Martha Taylor Sarno Advocacy Award with General Mike Hayden & Jeanine Hayden
Date: December 14, 2023
Topic: The 2023 Martha Taylor Sarno Advocacy Award
Expert: General Mike Hayden and Jeanine Hayden
Description: For our December 2023 webinar, we awarded the NAA’s 2023 Martha Taylor Sarno Advocacy award to General Mike Hayden and his wife Jeanine Hayden for their extraordinary contribution to increasing aphasia awareness.
NAA Board Chair, Darlene Williamson, shared these wonderful words about the award and it’s deserving recipients (the audio cut out so here is her tribute):
“I am happy to be here to welcome everyone to our very special evening with Mike and Jeanine Hayden. Mike has had an illustrious career serving our country (as you will learn during the evening); he continues to serve the country even though he has aphasia as a result of his stroke. When you are working at the highest level of government, particularly in intelligence, your choice of words must be instantaneous because what you say is critical and impactful. Losing that ability of instant word choice can be devastating. Moreover, when you are at the highest levels of national intelligence, being cautious and secretive is a mandate. Then you have a stroke and the words don’t flow. There are choices – you can retreat and keep your aphasia a secret, or you can keep moving forward, and in the process, educate those around you about aphasia and what is possible to do and to achieve even when language is difficult. That is what Mike chose to do – continue with his work and by doing so educate thousands of people about aphasia. Jeanine, the role of a military wife is demanding. From any and every perspective. So in many ways Jeanine had years of training to become the care partner of someone following a stroke. The attention to detail, the overall management, the predicting of needs and the support emotionally and physically all took on a new meaning when applied to rehabilitation. Small but mighty, Jeanine filled every role. For this reason, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the National Aphasia Association, I am happy to be presenting our highest honor, the Martha Taylor Sarno Award for Advocacy to General Mike Hayden and his wife Jeanine Hayden. You both represent the highest level of aphasia education and advocacy. The award is a kaleidoscope; a kaleidoscope is a collection of broken shards of glass that is ever-shifting, creating new patterns depending on the light and the person’s point of view. It teaches us that out of something that could seem broken, comes beauty – that can be the aphasia experience. Many warm congratulations.”
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