When Dana Fink was growing up in Atlanta, her two older sisters went to an orthodontist whose office had a step at the entrance. When it was Dana’s turn to become a patient, she refused to go until the office was accessible to her wheelchair.

The orthodontist eventually installed a ramp and accessible parking.

“That’s how she was all the time, always pushing for something better,” said her mother, Edith Fink. “It wasn’t always for her. It was for people who came after her.”

Fink, a Washington-based disability rights advocate and federal employee, died July 18 of bladder cancer. She was 38.

Fink had spina bifida and used a wheelchair from childhood.

Friends and family said Fink did not want disability portrayed as tragic or her wheelchair described as something that confined her. She saw it as a tool that gave her freedom.

“She was feisty,” said Mia Ives-Rublee, who knew Fink from childhood through wheelchair sports. “She was somebody who knew what she wanted and was willing to fight for it.”

Fink was the youngest of three daughters, but she rarely waited for others to show her what to do. She began reading on her own at about 4 and became a strong student and writer.

She grew up in a Jewish family and attended a synagogue preschool and Jewish day school. Her mother’s parents were Holocaust survivors, and Jewish traditions emphasized history, responsibility and helping others.

Her mother said those values became part of Fink’s approach to disability advocacy. Fink understood that she had opportunities many people with disabilities did not have and believed she had a responsibility to help others.

Her experience at Jewish day school also exposed her to accessibility problems. In fifth grade, the school proposed that during an emergency evacuation she wait alone in a stairwell until firefighters arrived. Her parents considered that unsafe and transferred her to public school.

Leaving the school and friends she had grown up with was difficult, her mother said.

Fink remained involved in Jewish life through Hebrew school and other programs. She participated in community service and traveled to Israel with her family, where she turned 9.

Sports became another important part of her childhood. She competed in wheelchair basketball, track and field and swimming through adaptive sports programs in Georgia and at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama.

She was intensely competitive.

Her mother recalled Fink racing as a child against Tatyana McFadden, who later became a leading Paralympic athlete. Fink complained that her parents had put her at a disadvantage by giving her a wheelchair because McFadden had developed exceptional upper-body strength growing up without one.

“She would be very disappointed if she didn’t come in on the top,” Edith Fink said.

Fink attended the University of Illinois, where she received a wheelchair basketball scholarship. The university also gave her something she had wanted for years: a community of other wheelchair users.

As an adult, Fink took up adaptive rowing and competed internationally with a U.S. team, including events in Serbia and South Korea.

She studied international studies and languages and participated in study-abroad programs in France and China. In high school, she had been excluded from a French study-abroad program because of accessibility concerns.

Travel became one of her great interests. She visited every continent except South America and Antarctica, and hoped to travel to South and Central America.

Fink interned for Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa while he was working on updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Her mother said participating in that work was a dream opportunity.

She later worked at the American Association of People with Disabilities and in the federal government on programs involving people with disabilities, community living and mental health.

Julia Feinberg met Fink in 2011 while Fink was interning at AAPD. The two became close friends and traveled together to Scandinavia, Thailand and elsewhere.

Feinberg described Fink as “tenacious” and quietly ambitious.

“It was never about her ego,” Feinberg said. “It was always about wanting to further her career for her community and for people who didn’t have a voice.”

Fink would challenge a restaurant without an accessible entrance or speak up when she saw someone being treated without dignity, Feinberg said.

She also built friendships across the disability community. She studied American Sign Language at Gallaudet University and wanted events to accommodate people with different disabilities.

Outside work, Fink loved restaurants and was the person friends and family called for recommendations. She also loved museums, makeup and her animals, including her cat, Dorothy, and service dog, Wednesday.

Late in her life, she began performing stand-up comedy. Her dry humor drew on accessibility, service dogs and more. She made sure a recording of her routine was closed-captioned.

“She was incredibly funny,” her mother said. “I think that’s what I miss most now. I’ll think of something and I don’t have her to tell it to.”

Fink was diagnosed with cancer early in 2026. Her mother said the disease progressed rapidly despite treatment.

One of Edith Fink’s favorite memories is a trip she and her daughter took to Minnesota. Dana reserved an adaptive hiking wheelchair at a state park so she could hike with her mother.

For her mother, the principle behind Fink’s advocacy was simple.

“She strongly believed that everyone had a right to be everywhere,” Edith Fink said. “Somebody has to do it. And Dana was always willing to do it.”

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance obituary writer. She welcomes suggestions for individuals who had meaningful ties to the greater Washington Jewish community. Email csix@midatlanticmedia.com.