The winner of the 2018 Harrison Sylvester Award was Mark Brugger from Princeton Junction, NJ. Mark was nominated by Leslie Rubenstein, president of LDA New Jersey. In her nomination, Leslie stated, “Mark has presented his ‘Dyslexia: Making it Personal’ simulation to educators and the community for the past four years along with workshops on accommodations and special education to up to 2500 people a year at conferences, in schools, in webinars, and in community centers. As a person with dyslexia and multiple learning disabilities, he conveys his life journey with humor and a positive outlook and provides solid recommendations about how success can be realized at school, at university and in life.” Mark also founded an online, low-cost conference on dyslexia which in three years reached over 2000 participants nationwide.
The Harrison Sylvester Award honors an adult with learning disabilities who has shown a strong dedication and commitment to advancing the issues of adults with learning disabilities. It was created in 2010 to honor Harry Sylvester, a gentle but strong voice in the field of learning disabilities. Harry discovered in his mid-50’s, after struggling for most of life, that he was an adult with learning disabilities. With the knowledge of his learning disabilities came an empowerment to help others and he dedicated his life to this work. Harry was a President of the Learning Disabilities Association of America and carried LDA’s message of acceptance, understanding and support throughout the country.
The recipient of the Harrison Sylvester Award must be a person with learning disabilities who has shown a significant commitment and dedication to adults with learning disabilities and their issues. The Adult Topics Committee felt that Mark was a worthy recipient of this award because of the significant reach that he has had through this work and his willingness as an adult with learning disabilities to give back to the LD community.
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