It’s that time of year again. The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation has announced the latest winner of its Visionary Prize, an unrestricted $1 million award that’s given annually to community leaders dedicated to improving the lives of people with spinal cord injuries. The 2024 Prize goes to Jennifer French.

French is a longtime advocate for making sure people with disabilities are guiding the direction of spinal cord injury research. She is the founder and executive director of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit that advances access to and education about neurotechnologies for improving the secondary complications of spinal cord injury and other neurological disabilities. “It is humbling and a huge honor to be recognized by my peers,” says French. “It’s my passion to help advancement for people with SCI.”

French, a United Spinal Association member, has also been a contributor to New Mobility, helping to explain complicated health topics like spinal cord injury research and bowel and bladder function.

Past winners of the Visionary Prize include a long list of path-blazing wheelchair users, including accessibility advocate Victor Calise, inclusive marketing professional Carmen Jones, disabled attorney Josh Basile, medical professional Dr. Feranmi Okanlami and others. Four New Mobility People of the Year have also won the award: Vincent Pierce, Yannick Benjamin, Reveca Torres and Andrea Dalzell.