AAPD Leadership Gala February 27, 2002
The 2001 Paul G Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award RecipientsAlicia Contreras is Program Director for Whirlwind Women, San Francisco, CA. Her work in the disability community began in 1994 when, at the age of 26, she was invited to the United States from Mexico, to participate in a one-month leadership training sponsored by Mobility International USA (MIUSA). Through that experience, in addition to learning that she could set and reach her own goals, she also learned from other disabled women that, with a wheelchair, she could play sports, dance and have a happy and independent life.
In 1996, she founded CEVIMUDI (Independent Living Center for Women with Disabilities) in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, starting by assisting one woman who had never left her house. CEVIMUDI's biggest achievement was teaching more than 600 people, through presentation of a play "Proudly Disabled Women," about the real issues of their lives.
After working for CEVIMUDI for three years without receiving a salary, Contreras was hired as the first Program Coordinator for People with Disabilities, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, which created the first-ever accessible taxivan service in the state, awarded more than 700 scholarships to disabled people, and provided more than 1,000 hearing aids and 300 wheelchairs. Through this work, Contreras became familiar with Whirlwind Women, an international organization that teaches women with disabilities how to build appropriate-technology wheelchairs for themselves and others. In November 2000, Ms. Contreras was hired as their Program Director and continues to serve in this capacity.
A college student who has experienced discrimination and witnessed firsthand the rollback of many fundamental rights of people with disabilities by recent Supreme Court decisions, Daniel Davis was motivated to become a disability rights organizer and advocate at his college and nationally. He now serves as Vice President of the Disabled Student Union of UC Berkeley, in which capacity he has facilitated surveys, organized forums, and networked with students, lawyers and administrators in order to identify problems, bring parties together and develop mutually agreeable solutions.
Davis served as a research assistant for the Historians' and Scholars' Amicus Brief in the Garrett case, and organized, produced and publicized a prestigious panel discussion entitled "The Teach-In for Justice" to educate the public about the Garrett case and its ramifications. Although his work did not change the adverse outcome of the Garrett case, his efforts did prepare him to become a member of ADA-Watch, an umbrella group that is researching, strategizing and making legislative visits to educate the Senate Judiciary Committee members about the threats that states' rights nominees pose. Along with a fellow university student, Mr. Davis subsequently formed the National Disabled Students Union (NDSU) as an avenue to organize, mobilize and network with peers at schools across the country. Under his guidance, NDSU has developed a listserv, set up a website and organized a National Campaign for Equal Justice.
Ann Forts is a motivational speaker and self-advocate for people with Down syndrome who refers to her disability as "UP" rather than "Down" syndrome, because she believes "Down" sounds too negative. She has also spearheaded fundraising efforts with the goal of providing financial assistance to less fortunate people with Down syndrome. Forts' "UP" fund has donated more than $20,000 from sales of t-shirts, caps and other items with the "UP" syndrome logo to the National Down Syndrome Congress to help needy families.
Four years ago, Forts established The Annie Forts "UP" Syndrome Fund and has successfully raised almost $200,000 toward her goal of one million dollars, with which she plans to provide assistance to people with Down Syndrome and provide scholarship money for people who plan careers in special education.
The first 100 percent ventilator-dependent elected official in Maryland, N. Linn Hendershot is an elected member of the Hagerstown, Maryland, City Council. Thanks to him, accessibility modifications to accommodate wheelchairs are quickly being made to the City Hall. Born in Maryland, Linn spent most of his adult life working as a sports public relations and marketing specialist nationally and worked with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games for four years in preparation for the Centennial Games in Atlanta in 1996, but returned to Maryland in 1997, due to failing health as a result of post-polio syndrome.
In 1999, Linn was hired by the Western Maryland Hospital Center (WMHC), where he had spent two years, in order to assist its patients with attaining computer skills and to advocate on their behalf. He now leads a group of disabled persons in doing graphics and creative services, brochures, newsletters and teaching aides at WMHC and has developed an in-house television station maintained by the WMHC.
He has been Chairman of the Disability Advisory Committee of Washington County, Maryland, was the founder of "Empowerment 2000," which works to improve disability awareness in that county and is quickly earning recognition as a Maryland community leader who champions the rights of disabled people.
Kristen Jones was one of the first persons with a disability to serve recently in the White House Intern Program in the Office of Public Liaison, Disability Outreach. Currently, she serves as an appointed official on the Houston Commission on Disability. Jones has also worked on the Executive Planning Committee of a weeklong Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, which is sponsored by federal government agencies.
In 2001, she coordinated AAPD's first-ever "Disability Mentoring Day" in Houston, TX, which coincided with "National Disability Employment Awareness Month." Under her coordination, the Houston Disability Mentoring Day 2000 model program involved the participation of area public and private businesses, city government and area college counselors, all working in partnership with college students with disabilities. Those young men and women were afforded an opportunity to gain insight into career options, and spent the day in the workplace matched to areas of their own career interest, shadowing and being mentored by employees on the job.
Frances Priester is working to dispel the myths about mental illness and advocating, she believes as the direct result of having to face her own psychiatric disability, for decent, safe and affordable housing for disabled Americans. In 1985, one year after being awarded her law degree by the University of Buckingham, England, she was hospitalized at St. Pancreas Hospital in London, England, for a psychiatric disability. Shortly thereafter, in 1988, Priester found herself living on the streets of Chicago for two weeks before going to a United Methodist Shelter. After months of intensive therapy and new medications, as well as a new diagnosis, she became employed on a part-time basis by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and it is here that her advocacy work began.
In 1995, Priester became the Program Administrator of Deborah's Place Emergency Shelter, which serves homeless, single adult women, 70% of whom have a mental illness. She has subsequently served on numerous committees and boards that work to increase awareness and understanding of discrimination in housing experienced by all disability groups, and worked with Access Living, an independent living center, to promote enforcement of the Fair Housing Act.
Priester gives motivational presentations on recovery, has initiated and organized a voter registration drive in five counties in Southern Illinois, and organized the Consumer Leadership Council. Currently, she is the Consumer Specialist at Elgin Mental Health Center's Forensic Treatment Program.
Recognized as a driving force of the 1997 Recipient of The Nobel Prize for Peace, The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Gerard White is co-founder and Executive Director of Landmine Survivors Network (LSN). A former Board Chair for the American Coalition of Amputees and currently Chair of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, White lost his right leg below the knee as a result of a landmine that had laid in the ground from a war that ended a decade prior.
In 1996, he and another American landmine survivor founded LSN, which is the only international organization created by and for landmine survivors to assist mine victims and their families worldwide to recover, heal and reclaim their lives. As a result of his vision and his leadership, more than 1,200 families, from Bosnia to El Salvador, have been directly impacted by LSN's work. White's personal commitment to build an effective and efficient institution to address humanitarian relief for landmine victims is part of a bigger vision to combat the stigmas and prejudice that people with disabilities face in the United States and internationally.
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