NAD Announces First Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship Recipient

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is pleased to announce that Lisa Bothwell, a fourth-year law student at Loyola University in New Orleans, is the first recipient of the Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship. 

Bothwell recently completed her tenure as a student attorney at the Loyola Law Clinic. As a student attorney, she handled fair housing discrimination complaints and represented indigent clients in cases where landlords withheld security deposits. She has also clerked for the Law Office of Derek R. Van Gilder and the Bastrop County Courthouse in Bastrop, Texas and the Advocacy Center in New Orleans, La. She is a member of the Louisiana Work Pays Committee, which advocates for employment for people with disabilities. 

Additionally, Bothwell has assisted the NAD with its intake of deaf truck drivers for their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) exemptions through her work for Stein & Vargas, LLP.

Before beginning law school in 2009, Bothwell worked as an Outreach and Training Specialist at the Advocacy Center and as the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network (CEPIN) National Public Relations Specialist for Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI). 

Bothwell received her bachelor’s degree in public relations from Texas State University-San Marcos. As an undergraduate, she engaged in grassroots advocacy as a student body senator by reinstating American Sign Language classes to the curriculum and promoting access to closed captioning on campus.  

“We are pleased to welcome Lisa Bothwell as the first recipient of this prestigious scholarship,” said Bobbie Beth Scoggins, NAD President. “Lisa is an outstanding example of our young, deaf community, and I know the NAD will benefit greatly from her work with us this summer.

The Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship, established by the NAD at its 50th Biennial Conference in Philadelphia, Pa. in 2010, encourages and enhances the distinguished history of the NAD by advancing professional opportunities for young deaf and hard of hearing individuals pursuing careers in law, public policy, nonprofit management and related fields. 

Bloch served the American deaf and hard of hearing community diligently for nearly 19 years as Chief Executive Officer of the NAD. In 2011, when her tenure ended, the scholarship in her name was created to honor Bloch’s life-long commitment to invest in the future of young deaf and hard of hearing advocates so that they, too, can pave the way for others to follow.

Currently supported through generous individual contributions made during and since the 50th Biennial NAD Conference in Philadelphia, Pa., the Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship relies on individual, organizational, corporate and foundation support to further its goals.  To donate online or via mail/fax, visit http://www.nad.org/donate [2] and select the button for “Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship Fund” in the Donor Designation section to ensure that your contribution is directed appropriately.