Speaker

John Tschida

John Tschida became Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in March 2014. He came to Washington from the Courage Center in Minneapolis, where he served as vice president for public affairs and research. As a person with a spinal cord injury, he has personal as well as professional experience in issues of disability and access, and his work was deeply rooted in raising public awareness and aligning state law to support people living as independently as possible. Mr. Tschida has served on a number of public and private boards designing policy or governance solutions to further the independence of people with disabilities and he has written numerous articles on disability, healthcare and public policy for national and local news outlets and magazines.