Thomas Cloyd

Thomas Cloyd is a spinal cord injury community advocate, wheelchair marathoner, MBA, and digital healthcare professional who came to Oakland, California in 2018. Thomas joined the MCPD because, after a 2012 spinal cord injury left him paralyzed in the hands and from the chest down, he has seen first-hand the need for more voices from the disability community to be heard by those making decisions that influence our society. And for those voices to be acted upon.

Thomas brings experience as a community advocate – co-founding a non-profit to work with the Minnesota state legislature to pass legislation supporting the disability community, as a healthcare professional – working daily to improve the healthcare system, and as a person living with a disability in Oakland – where he wheels through the positive and negative aspects of our city and engages with others in the disability community. Collectively, this set of experiences has provided him with ideas of what needs to be done to improve Oakland and the lives of those with disabilities. He is excited to work with the other commissioners, commission staff, the mayor’s office, and the city of Oakland to achieve that vision.