It possesses 55,000 square feet on the Westchester Medical Center campus and helps some 12,000 patients each year: half directly and half by shepherding them to other, more appropriate avenues of help. Seven counties in Hudson Valley “and beyond for specialties like dentistry” use its services, according to its chief operating officer. Yet, according to Andy Bacon, the president and CEO of the Westchester Institute for Human Development, a nonprofit with a $15 million annual budget and 40 funding sources, “There are still a lot of people who need services who don”™t know about us and that”™s a shame.”
Toward getting their message out, Bacon and her staff of 200 are throwing open the institute”™s doors June 16, July 21 and every remaining third Tuesday through the end of the year for 60-minute tours. (Anne Curtin at 914-493-8147 is handling tour details.) And in a second outreach effort, the institute has produced an eight-minute video for fundraising events that, when viewed, is something beyond a testimonial to the power of what smart, loving people can do for the physically and developmentally challenged among us. Among the video”™s narrators is a man who for 38 years following a stroke had no voice;Â the institute united him with a computer rigged to his wheelchair that speaks his typed words.
When she was studying for her Ph.D. in psychology at West Virginia University, Ansley “Andy” Bacon attracted the interest of B.F. Skinner, one of the giants of psychology and a pioneer of the study of behavior. Skinner”™s daughter and son-in-law were at the time professors at the school. “We discussed my dissertation several times” ”“ how children respond to different learning prompts ”“ “and he talked about it on his radio show, which was really cool,” she says.
It was a big-time introduction to psychology for the fresh-minted Ph.D. But importantly for the ongoing success of the WIHD, it was only a beginning. She joined the institute as its executive director in 1985 when it was still directly affiliated with Westchester Medical Center and the New York Medical College. Bacon says affiliations still exist ”“ such as between nearby neurological specialists who might weigh in on a disabled individual ”“ but the institute became a fully independent nonprofit in 2005.
Today, Bacon works toward, among myriad goals, helping victims of child abuse, acquiring assistive devices to help the disabled live more productively, and helping those with learning disabilities and autism, including access to dentistry, which can be a wildly challenging endeavor for some disabled residents. The institute also trains professionals in behavioral and developmental therapies (including via a program targeting the U.S. Virgin Islands) and advocates on behalf of the disabled.
Bacon has worked on legislation with the U.S. Senate and is currently co-chairperson of the legislative affairs committee of the American Association of University-Affiliated Programs, the umbrella group under which WIHD was formed. In the office next door is her husband, David O”™Hara, also a Ph.D. and WIHD”™s chief operating officer. He had been doing similar university-affiliated work at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore until 1987 when WIHD recruited him. Their dog, something of a failed assist dog, is Murphy O”™Hara, a regular in the office. The couple”™s son, Michael O”™Hara, is 23.
Bacon was born with half a left arm, but from early youth on Lake Huron to today all over the world, she has enjoyed sailing. A sail in Chesapeake Bay constituted her first date with her husband.
A competitive spirit can be essential in business, nonprofit or otherwise, and David O”™Hara calls his wife “a ruthless racer.” She laughs at the classification, but does not dispute it and acknowledges the couple”™s Pleasantville home contains numerous sailing trophies.
Bacon has owned several boats, but now prefers the luxury of flying to distant venues, leasing a boat and sailing new waters: the Pacific Northwest, the Great Barrier Reef, Greece, the Caribbean, even back to Lake Huron where an afternoon storm turned a peaceful outing into a battle for survival in a shipping lane.
On dry land, WIHD and Bacon are about to debut parts of the eight-minute video on YouTube to augment the third-Tuesday tours. She says it”™s an exciting time, even as she and her team scramble for funds in a tight funding environment.
“The people here are so committed,” she says of the staff, noting many employees are themselves touched by disabilities in their families. “You can feel it through the entire organization. It is our mission to nurture children and support families, promote health and wellness, foster partnerships with people with disabilities and their families, and to advocate for better public policies. All of us benefit when people are given a chance to contribute to society.”
