2012 Lex Frieden Employment Awards
Announced by Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities

Austin, Texas - The Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities has announced the winners of the 2012 Lex Frieden Employment Awards, which recognize employers who go above and beyond the legal requirements in hiring, training and maintaining positive working relationships with employees with disabilities.

Nominations for the awards were submitted by individuals and organizations from communities throughout the state, and winners were selected by a panel of judges familiar with disability issues from the public and private sectors.

Winners of the 2012 Lex Frieden Employment Awards will be honored at a ceremony luncheon on Wednesday, October 24, at 11:30 a.m. at the Houston Hobby Airport Hilton Hotel. Lex Frieden will give the welcome address at the luncheon, which is hosted by the Houston Mayor's Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities and is open to the public by reservation.

Lex Frieden is a noted disability rights champion and independent living movement leader, and one of the architects of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. He is the University of Texas (UT) Chancellor's Health Fellow on Disability, a professor of biomedical informatics and rehabilitation at UT Health, and director of the Independent Living Research Utilization Program (ILRU) at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital.

For more information about the awards and ceremony, please contact Jo Virgil, community outreach and information coordinator for the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities at (512) 463-5740 or jo.virgil@governor.state.tx.us.

The 2012 award recipients are:

Governor's Trophy - Stephen Booher, Organizational Development Specialist for the City of Arlington
Entrepreneurship Award - Stacy Zoern, Community Cars Inc., Austin
Large Employer of the Year - Target Southwest Greatland, Austin
Medium Employer of the Year - Image Microsystems, Austin
Small Employer of the Year - Big Lots, Denton
Nonprofit Employer Award - UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Martha Arbuckle Award - Employment Alliance for People with Disabilities (EAPD), Corpus Christi

For more information about the committee or awards, please visit
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/.