By Fiona Stavrou
The Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and the Burke Medical Research Institute honored Lauren Manning, Dr. Ron Cohen and David Carmel with the 2012 Burke Award, in ceremonies held at the Ritz-Carlton of Westchester earlier this month.
The Burke Award is the highest honor given by Burke”™s board of directors. It recognizes significant contributions to the field of rehabilitation ”“ someone”™s exceptional strength in overcoming a physical disability, the development of research or the establishment of facilities to assist disabled individuals.
Lauren Manning is a former Burke patient who suffered burns over 80 percent of her body during the September 11th attacks.
“I remember getting out of [my elevator] cab and hearing an incredibly loud whistle,” Manning explained in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2002. “I plunged through the doors wondering what the noise was”¦ a fireball exploded through the bottom of the elevator shaft, and it caught me from behind and spun me toward the doors. I grabbed the handles”¦I just plunged out, knowing I was on fire,” she explained.
After her miraculous recovery, Manning”™s story was chronicled in the media, as well as in bestselling books written by her and her husband. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, “Unmeasured Strength,” was published in 2011. Her husband”™s book, “Love, Greg and Lauren,” came out in 2002. Glamour magazine, Biography magazine, CNN, the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Blanton Peale Institute and the Anti-Defamation League have also honored her. She is now a motivational speaker.
David Carmel is co-founder of Carmel Asset Management, a private investment partnership in New York City. He has worked on several medical projects focusing on stem cell and spinal injury research, including the California Stem Cell and Cure Initiative. He is a former member of the New York State Spinal Injury Research Board and a founding board member of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. In 2002, President George W. Bush named him one of 13 nonpartisan White House Fellows and awarded him the Secretary”™s Honor Award, the Treasury Department”™s highest honor. Carmel earned a bachelor”™s degree with high honors, from Harvard and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Ron Cohen, M.D., is founder, president and CEO of Acorda Therapeutics Inc., a company that develops therapies for multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions. Acorda”™s drug Ampyra was the first medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration to improve walking in multiple sclerosis patients. He has been named NeuroInvestment”™s CEO of the Year and was inducted into the National Spinal Cord Injury Association”™s Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame.
