Steven J. Tingus, director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), recently was honored with the prestigious Jim Mullen Foundation's "Best New Freedom Individual" award for his contributions to persons with disabilities.

Tingus has led the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research for the past two years. The institute is the research arm of the Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and focuses on improving the lives of persons with disabilities from birth through adulthood. Tingus also chairs the Interagency Committee on Disability Research, the federal committee that coordinates disability and rehabilitative research across government agencies.

Tingus plays a key role in the President Bush's New Freedom Initiative, the blueprint for federal policy to improve the education, employment and independent living outcomes for persons with disabilities through the use of technology.

A native of Davis, Calif., Tingus was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and was not predicted to live beyond the age of three. However, assistive technologies such as an electric wheelchair and ventilator enabled Tingus to become the first disabled child to be mainstreamed into the Davis public school system.

Prior to joining the Education Department, Tingus was director of resource development and public policy at the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers and the foundation's nonprofit project, the Assistive Technology Network. During his oversight of the network, Tingus was recognized as a strong voice for the disability community, advocating for equal access to education, health care, employment, housing, transportation and opportunities for all persons, regardless of disability.

Prior to this, Tingus was a health care policy analyst for former Gov. Pete Wilson at the California Department of Health Services.

Tingus earned his master's degree and completed the course requirements for his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California-Davis, where he studied muscular dystrophy and the effect of anabolic steroids on skeletal muscle regeneration and had earlier earned his bachelor's degree in biological sciences.

The Jim Mullen Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that makes computer technology available to the disabled and disadvantaged so they can overcome barriers and reach their full potential. The organization is named after Jim Mullen, a former Chicago policeman who in October 1996 was wounded in the line of duty and paralyzed from the neck down.

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