Sandy K. Lacey

I’ve spent my career turning ambitious ideas into durable systems. Today, that work lives at Perkins School for the Blind, where I founded and lead the Howe Innovation Center—building, with and for people with disabilities, one of the country’s most active DisabilityTech ecosystems. I lead teams that design, test, and scale solutions across AI, braille literacy, adaptive products, and inclusive design—moving ideas from concept to real-world impact at global scale.I’m also an educator and public voice for innovation that actually works. I have taught the practice of innovation at MIT Sloan and Tufts University, helping students understand how change really happens—through systems, incentives, and lived experience, not technology alone. Beyond the classroom, I speak at major global stages including CES and TechCrunch Disrupt, and my work has been featured in national and industry press.Whether I’m building products, shaping ecosystems, or standing on a stage, my focus is the same: moving bold ideas out of theory and into the world—designed with intention, built with rigor, and delivered where they matter most.