Mia Schaikewitz

When Mia was 15 years old, she was immediately paralyzed from the waist down when a Spinal Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) ruptured in her spinal cord. Mia finished high school and attended the University of Florida, where she graduated with honors and became the first woman in a wheelchair at the school to rush and pledge a sorority. After college, she moved to Los Angeles where she worked in the recording industry, developed an award-winning career in graphic design, and starred on the hit TV show “Push Girls” on Sundance TV, which continues to break stereotypes about disability in Hollywood and won the Critics’ Choice Award for “Best Reality Series” in 2013. The show prompted Mia to become an ambassador for accurate inclusion in the media. She has been interviewed on Good Morning America, CNN, E! Entertainment, Ellen, and other outlets.

I love to think outside of the box,” she said. “I also love to change mindsets and show others that even though I have a disability I can still do whatever I desire.”

Mia also breaks ground in the dance world – she’s a founding member of both America’s first professional wheelchair hip-hop dance crew and America's first professional wheelchair ballroom dance company. Mia currently performs and tours internationally with Infinite Flow, a company that leads a global movement using inclusive dance for positive change.

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