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Disability Rights Leaders from New York and Chicago
To Receive 2008 AAPD Leadership Awards

Award Presentation to be Made at Annual AAPD Leadership Gala
March 5, 2008, National Building Museum, Washington, DC

December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) has announced that a national advisory committee has selected two individuals to receive the 2008 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards. Brett Eisenberg from New York, New York, a young leader whose work and influence within corporate America is helping people with disabilities to find employment, and Rahnee K. Patrick from Chicago, Illinois, a young disability rights movement organizer who is particularly passionate in working to help youth and students with disabilities, will each receive cash awards of $10,000 to further their work in the disability community.

"The disability movement needs leaders who can take our message to classrooms, to corporate boardrooms, to the streets, to our youth, to elected officials and to the media. The two individuals selected for the Hearne Award this year are breaking down barriers and building bridges in very different settings, but with common goals,” said AAPD President and CEO Andrew J, Imparato. “I commend Brett Eisenberg and Rahnee Patrick for their leadership, their creativity and their passion, and look forward to working with them to enhance the power and visibility of the disability community in the years to come."

Brett Eisenberg is Disability Coordinator at American International Group (AIG) in Manhattan. In this capacity, he leads the corporation’s Disability Initiative programs in various areas, including recruitment and retention, corporate affairs, assistive technology, and products and services. He has created programs whereby AIG is able to focus on the disability population to better serve their needs as well as the needs of AIG.

A graduate of the renowned Henry Viscardi School in Albertson, New York, Eisenberg joined AIG in 2006 as an Analyst in the Human Resources-Corporate Staffing division. He was responsible for preparing all reports regarding hiring activity and cost per hire worldwide in addition to assisting in all aspects of the budget process for five different departments.

Eisenberg serves on the AIG Corporate Diversity Council. But his extensive involvement and outreach to assist people with disabilities in finding employment goes beyond his daily work at AIG. Eisenberg contributes his time, talent and energy as a member of five Business Advisory Councils, including Abilities, Inc., Just One Break, Inc. (JOB), and Fedcap. In addition, he founded and now directs the New York chapter of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation.

Before joining AIG and while attending college, Eisenberg worked at Merrill Lynch in various areas including Private Wealth Management, Global Philanthropy, Office of General Counsel and Litigation Department.

Eisenberg was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, with a concentration in Management, from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. He also attended Adelphi University and Baruch College.

Rahnee Patrick joined Access Living, a leading disability advocacy organization run by people with disabilities, in Chicago, Illinois in 2002, and since mid-2004 has been the organization’s Youth and Education Team Leader. In this capacity, she addresses equal educational access for students with disabilities in Chicago Public Schools and the holistic well being of youth with disabilities, including their self-esteem, sexual health, and the development of leadership, and self-advocacy.

Patrick came to Chicago from northern Indiana, where she was highly involved in the disability rights movement. In 1992, she was a disabled student leader for Students Together Able and Respected (STAAR) at Indiana University South Bend, where she earned her B. A. with a minor in Women’s Studies.

In 2006, Patrick organized the first national ADAPT Youth Summit, an initiative to ensure youth with disabilities use direct action tactics and to keep ADAPT alive in the next generations of disability rights.

Patrick currently serves as the co-leader of Chicago ADAPT, and is an active member of Not Dead Yet and co-founder of Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA). She is an award-winning writer and writes about issues around disability, race and women. She also is a graduate of Partners in Policymaking (1997) and the New Leadership Development Advocacy Training (1999.)

Patrick is the oldest of four children, the daughter of a Thai immigrant and a Vietnam Veteran. On Labor Day weekend 2006, she married Mike Ervin and they live in downtown Chicago.

The 2008 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award recipients were selected on a highly competitive basis by a national advisory committee. This program carries on the work of AAPD founder Paul Hearne, a renowned leader in the national disability community, and to realize his goal of cultivating emerging disability rights leaders.

AAPD thanks the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation for its support of this program.

The 2008 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards will be presented at the 2008 AAPD Leadership Gala, an awards ceremony and dinner, on March 5, 2008, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. For additional information about this event, visit the AAPD website: www.aapd.com, or call AAPD at 202-457-0046 (V/TTY).

About the 2008 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change – economically, politically, and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
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