New Mobility’s own SCI Life columnist and community partner, Tiffiny Carlson, was named the Morton Cure Paralysis Fund 2016 honoree last month at its annual dinner and fundraiser. The C5-6 quadriplegic was honored by the Minnesota-based charity for her extensive writing and work on behalf spinal cord injury research.

“I am more than delighted because it feels great to be looked at as a research advocate,” says Carlson. “I am and always will be a proponent for a cure.”

Carlson has been writing for New Mobility since 2003 and is the executive director of the non-profit SPINALpedia.com, which posts daily articles, videos and blog posts on living adventurously with an SCI. She has also contributed numerous disability articles to publications such as the Huffington Post, Penthouse and Nerve.com.

In addition to her written words, Carlson has spent the last decade speaking publicly at a variety of events from disability conferences to summits on stem cell research where she has been heavily involved in learning about the latest cutting edge research for a cure.

“I am particularly excited about the nerve transplant surgery Dr. Justin Brown is doing in quadriplegics, enabling them to open their hands again,” says Carlson, who has been a research advocate since 2005, when she attended her first Unite 2 Fight Paralysis’ Working 2 Walk symposium. “I’m also very excited about the epidural stimulation that Dr. Susan Harkema is doing at University of Southern California.  Who would’ve thought electricity may hold the secret to the cure? I think it’s fabulous.”

The Morton Cure Paralysis Fund was started more than two decades ago after Minnesota native Peter Morton became a quadriplegic in a bicycle accident in 1995. Since then, the MCPF has raised over $4 million for spinal cord injury research and has expanded its fundraising beyond Minnesota to Wisconsin and Arizona.

For more information on Tiffiny Carlson visit: beautyability.com. For more information on Morton Cure for Paralysis visit: mcpf.org.