary “Not Going Quietly.”
Be A Hero was formed after Ady Barkan—an advocate for social, economic, and racial justice— was diagnosed with ALS in 2016 and found himself thrust into a battle to save the Affordable Care Act, while fighting for his own access to health care. Ady co-founded the organization in 2018, with campaign strategist Liz Jaff, to advance the idea that here in the richest country in the world (and everywhere) health care should be a human right guaranteed to all—not a privilege reserved for the wealthy few.
Over the past five years, Be A Hero has established itself as a political force, shifting the terrain of the political debate on health care in America and creating new windows of opportunity for bold action. With almost 500,000 supporters and tens of millions more who have seen or heard our content, Be A Hero has activated large numbers of people across the country to save the Affordable Care Act, launch healthcare to the top of the political agenda during the 2020 elections, advance affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines, win expanded access to affordable prescription drugs, expand access to home care, fight medical debt, and more.
Up until the time of his death, Ady co-led Be A Hero alongside, Jamila Headley—a disabled activist and movement leader, who has also experienced first hand the pain caused by America’s broken health care system and shares the vision of a health system that puts people over profit and guarantees care to all.
Be A Hero Education Fund (501c3), Be A Hero Action Fund (501c4) and Be A Hero PAC are a multifaceted family of organizations that work to impact the political landscape, lead strategic campaigns, shape the public discourse and build a movement of patients—including disabled people, sick people, poor people, Black, Indigenous and other people of color, and others—to make this vision a reality. Jamila continues to lead the organization in this work today.
