United Spinal Association is a nonprofit membership, disability rights and veterans service organization that was formed in 1946 as Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association. The mission of United Spinal Association is to improve the quality of life of Americans with spinal cord injuries or disorders. Since 1946, United Spinal Association has been advocating for civil rights for people with disabilities with the hope of maximizing personal independence and quality of life for people with disabilities.
In 1970, Executive Director James J. Peters set out to expose the deplorable conditions on the spinal cord injury units at the Bronx Veterans Hospital, culminating in a Life magazine expose, the creation of the US Department of Veterans Affairs's dedicated Spinal Cord Injury Service and the building of a modern hospital that now bears Mr. Peters' name.
In conjunction with Paralyzed Veterans of America, United Spinal Association helped found and continues to underwrite spinal cord injury research at the Yale Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research. This center remains under direction of Dr. Stephen Waxman.
United Spinal Association is recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs as a veterans' service organization; as such, United Spinal Association is authorized to prepare, present and prosecute claims for veterans benefits from the local VA regional office level to the Supreme Court. United Spinal Association's veterans service program is entitled VetsFirst.
Among the group's past and present members are Lex Frieden, Junius Kellogg and Frank Genese.
The United Spinal Association is rated 2 out of 4 stars from the charity evaluation organization Charity Navigator. Charity Watch rates United Spinal Association / VetsFirst a "D" grade. According to Charity Navigator. Paul Tobin, President & CEO, receives compensation of $110,000.
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or association:
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)