Elise Hansen Speech Demo

Elise Hansen is the oldest of six children and grew up in Ogden, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. She and her twin sister, Lisa, were born as conjoined twins and shared brain tissue. At 19 months old, they underwent a risky surgery to be separated and were the first set of conjoined twins to both survive this type of surgery. The surgery caused Elise to have both mental and physical disabilities. Her disabilities made it difficult to compete in the job market, so she joined Pioneer Adult Rehabilitation Center (PARC), a non-profit agency who employs people with severe disabilities, in 2000. Elise is currently employed on an AbilityOne contract at PARC. Due to her success at PARC, Elise was also able to move to a job in the community at Wal-Mart. She won the 2008 Evelyne Villines National Award, which recognizes a person with a severe disability who has advanced from work on an AbilityOne contract into a job in the private or government sector or management within the non profit agency.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Elise Hansen
• AbilityOne
• NISH
• PARC