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Viscardi Achievement Awards Announced
May 5, 2014 – The Viscardi Center today announced the recipients for the
international 2014 Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards, which pay
tribute to exemplary leaders in the disability community who have had
a profound impact on shaping attitudes, raising awareness and
improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. Having received
nominations from 11 countries, this year’s slate of awardees hails from the
United States, Australia and Kazakhstan.
The Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards were developed to honor the extraordinary
societal contributions of the Awardees in the spirit of the legacy and
vision of the Center’s founder, Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr., who himself wore
prosthetic legs. As one of the world’s leading advocates for
people with disabilities, he served as a disability advisor to eight
presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter. The 2014 Award
recipients include:
- Jim Abbott – Former MLB Pitcher & Gold Medal Olympian
- Marca Bristo – President & CEO of Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago
- Rory Cooper, Ph.D. – Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh
- Maryanne Diamond – General Manager Advocacy and Engagement at Vision Australia
- Neil Jacobson – Founder & CEO of Abilicorp
- Arlene Mayerson – Attorney at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)
- Marlee Matlin – Academy Award & Golden Globe Award-winning Actress
- Ron McCallum – Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney
- Thomas Porter – Volunteer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
- Susan Sygall - Co-founder & CEO of Mobility International USA (MIUSA)
- Yevgeniy Tetyukhin – Professor at the Petropavlovsk North Kazakhstan State University
- Mary Verdi-Fletcher – President & Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Wheels
“We’re truly honored to bestow upon such a dedicated, diverse and trend-setting
group of leaders this year’s Award,” said John D. Kemp,
President and CEO of The Viscardi Center. “Every day people with disabilities
are leaving their footprint in communities all over the world, and their work
often transcends the geographical boundaries where they live. The Award
recipients challenge us, reminding us all that our work does make a meaningful
difference.”
Individuals of any age, with any type of disability, are eligible. The
Awards recognize individual, academia, athletic, community, government,
nonprofit, military, corporate, and business leaders who are working to improve
the lives of people with disabilities.
“It is often said that we, as a society, are at our best when ordinary people do extraordinary things — especially when it comes to making an impact on the world around us,” said former U.S. Senator Robert Dole, who co-chaired the Award Selection Committee. “These twelve individuals have demonstrated creativity, determination, ingenuity, leadership, success and tenacity. They embody what people with disabilities can accomplish.”
The Selection Committee, co-chaired by former U.S. Senator
Robert Dole and the Honorable Luis
Gallegos, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the
United Nations in Geneva, included Rohini
Anand, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity
Officer at Sodexo, Rosangela Berman
Bieler, Senior Adviser on Children with Disabilities
at UNICEF (2013 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award
recipient), Cari Dominguez, former Chair of
the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, Sherwood D. Goldberg, Esq. (Col.
Ret), Senior Advisor for Asian Affairs at the Center for
Naval Analysis, Hiro Itoh, President & CEO
of Abilities of Japan, Axel Leblois, President
& CEO of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTS (G3ict),
Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Deputy Head of Unit for Rights
of Persons with Disabilities and Directorate-General for Justice of the
European Commission, Patrick
Rummerfield, Director-Patient Liaisons at
the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the
Kennedy-Krieger Institute (2013 Henry Viscardi Achievement Award
recipient), James Sinocchi, Director,
Workforce Communications at IBM, and Nina
Viscardi, special art educator/art therapist.
For more information about the Awards, this year’s awardees, and the 2015
Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards which will be announced in October 2014,
visit www.viscardiawards.org.
The Viscardi Center provides Pre-K through High School education,
school-to-work transition services, vocational training, career
counseling and placement, assistive technology and workforce
diversification assistance to children, adolescents, and adults
with disabilities and businesses. A global leader, it employs more than
300 professionals, including experts in education, human resources and
technology. Learn more at viscardicenter.org.