THE GREGORY S. FEHRIBACH CENTER Turning Dreams into Reality

BY DR. DAROLYN “LYN” JONES

Meet Greg Fehribach and Larry Markle of the Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health, two men on a mission, committed to connecting college students with disabilities to employers. The Center provides students with paid internships in fields related to their major, and professional development training to improve employment outcomes.

Greg Fehribach is widely considered a leader in accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities. An attorney for over thirty-five years, he is affiliated with the Indianapolis law firm Tuohy, Bailey, & Moore, LLP. In 1995, Greg founded The Fehribach Group, which provides innovative access solutions to clients nationwide who are seeking to create an accessible environment that is welcoming to all.

Born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic condition commonly known as brittle bone disease, Greg has been a wheelchair user for most of his life. Determined not to let his condition limit him, he obtained his B.S. ‘81 and M.A. ‘83 from Ball State University, where he also served as the first student body president with a disability. He obtained his law degree from Ohio Northern University’s Petit College of Law in 1985.

In 2004, Greg was appointed a trustee for Ball State, and he continues to serve as a distinguished fellow there. He also served as a trustee of the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County from 2004-2023.

Larry Markle is the current director of the Fehribach Center.

Prior to that, he was the Director of Disability Services at Ball State for 13 years. During his tenure, Ball State was recognized nationally as a leader in physical accessibility for students with disabilities. A 2019 recipient of the Association on Higher Education and Disability’s Meritorious Contribution Award, Larry has coauthored multiple peer-reviewed articles on disability and higher education and presented at dozens of regional and national conferences.

In 2020, only 25.7% of college graduates with disabilities were employed compared to 72.1% of graduates without disabilities (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021).

That statistic doesn’t sit well with people like Greg and Larry. Greg was worried because he was not seeing young adults with disabilities in positions of leadership, in the workplace, on local boards— all important spaces and places where critical agenda items require equity and inclusion. Larry was also concerned. He had a national reputation for accommodating students successfully on the Ball State campus and had high graduation rates. Yet after his students left the University, they were not being employed. Discrimination, lack of accessibility, and inadequate housing options were among the reasons.

After a pilot trial hosting interns from Ball State, Eskenazi Health established the Initiative for Empowerment and Economic Independence (IEEI) in 2013. In 2019, the name was changed to the Gregory S. Fehribach Center to recognize Greg’s vision and leadership. Since then, the success of that initiative has continued to grow.

The Center empowers qualified college students with physical disabilities to find gainful, sustainable, and equitable employment by engaging them in comprehensive and diverse internship opportunities that build skills, confidence, and work history to maximize competitiveness in the workforce. Students are provided a barrier-free opportunity to build skills in their areas of interest and enhance their resumes with practical work experience.

In the 10 years that the Center has been in operation, it has partnered with 39 employers to host 195 student interns from 40 different colleges and universities, offering 396 internship opportunities.

The Fehribach Center aspires to become a national leader in promoting equity, inclusion, and economic independence for college graduates with physical disabilities. “The hope is that someday we look around [the workplace] and see people with disabilities as integrated into that setting as the rest of America,” Fehribach stated.

One of the early Fehribach Center interns was Dustin Gilmer, a disabled Ball State University student who was taking Greg’s political science and disability course. Greg recalls Dustin wheeling up to him after class and asking, “I want to be like you. How can I be like you?”

Dustin, who was Project Manager for Disability Affairs for the City of Indianapolis before his untimely passing, credited the Fehribach Center for his professional success. “I always wondered… what role could I play in a business environment when I am out of college?” he was quoted as saying. “And the Center gave me the opportunity to find ways to figure out how to do that.”

Greg began the journey of making that possible. It was what he wanted for himself, too, as a young man, except that he grew up before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), was passed. He had to make his own accommodations and educate and advocate for himself to be able to attend school successfully. After earning his degrees, he worked hard to become a successful lawyer, businessman, husband, and father. He started the Center to help make that possible for other young people also living with a physical disability.

Greg sees the Center in part as an answer to the issue of disability rights. “When people have not been allowed to participate in gaining equitable economic stature, America has always stepped forward to try to break down those barriers: race, gender, etc., to get them to be better placed in American society,” he noted. “People with disabilities have not had that opportunity.” However, he makes that clear that the Center is also driven by capitalism. “When we talk about disability, we talk often about civil rights but not enough about capitalism. Individuals with physical disabilities are just like everyone else-they want to put their hard-earned college degree to work in a career and have a fulfilling professional and personal future.”

Greg emphasizes that his work is not as much about advocacy as it is about education. “If you can educate employers about individuals with physical disabilities, and you allow them to see what someone with a physical disability can do in action, then those employers will understand that what they need to provide is simple and yet what they will gain in return is significant.”

The Fehribach Center doesn’t just provide professional paid internship opportunities for students, it also helps students build community with each other and network with employers and other professionals in the field and in the community, generating an entrepreneurial spirit within students. This isn’t just a job, it’s an endeavor to get students to say, “What more can I do to be successful? What else is possible for me?”

This summer, the Center hosted 63 interns from 23 colleges and universities. Of the 63 students, 33 were new interns and 30 were returning interns. 54 of the interns worked onsite or using a hybrid model and 9 worked remotely. Eskenazi Health hosted 34 of the interns while other employer partners hosted the other 29. The Center provides accessible housing and transportation for student interns as well as educating them, mentoring them, and providing networking opportunities.

The internship turns into real employment after graduation. Out of 162 interns from 2022, 69 have graduated and are employed, 21 graduated and are in graduate school, 54 are still undergraduate students, 5 are recent graduates looking for career positions, 3 are unemployed for health reasons, and only 8 are unemployed. The remaining 8 have not been in recent contact with the Center.

Students participating in internships this summer came not only from Indiana colleges and universities (Ball State, Butler, Evansville, Hanover, IU, IUPUI, Indiana State, U Indy, Notre Dame, Ivy Tech, Purdue, Rose-Hulman, Wabash, SIU, and Valparaiso, but also from colleges and universities in neighboring states (Bellarmine, Cedarville, Illinois, Ohio State, Louisville, Northwestern, and Western Michigan).

The Center offers internships in a variety of professional areas, including rehabilitation services, public affairs, information technology, grants, social work, multicultural affairs, billing, business operations, audiology, clinical education, biomedical engineering, human resources, public health, and transgender health. Students who interned within Eskenazi Health chose the areas of biomedical engineering, business development and strategy, diversity and inclusion, emergency medicine, event services, family beginnings, food and nutrition, information systems, outpatient nutrition, palliative care, primary care, public affairs and communications, rehabilitation, risk management, revenue cycling, supply chain management, trauma, and volunteer services. Some of these internships take place within Eskenazi’s numerous specialty centers, including the Center of Hope, the Center for Youth and Adults with Conditions of Childhood, EMG Hospitalists, the Institute for Professional Development, and Prescription for Hope.

Other employers who hosted 2023 summer interns were Access Ability, Ascend Indiana, Ball State Office of Disability Services, BraunAbility, Cristel House International, Cummins, the Eiteljorg Museum, Eli Lilly and Company, Evansville Association for the Blind, Foster Success, Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, IceMiller, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, the Indiana Pacers, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Little Red Door Cancer Agency, the Joseph Maley Foundation, the Marion County Health Department, NetLogx, Pass the Torch for Women Foundation, Purdue University Institute for Accessible Science, and Republic Airways.

Heidi Denny Sichting, program manager for Eskenazi Health Palliative Care, has been a longtime host of Fehribach Center interns. While those who work in palliative care are empathetic by nature, Heidi said the experience of hosting interns has made her team more understanding and has opened their eyes to the challenges individuals with disabilities face in the workplace.

An intern she hosted had a visual impairment and could not read her team’s documents or use their existing software. Rather than give the intern other work, she switched the data to a format that was accessible by the intern’s software.

Christia Hicks, Chief Human Resources Officer at Eskenazi Health, was instrumental in the Fehribach Center’s inception. People with disabilities, she said, fall into a traditionally underemployed demographic. Those selected as Fehribach Center interns are “cream-of-the-crop students” who, if just given a chance, will do the job and often exceed expectations. “The return on investment will be more than you can ever imagine, in terms of how these students contribute to the culture of an organization,” she said. “I believe it brings out the very best of who we are. It teaches us to advocate a little more. They will advocate for themselves, but it makes us be a little more mindful.”

Maurice Taylor, Senior Director of Talent Attraction at Eli Lilly and Company, has helped secure internships for many Fehribach Center students as part of the organization’s diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. “Individuals with disabilities make up a sizeable portion of our customer base,” he said. “Not recruiting individuals with disabilities is missing out on a population that we want represented in the company.”

Taylor echoes what Hicks said about Fehribach Center interns being valuable assets to the organization, as he sees the talent, great ideas, enthusiasm, and passion they bring to the table – something he truly believes benefits Eli Lilly and Company and helps it stand out from its competitors.

While the Fehribach Center has provided opportunities for students through more than 325 internships, these students and individuals with disabilities still face daily hurdles in an able-bodied workforce. Angela Smith Jones, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, said one of the most important ways to help is through awareness. “What people don’t know they cannot advocate for,” she explained.

Smith Jones said the Fehribach Center continues to serve as a national model for the importance of disability inclusion in the workforce. By sharing success stories of its interns, the Fehribach Center hopes to reach even more employers and inspire more partnerships, reaching as many students with disabilities as possible and helping them get a solid footing in the workforce.

“Reach out to us. We are here to support you,” says Eskenazi’s Christia Hicks to potential employer partners. “It will be a rewarding experience. The student will change your life, and your organization will never be the same again.”

Lexi Heer, a Fishers, Indiana, native, graduated from Ball State in 2019 in accounting and economics. She had two internships through the Fehribach Center, one with Eskenazi Health and one with BraunAbility.

At Eskenazi, she worked with a team to analyze the hospital’s health business lines and compare them to other nearby hospitals. Lexi learned new software and presentation tools to showcase her findings and recommendations. With BraunAbility, Lexi worked with a team of public accountants as the company was moving to its new corporate headquarters in Carmel, Indiana.

A highlight for Lexi was the “Lunch and Learns” where partners would present information like resume building, online networking, and how and when to disclose a disability to an employer. Lexi

explained that these were things she was not learning or had access to at school but could learn at the Fehribach Center. And during networking events in the evening, Lexi made connections with interns at other universities and with other employer partners.

“If you can educate employers about individuals with physical disabilities, and you allow them to see what someone with a physical disability can do in action, then those employers will understand that what they need to provide is simple and yet what they will gain in return is significant.”

Because of her successful internship with Braun, Lexi was offered a full-time position working in their accounting department. Lexi remained there for two years and then took a position with Ren Incorporated, which helps design and support large scale philanthropic giving. Lexi works remotely from her home office in her apartment in Indianapolis.

Lexi now gives back to the Fehribach Center by serving on the board and helping to mentor new interns. She also remains very busy as a member of the United States National Power Soccer Team. Earlier this year, she was headed to the US Team practice in Minnesota in preparation for the World Cup games in Sydney, Australia. Her employer is very supportive of her commitment to the sport.

For many individuals living with physical disabilities, life is about advocating and surviving. But at the Fehribach Center, students get to realize their dream.

Learn more about the Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health here: https/www.eskenazihealth.edu/ programs/Fehribach-Center

And read a story we did in a previous issue on Leslie Gonzalez, a talented young adult who is a current intern at the Fehribach Center: https/issuu.com/ specialneedslivingindy/docs/ jul_2023_special_needs_living_indy

Eskenazi Health. (2021) Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health: Annual report. Indianapolis, IN.

Eskenazi Health. (2022). Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health: Annual report. Indianapolis, IN.