It’s that time of year again. The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation has announced the latest winner of its Visionary Award, an unrestricted $1 million prize given annually to community leaders dedicated to improving the lives of people with spinal cord injuries. The 2024 award goes to Jennifer French.
French is a long-time advocate for ensuring that people with disabilities lead the direction of spinal cord injury research. She is the founder and executive director of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit that promotes access to and education about neurotechnologies to improve secondary complications of spinal cord injuries and other neurological disabilities. “It’s a great honor and very humbling to be recognized by my peers,” French says. “My passion is helping people with SCI move forward.”
French, a United Spine Association A member, she has also collaborated with New Mobility, helping to explain complicated health topics such as spinal cord injury research and bowel and bladder function.
Previous Visionary Award winners include a long list of pioneering wheelchair users, such as accessibility advocate Victor Calise, inclusive marketing professional Carmen Jones, disability advocate Josh Basile, medical professional Dr. Feranmi Okanlami and others. Four New Mobility Persons of the Year have also won the award: Vincent Pierce, Yannick Benjamin, Reveca Torres and Andrea Dalzell.
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