About the Presenters

Lex Frieden is professor in the departments of physical medicine and rehabilitation and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, senior vice president at TIRR (The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research), and director of ILRU (the independent living research, training and technical assistance program at TIRR). He serves as chairperson of the National Council on Disability under the Bush Administration, is past president of Rehabilitation International, past chairperson of AAPD (the American Association of People with Disabilities), a Betts award laureate, and the 2001 Coulter Lecturer for the American Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine. Also, Lex has personal experience of surviving the flooded aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

Contact Information

Lex Frieden
Director
Independent Living Resource Utilization (ILRU)
2323 S. Shepherd, Suite 1000
Houston, Texas 77019
713.520.0232 (V/TTY) ext. 116
713.520.5785 fax
lfrieden@bcm.tmc.edu

Mark Johnson, M.Ed., is Director of Advocacy for the Shepherd Center, Atlanta, Georgia. He received his M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a graduate of the Leadership Denver Program, '86; a program to assure continuity of leadership development in the Denver/Metro, CO area. Mark has extensive background in independent living in North Carolina, Colorado and Georgia. He is Past President of the Fund for Southern Communities, a progressive fund that supports social change in NC, SC and GA and a founder of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation/American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today. He is a recipient of the Advocate of the Year Award from the Georgia Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Justin Dart Freedom Award.

Contact Information

Mark Johnson, M.Ed.
Director of Advocacy
Shepherd Center
Atlanta, Georgia
404-350-7490
Mark_Johnson@shepherd.org

This Web cast and Teleconference is supported through the IL NET technical assistance and training project operated as a partnership of ILRU and NCIL, with funding from the Rehabilitation Services Administration, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Health and Wellness at the Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, and the RRTC on SCI: Promoting Health & Preventing Complications Through Exercise at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. The opinions and views expressed are those of the presenter and no endorsement of the funding agency should be inferred.