SCIMS Project Director to Receive ASIA Lifetime Achievement Award

Lesley M. Hudson, MA, SCI Model System Project Director at the Southeastern Regional SCIMS Program at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA, has been named by the ASIA Board of Directors as the 2013 recipient of the ASIA Lifetime Achievement Award. "This is ASIA's most prestigious award," said President Lawrence C. Vogel, M.D., "and the Board voted unanimously to give it to Lesley Hudson during the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of ASIA." Dr. Vogel added that : "Lesley joined the ASIA executive staff in 1980, and no one since then has had a greater influence on the development of this organization than she has." In addition to her ASIA career, Lesley began her work at Shepherd Center in 1976 as COO. She wrote the first SCIMS application for Shepherd Center in 1982, and has been Project Director of that program continuously since then. In 1993, she and Dr. David Apple, Emeritus Medical Director of Shepherd Center, founded the quarterly journal "Topics in SCI Rehabilitation." They served as editors of that journal for seventeen years. "There are few people in the field of SCI medicine who have had the significant long term impact that Lesley Hudson has. Her skill set is remarkable and Shepherd Center and ASIA have benefited from her dedication," said Dr. Apple. The award, given 22 times previously, will be presented to Lesley at the ASIA annual meeting in May of 2013. She is the first woman to be so honored.