9 minute read
ANJALI FORBER-PRATT
The Adventurer Leading the Government’s Disability Research
BY ELIZABETH FORST
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Photo courtesy of anjalifp.com
It’s 6 p.m. on a Friday, and Anjali Forber-Pratt takes in the majestic view of the sun setting against the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., from her new living room. As she closes her laptop, she feels a slobbery mouth pop up from underneath her desk and settle on her knee. With a soulful look, Kolton, Forber-Pratt’s black lab service dog, reminds her it is the end of their workday and the beginning of playtime. Fresh air and a rooftop dog park full of other furry friends await them. “OK Bubba, let’s go, let’s get out of here!”
Wheeling around half-opened packing boxes, Forber-Pratt removes Kolton’s service vest, grabs his favorite squeaky toys, and they head out. It’s been a long week of working remotely and settling in to her new apartment. It’s time to get outside with her bestie.
Moving to D.C. from Nashville has been a challenging yet exciting transition. Just six months ago, Forber-Pratt was named the new director of the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. Housed within the Administration for Community Living, NIDILRR is the federal government’s primary disability research organization. After devoting years to disability research and leadership, she has landed a dream job.
But before taking on her new role, she had the daunting task of finding an accessible living situation where she and Kolton would be comfortable. “All I wanted was a place to sleep, shower and do laundry,” she says. “I am someone who has grown up with my disability since I was a baby, and I feel like I’m pretty savvy in navigating these spaces, yet it was still hard even for me.”
Embracing her Identity
Forber-Pratt was born in India. She was adopted from an orphanage in Calcutta by a Boston family who brought her to the United States when she was a little over 2 months old. Shortly after her arrival, at just 4 months, she contracted transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, paralyzing her from the waist down.
Forber-Pratt grew up using a wheelchair and loved adventuring with her older brother Ian. They played street hockey, built snow forts, crossed the neighborhood creek and went downhill skiing. “I stayed out of the adventures as much as I possibly could to allow for limit stretching in a reasonably safe way,” says Rosalind Forber, Forber-Pratt’s mother. “But one day, when they were about 9 and 5 years old, I looked out from our kitchen window and saw the two of them way up in a large white pine tree. I would guess that they were up about 40 or 45 feet, sitting on a branch and laughing. I realized that there was really nothing I could do to change the fact that they were already up there. I could only breathe deeply and send up a few prayers.” Moments later, the two descended safely, though covered in pine pitch, and Forber-Pratt happily reported back to her mother that she had planned their escapade from the beginning.
Learning to embrace her identity as a disabled child, rather than shy away from it, helped mold Forber-Pratt into the woman she is today. She remembers crying in the bushes in preschool when she realized her disability was not going away. “I had this incredible teacher who presented me with the choice of either staying in the bushes crying for the whole rest of my life or coming out from the bushes to learn how to live my life, disability and all. Thankfully I came out of the bushes that day,” she says.
Around the same time, Forber-Pratt watched wheel-
chair racers fly by in the Boston Marathon. “I was awestruck. It was the first time I saw individuals with disabilities succeed — it put dreams on the map,” she says. It proved to be a lifechanging experience. Forber-Pratt took up wheelchair racing and competed in high school, college and international events. At the age of 21, she fulfilled her childhood dream and crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon. But that was not the end. She represented Team USA in the Forber-Pratt learned to embrace her identity as a disabled person at a 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Paralympics and earned young age. two bronze medals. Forber says participating in sports helped her daughter take risks and advocate for others. “As a teenager, she started promoting sport as a freeing, no-limits activity to other children and teens, many of whom were feeling trapped by their disabled iden-Anjali, 1997 tity instead of proudly loving who they were,” says Forber.
“This mentoring has taken her all over the world.”
A childhood fascination with wheelchair racing led Forber-Pratt to a medal-winning career as a U.S.
Paralympian.
A Scholar Emerges
In addition to achieving greatness in athleticism, ForberPratt is also an accomplished scholar. She earned a bachelor’s in speech and hearing sciences, a master’s in speech language pathology, a doctorate in human resource education, and became an assistant professor of human and organizational development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.
While at Vanderbilt, she focused on disability research. “We needed a way to measure this thing called disability identity — that sense of self that you have in terms of a connection to disability,” says Forber-Pratt. She created a research lab on campus and then, with the help of her students, she formulated the Disability Identity Development Scale, an analytic tool now utilized within the research community.
In 2013, the White House named her a Champion of Change, and she participated in a roundtable discussion with President Obama about disability policy issues. The same year she was awarded the American Association of People with Disabilities’ Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, given to emerging leaders within the national disability community. Other accolades include the inaugural Ameri-
— Anjali Forber-Pratt
can Psychological Association Citizen Psychologist Award for Advancing Disability as a Human Rights and Social Justice Issue Award in 2020 and recognition by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education as a 2018 Emerging Scholar.
As Forber-Pratt’s status grew, nonprofits started seeking her expertise in matters such as research grant provisions, strategy planning, analysis and augmentation of various disability programs both nationally and internationally. As a policy adviser for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation's National Paralysis Resource Center, she worked with the organization’s leadership team to improve the quality-of-life grants for the paralysis community. “Anjali has been an agent of change for almost 20 years,” says Maggie Goldberg, president and CEO of CDRF. “Her professional focus on disability identity development provides a unique perspective to her new role at NIDILRR, and she is the ideal person to bring together the aging, disability research and rehabilitation communities within ACL.”
Goldberg recalls a few winters ago when Forber-Pratt traveled from Nashville to New Jersey to join CDRF staff for an important two-day strategy meeting. A blizzard dumped almost 3 feet of snow on the tri-state area, stranding the entire crew in a hotel with limited staff and food. “Anjali could not have been more accommodating, focused or fun to be around. She handled it with her trademark smile and grace, and we ended each day with a lot of laughs,” says Goldberg. “Anjali could have seen the weather report and canceled, but she didn’t think twice of it.” The Path Reveals Itself
Leading NIDILRR provides a perfect opportunity for Forber-Pratt to apply her life experiences and passions. She is responsible for generating new knowledge and promoting the best practices to improve the lives of people with disabilities while pushing for maximum inclusion and integration in all aspects of society. “It’s been a breath of fresh air to be around others with doctoral degrees who are invested in this research,” she says. “It’s been really exciting.”
Kristi Hill, deputy director of the NIDILRR, appreciates Forber-Pratt’s excitement. “She brings enthusiasm, disability experience and a fresh perspective that has energized all of ACL, and particularly the NIDILRR team,” says Hill. “Her organizational vision and perspectives on disability will be infused and integrated and have the potential to shape and influence the field for many years.”
NIDILRR is responsible for funding research of rehabilitative technologies and ensuring they are practical, useful and readily available for the people who need them. Forber-Pratt knows these advancements are crucial to disabled individuals who want to live independent lives, and she is
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“This career trajectory has been about building that platform piece by piece along the way and coming full circle from that 5-year-old seeing the Boston marathon and realizing you can be disabled and go to college, get a job and do all these things,” she says. “For me, it’s always been about making sure I leave the world a more accessible and inclusive place for all, and whatever that looks like, that is what I work toward every single day.”
It’s not all work and no play for Forber-Pratt. When she needs to escape, she explores her new city with Kolton. The two of them have been together for six years. He travels everywhere with her, and his antics, like sneaking into his food bins when she is not looking, keep her on her toes. “He has saved me in many ways in the essence of having that emotional bond
through all of the ups and downs of life,” she says. “I would have been lost without him, especially during the pandemic. I feel so lucky and grateful for him in my life.” King Kolton, as she affectionately calls him, is her best friend. As Forber-Pratt throws a tennis ball for Kolton at the rooftop Photo by David Ris park, she chitchats with her new neighbors about the comings and goings of the upcoming weekend. She shows the same humble, soft and cheerful presence in her casual conversations that makes her so beloved in work and academia. With darkness looming, she calls for Kolton to finish up his playtime. As they head in for A warm personality and sharp intellect have made Forber-Pratt a dinner, Forber-Pratt stops to favorite with colleagues. take one more look at the beautiful view of the city that is now her home. Realizing that every experience in her life has led her to this place, she has a great sense of pride in knowing that she is exactly where she is meant to be here and now. There is no doubt this is her next great adventure.
