Amy Wright

Amy Wright is an American advocate for disabled people who was named 2017 CNN Hero of the Year. Wright employs forty people with physical and intellectual disabilities at her coffee shop, Bitty and Beau's in Wilmington, North Carolina. She opened the shop in January 2016 after learning that a high percentage of disabled people were unemployed. She was born in Houston, Texas on September 21, 1975. As the mother of two children with Down syndrome, she wanted to create a business where people like her son and daughter could "work and shine." Wright plans to open a second location in Charleston, South Carolina.

The CNN Hero of the Year award comes with a cash prize of $100,000. Actress Diane Lane presented Wright with the award on December 17, 2017, at the 11th annual ceremony in New York.