NIDRR Grantee and Staff Recognition

The NCDDR congratulates each of the following NIDRR grantees and staff members. All grantees are encouraged to contact the NCDDR with information to share in future issues of The Research Exchange. Notify NCDDR of NIDRR Grantee/Staff Recognition.

Carol Cohen, Assistive Technology Program Manager at NIDRR, was awarded the Strache Leadership Award at a banquet ceremony during the Annual Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities sponsored by the Center on Disabilities, California State University at Northridge (CSUN) on March 21, 2000. Ms. Cohen received the award in recognition of her demonstrated ability to motivate those who reach out to the disability community via the 56 NIDRR-funded projects authorized under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (AT Act), improving the quality of life for countless people with disabilities and their families throughout the country.

For additional information contact the Center on Disabilities, CSUN at (818) 677-2578 or email Carol Cohen at Carol_Cohen@ed.gov.

The NIDRR Director was recognized by the National Association of Rehabilitation and Research Training Centers (NARRTC) at its annual meeting in Washington, DC on May 8, 2000. The Distinguished Service Award is the NARRTC's only award and is presented when an individual is identified by the membership and there is consensus on a deserving nominee. Director of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research is recognized by the NARRTC "for her leadership in government and her exceptional professional commitment to improve the economic and social status of persons with disabilities through federally sponsored research, development, technology, and innovations that promote individual goals and choices."

The 1999 Mary E. Switzer Fellows presented the Mary E. Switzer Honors to the Director of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, at the Switzer Seminar 2000, held in Washington, D.C. May 24-25, 2000. The group honored the Director of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research for her leadership in advancing rehabilitation research and her achievement as being the first Mary Switzer Fellow to become Director of NIDRR. The Switzer Fellowship Alumni are interested in knowing about and recognizing the achievements of former Switzer Fellows who have made a contribution to the field.

For additional information, email Ellen Blasiotti at Ellen_Blasiotti@ed.gov

The American Foundation for the Blind recognized Dancing Dots, a former NIDRR grantee, as one of four Access Awards winners at its Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute on March 3, 2000. The Access Awards are given to individuals, corporations, and organizations that create innovations in technology that substantially reduce inequities faced by people who are blind or visually impaired. Dancing Dots http://www.dancingdots.com/ received the award for their GOODFEEL Braille music translation software that opens doors for blind or visually impaired musicians.

For additional information contact Bill McCann of Dancing Dots at (610) 783-6692, or email: info@dancingdots.com

The Assistive Technology Solutions project (Knowledge Dissemination Project to Enhance the Transfer of Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technologies to People with Disabilities) was nominated by project consultant, Mr. Gerald Weisman of Vermont Technical College, for inclusion in the Stockholm Challenge. The Challenge is a competition sponsored by the City of Stockholm, Sweden, and the European Commission to recognize information technology projects of excellence on a global basis. Since 1997, more than 700 projects have been submitted from more than 25 cities and 60 countries around the world. Assistive Technology Solutions is operated by the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation of Kansas, Inc. and supports a Web site http://www.atsolutions.org/ that makes available information on low-technology assistive devices and plans for fabricating them. The project did not win the Grand Prize at the Stockholm Challenge, but we congratulate the staff on the nomination!

For additional information, contact Robert Hull, VP for Research, at (316) 652-1551, or email: bobh@cprf.org

RTC on Secondary Conditions of Spinal Cord Injury Principal Investigators Ken Waites, MD and Michael J. DeVivo, DrPH, won First Place Poster at the American Spinal Injury Association Meeting in Atlanta on April 14-18, 2000. The poster was titled Microbiology of the urethra and perineum and its relationship to bactiuria in community residing men with spinal cord injury. Authors were Ken Waites; Brandy Osborn, BS; Kay Canupp, MSN; Eneida Brookings, MT; and Michael DeVivo. Contact for additional information is Kay Canupp, at 205-934-0355, or via email: canupp@sun.rehabm.uab.edu

Jay Meythaler, JD, MD, Co-Project Director of the UAB Traumatic Brain Injury Care System (TBICS) was invited to join the American Academy of Neurology Practice Guideline Committee on Guillian-Barre Syndrome.

Contact Dr. Meythaler via email: meythaler@sun.rehabm.uab.edu for additional information.

LaDonna Fowler, Director of American Indian Projects at the Research and Training Center for Rural Rehabilitation Services, was honored in Chicago on June 19th, 2000, as one of the twenty great leaders of the disability rights movement. Access Living of Chicago celebrated its 20th anniversary by choosing Twenty Leaders for Twenty Years and honoring them at its 2000 Annual Benefit in the Grand Ballroom of Chicago's Navy Pier. The Benefit was co-chaired by Dr. Henry B. Betts, Chairman of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Foundation, and Patrick G. Ryan, Chairman and Executive Officer of Aon Corporation.

For more information, contact Diana Spas, RTC: Rural's Information Specialist, (406) 243-5760, or email gargoyle@selway.umt.edu

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