The Theresa Award

  
The Theresa Award is an annual community service award presented by the Theresa Alessandra Russo Foundation to a NAELA member in recognition of their advocacy and support of individuals with disabilities. 

The award recipients choose an organization to receive a grant in the amount of $5,000 from the Theresa Foundation. Since establishing the award in 1995, The Theresa Foundation has distributed over $100,000 in grants across the country in honor of the award recipients.

The 2026 nomination period is closed. 2027 nominations will open in late 2026

Theresa Award Recipients

2025 Jim Caffry
2024 Lee Holmes
2023 Laurie Hanson
2022 Peter Strauss
2021 Annette M. Hines
2020 Michael Gilfix, CAP, Fellow, and Myra G. Gilfix, Fellow
2019 Tim Nay
2018 Lora Webster and Alfred "Chip" Chiplin (posthumously)
2017 H. Amos Goodall and Kelly Piacenti
2016 Elizabethanne Miller Angevine
2015 Mary Alice Jackson
2014 Michael J. Amoruso
2013 John J. Ford
2012 Joan L. Robert
2011 Renée C. Lovelace
2010 Stephen W. Dale
2009 Richard A. Courtney
2008 Rebecca Morgan
2007 Emily S. Starr
2006 Charles P. Sabatino
2005 Stephen J. Silverberg
2004 Judith A. Stein
2003 Mary T. Schmitt Smith
2002 Kate A. Mewhinney
2001 Réne H. Reixach
2000 Charles R. Robert
1999 Allan D. Bogutz
1998 Donna R. Bashaw
1997 Scott R. Severns
1996 A. Frank Johns
1995 Ira S. Weisner