[Ohio-talk] meet our national rep for this year's state convention Anil Lewis

[Cheryl Fields]

I'm excited!
Let's show up and Build the Federation!


On 8/11/16, richard via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Anil Lewis
>
> (Counselor, Advocate, and Father)
>
> Anil Lewis was born in 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the third of four
> children. Both his older brother and older sister became legally blind at
> an
> early age from retinitis pigmentosa. Lewis was originally labeled educably
> mentally retarded but eventually became the first member of his family to
> graduate from college. He has excelled academically, received many awards,
> participated as a leader in many extracurricular activities, and received
> several college scholarships. Although he was finally diagnosed at age nine
> with retinitis pigmentosa, his vision was fairly unaffected until age
> twenty-five.
> Currently employed as the Executive Director of the National Federation of
> the Blind Jernigan Institute, located in Baltimore, Maryland, he
> coordinates
> Outreach, marketing, and fund raising activities for a national non-profit
> organization. He leads a Dynamic team of individuals responsible for the
> creation, development, implementation, and replication of innovative
> projects and programs throughout a nationwide network of affiliates that
> work to positively affect the education, employment, and quality of life of
> all blind people.
> Previously as the Director of Advocacy and Policy for the NFB, Lewis was
> responsible for a variety of public Policy and strategic programs.  Most
> notably, he was the legislative lead of the NFB's efforts to repeal Section
> 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, an obsolete provision that allows
> employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum
> wage.  As the Director of Strategic Communications for the NFB, Lewis
> coordinated the public relations campaign for the NFB's Blind Driver
> ChallengeT, an innovative research project to develop nonvisual access
> technology that will make it possible for a blind person to safely and
> independently operate an automobile.
> As a sighted man he fairly easily found respectable employment with wages
> high above the minimum wage. Then in 1989, while pursuing his bachelor's of
> business administration in computer information systems at Georgia State
> University (GSU), he became blind from retinitis pigmentosa. "All of a
> sudden doors that had been open to me slammed shut." At that point,
> although
> he had always considered himself socially aware, he became personally
> acquainted with actual social injustice and discrimination. "I am ashamed
> that only personal experience brought this awakening and decision to take
> action. But I am proud that I did take action and remain committed today to
> making a difference in the lives of others."
> Lewis received blindness skills training while completing his course
> requirements for his degree at GSU. He quickly learned the alternative
> skills of blindness, including Braille, activities of daily living,
> assistive technology, and use of the long white cane. He capitalized on
> them
> to graduate with his bachelor's degree from Georgia State in 1993.  "It was
> a struggle to regain the life that blindness had appeared to take from me.
> Almost everyone who had once respected me now pitied me, but I was
> determined not to be redefined by my blindness." Armed with these new
> skills
> and this new determination, he quickly became committed to ensuring that
> others in similar situations could get appropriate training and unlimited
> opportunities.
> Lewis got a job as a Braille and assistive technology instructor. Within a
> year he was given the greater responsibility of job development/placement
> specialist, helping clients develop employment skills and get jobs. "I had
> had no experience helping anyone other than myself get a job. I certainly
> did not have expertise in job placement for blind people." It was during
> this time that he first became aware of the National Federation of the
> Blind. A friend referred him to the NFB when he had questions about Social
> Security work incentives and needed information about tools and strategies
> to help blind people obtain employment. As a result he attended his first
> NFB convention in Chicago, Illinois, in 1995 and became aware of the
> empowering philosophy and tremendous resource of the National Federation of
> the Blind. The technical assistance materials produced by the NFB's Job
> Opportunities for the Blind (JOB) program and the NFB's Social Security and
> technical assistance information provided resources enabling him to
> motivate, educate, and encourage other blind people to achieve successful
> gainful employment. "My success as a job placement specialist was a direct
> result of my ability to infuse NFB philosophy into the clients I worked
> with."
> Lewis went on to develop and manage a job placement program for people with
> disabilities as the manager of the Disability Employment Initiative with
> Randstad Staffing, one of the largest employment staffing companies in the
> world, during the Atlanta Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in 1996. From then
> until early 2006 he was employed by the law offices of Martin and Jones as
> the Georgia Client Assistance Program (CAP) counselor/advocate,
> representing
> people with disabilities every day. He served as a disability consultant
> working with companies in Georgia until 2010.
> He became president of the Atlanta Metropolitan Chapter of the NFB of
> Georgia in 2000 and was elected president of the NFB of Georgia in 2002. In
> that year he also received the Kenneth Jernigan Memorial Scholarship, the
> NFB's most prestigious award presented to a blind student, which he used to
> obtain his master's degree in public administration with emphasis in policy
> analysis and program evaluation from GSU in 2003. That year he was also
> elected as a member of the National Federation of the Blind board of
> directors. He received an Outstanding Alumnus award from GSU in 1997 and
> was
> also a 2003 GSU Torch Bearer of Peace Award recipient.  In 2004, the
> American Bar Association presented Lewis with their Paul G. Hearn Advocacy
> Award.  In 2006 Lewis was named alumnus of the year by Leadership DeKalb, a
> community leadership development organization in DeKalb County, Georgia.
> Lewis is also a graduate of the Leadership Georgia program, class of 2008,
> and the Greater Baltimore LEADERship program Class of 2015.
> Lewis has dedicated his leadership skills to the development and growth of
> disability rights organizations that promote independence and improved
> quality of life. He was appointed by the governor as a board member and
> served as president of the Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) of
> Georgia, an organization promoting independent living for those with severe
> disabilities. He also served as the founding chairman of the board of
> directors of the Disability Law and Policy Center (DLPC) of Georgia, which
> used a variety of methods to influence and enforce disability policy. Lewis
> was appointed by the Governor of Maryland and currently serves on the
> Maryland Statewide Rehabilitation Council, which takes an active and
> visible
> role in how Maryland's public vocational rehabilitation program is
> administered. As a newly appointed board member of the American Association
> of People with Disabilities, Lewis helps promote equal opportunity,
> economic
> power, independent living, and political participation for people with
> disabilities. He has also been appointed by President Obama as a member of
> the Committee for Purchase from People who are Blind or Severely Disabled,
> known as The U. S. AbilityOne Commission, which administers the AbilityOne
> Program, a unique employment program sponsored by the Federal Government
> serving the needs of people who are blind or have other significant
> disabilities.
> All of these organizations recognize that people with disabilities are
> integral, necessary members of society and reflect the world's normal
> diversity. Further, each works to ensure that the policies and programs
> developed for people with disabilities are created and implemented by
> people
> with disabilities. By helping to develop and strengthen such institutions
> to
> serve as a cornerstone in protecting the rights of people with
> disabilities,
> he hopes to secure the commitment and support of others. He also hopes to
> reduce the barriers people with disabilities face by encouraging the
> implementation of public policy securing the rights and promoting the
> responsible participation of the disabled as productive citizens.
> Lewis volunteers as a teacher and mentor for blind kids, working with
> promising blind students who, because of limited resources and lack of
> trained professionals to teach them, are inappropriately encouraged to
> pursue special education diplomas. He wants blind students to set higher
> goals for themselves and to receive the training and tools they need to
> acquire the skills to reach their full potential.
> Speaking of his personal life, Anil Lewis says that his proudest
> accomplishment is his bright, ambitious son Amari, born in 1997. Balancing
> his many civic responsibilities with his personal life as a father is
> undoubtedly his greatest challenge. His greatest success, he thinks, has
> been overcoming the temptation to subside into becoming an unmotivated,
> self-pitying person with a disability. He thinks his greatest contribution
> so far has been to encourage other people with disabilities to believe in
> themselves and to understand that they can make a difference.
> Lewis says that lack of awareness of individuals with traits outside
> society's accepted norms promotes extreme ignorance, which in turn results
> in unjustified fear, negative stereotypes, and discrimination. In an effort
> to combat that ignorance, he aggressively recruits, refers, and supports
> other like-minded people to become active in the National Federation of the
> Blind and other organizations in the disability rights movement. He hopes
> to
> promote social change by fostering the active participation of more people
> with disabilities in every facet of society, thereby replacing ignorance
> with understanding, fear with awareness, and negative stereotypes with
> mutual understanding. In the process he believes that we will eliminate
> discrimination against people with disabilities. "With a working knowledge
> of most disability law and policy and extended experience in advocating for
> the rights of others, I am committed to improving the quality of life for
> all people with disabilities by working to remove the barriers of ignorance
> while creating equal opportunities for all. My personal mission is simple:
> I
> want to make a positive difference in the lives of others."
>
>
>
>
>
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