FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2009

CONTACT: Mark Daley
(202) 416-7681

Woodward, OK, Resident Bill Lawson Elected National Senior Vice President of Paralyzed Veterans of America

Washington, DC—Bill J. Lawson of Woodward, OK, has been elected national senior vice president of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) during the organization’s 63rd Annual Convention this month in Miami. He is a Paralyzed Veterans’ life member.

“I am honored to be elected senior vice president. Our members’ health care and quality of life is my number one priority. I look forward to advancing the cause of sufficient, timely and predictable funding for VA health care and for Advance Appropriations, which will ensure that VA gets its funding on time and our members get their health care in a timely manner,” Lawson said.

Lawson had served as a national vice president for Paralyzed Veterans since 2006 and previously from 1995 to 2000. He chaired the Field Advisory Committee from 1996 through 2000 and was reappointed by Paralyzed Veterans’ National President Randy L. Pleva, Sr., to this position in 2006. As chairman, his primary responsibility was that of “watchdog” of the numerous spinal cord injury facilities across the United States.

He also currently serves as chairman of a Paralyzed Veterans’ adhoc committee on multiple sclerosis (MS). This committee is charged with reorganizing a system of care for MS veterans using the VA health-care system. Although active in advocacy and legislation issues, Lawson’s first priority has always been that of improving health care for all veterans, especially those with spinal cord injury or dysfunction.

Before his election to national office, Lawson held various positions in the Mid-America Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans. He served as a panelist on the Oklahoma Veterans Council in Oklahoma City, which is composed of numerous veterans service groups within the state. He also was appointed to serve as a representative on a health-care task force developed by Oklahoma lawmakers. Lawson is a founding member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Chapter in northwest Oklahoma, where he served as its commander for three years.

While serving in the U.S. Army, Lawson was stationed at various bases throughout the United States, Germany and Japan. He enlisted in 1968 and was honorably discharged in 1979 after 11 years of service to his country. He and his wife, Linda, currently reside in Woodward, OK. Lawson will take office with the other members of Paralyzed Veterans’ Executive Committee on October 1, 2009, for one year.

ENDS

Sixty-three years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the “Greatest Generation” made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created an organization, dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org)