Tom
Arndorfer
VP
& CFO Nike Brands
Your presentation was simply outstanding and numerous people have commented to me about how impactful it was. We were incredibly fortunate to be your hosts and to get a closer glimpse into your background, your perspectives and your vision for the future. Your story has been an incredible journey with numerous more chapters to be written. Please know that you will be thought of often by the NIKE family and that we look forward to hearing you soon on a return visit. We cannot thank you enough for fitting us into your schedule and providing us with the inspirational perspective that each of us will be considering for some time to come.
Tom
Schneider
Vice President of Guest Services
Churchill Downs
I would like to extend my personal thanks and gratitude to you for your taking the time to speak to our team at Churchhill Downs before the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby! Your contribution to our opening was invaluable in many respects -- from bringing an actual customer's perspective from your visit here last Fall to your motivating story of overcoming personal hurdles in your life.
My team and I were more than impressed when working with you both prior to and during our event. To watch 500 or more of our staff, from executives to our front line staff, it was obvious you touched them all with your story. It was also obvious you took the time to study our event and business before speaking and it leant relevance to everyone's role in the room,which was a real plus and was appreciated from our end.
We entered in this speaking engagement with high hopes that our team would hear both the challenges that the customer experiences at our great facility, but also how they can make a difference in that customer's experience with focus and effort. You helped us exceed that expectation and it is greatly appreciated. We look forward to working with you again in the future and I know you will be very successful helping other organizations like ours rally their troops as you did with us. GO BABY GO!
James G. Baxter, Pharm,D.,
Ph.D.
Vice-President, Pharmaceutical Sales
Pfizer
We were pleased to have Dan Heumann speak at Pfizer about disability awareness. Dan's messages were well received by the audience and spoke to the importance of creating an inclusive environment as well as accepting and appreciating differences.
Albert
M. Berriz,
CEO McKinley, Inc.
Danny worked closely with our most senior executives to share his 5 keys for success and overcoming obstacles. Through sharing his story, he inspired and motivated each leader to view challenges differently and ultimately to see them as opportunities to excel in new venues. Danny prepared thoroughly for his session with us, and worked closely with key leaders to understand our strategy, mission and values. He then tied these aspects in to the motivational presentation he delivered. His attention to detail and commitment to personalizing the experience for us truly added to the overall experience for our team. Danny Heumann is an excellent speaker, leader, motivator and human being. I would recommend him highly to any organization seeking a profoundly impactful speaker for a team event.
Tommy
Amaker
Former Head Coach
Michigan Basketball
Many thanks for your inspirational words to our team! You were fantastic!
Hugh
J.L. Garton, M.D., M.H.Sc
Assistant Professor
University of Michigan Health System
Thank you very much for your outstanding presentation to the second year medical school Neuroscience sequence course at the University of Michigan Medical School on November 5, 2004. During the nearly two hour presentation, prepared on extremely short notice, you held the entire 150+ person medical school class spellbound. Alternatively funny and sad, light-hearted and poignant, your discussion with them, both on your experiences as a patient, and on how this experience has shaped your philosophy as a person and your career path, was relevant, tangible and inspiring. This was clearly one of the most successful lectures of the course.
The students particularly appreciated your frank, unflinching description of your experiences as a patient, and your interactions with health care providers. As you and I talked about, there is great need for more training in these aspects of medical professionalism. Your insights into these areas of provider-patient interactions are of great value to our students. It would be worth exploring this topic with you further as I believe there are opportunities for additional collaboration.
While your presentation in this case was in a medical setting, it is easy to see how well this message translates to a much broader audience, with its themes of perseverance, the importance of the individual, responsible activism, and hope. You are a natural, gifted communicator with a great feel for your audience.
I would be delighted to provide a most positive reference to anyone interested in your services as a motivational speaker.
Cathy
L. Frank
O.E. Consultant
Office for Organizational Effectiveness
Human Resources
University of Michigan Health System
These evaluation results are fantastic! We attracted the largest group ever, and you touched the hearts and minds of many. Thank you so much for making our March Leadership at All Levels a huge success!
David
H. Baum
Assistant Dean of Students
University of Michigan Law School
I had the pleasure of watching Danny Heumann present a talk entitled "Using Your Law Degree to be an Advocate for Change" at the University of Michigan Law School on November 11, 2004. Danny captivated the audience of about sixty law students with the gripping story of his own sudden and tragic transition from an able-bodied, confident, athletic young man on the brink of entering college to a paraplegic struggling to make it through each day, and then his subsequent rise to the courageous, strong, and energetic husband, father, and policy activist that he is today. His presentation was at once heart-wrenching and uplifting, humbling and inspiring. Following a dynamic thirty-minute talk, Danny fielded a steady stream of questions for another fifteen minutes. Without a doubt, the audience was genuinely engaged. After the program, a number of students volunteered to help Danny advance his causes, and severel others thanked me for bringing him to speak at the Law School. His compelling message of the vital importance of personal courage, persistence, and positive attitude is universally relevant and motivating. To be sure, it is a message which all college and graduate students in particular would benefit tremendously from hearing.
William F. Canning
Department of Recreational Sports
University of Michigan
Your presentation made an impact on the lives of my Recreational Sports staff. At times we all get so involved in the details that we miss the lives that we touch. Your manner, passion, and courage inspired my staff to realize the difference that each of them make on a daily basis. You raised their spirits and touched their souls.
James
Greenwood
President
and CEO
Recently I decided to begin to bring individuals into Bio's staff meetings
to remind us all why we work so hard every day to advance the work of
biotechnology companies on behalf of patients. Danny Heumann was our first
choice. Not only did he motivate us to rededicate ourselves to work to
promote the life sciences, he also inspired us to examine our own lives
in search of the special brand of optimism he brings to his.
Darlene
Little
Senior Vice President/Managing Broker
I wanted to thank you for speaking at the Rubloff Residential Properties
All Company Meeting.
We have received enormous positive feedback from our brokers regarding your presentation. It was both thoughtful and inspiring. I was impressed by your ability to translate your experiences and determination into practical applications that our brokers could draw upon. It was truly exciting!
Again, thank you for the wonderful program you presented. I wish you much continued success and hope to work with you again in the future.
David
Fleming
President
United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Dan Heumann's presentation to our union stewards at our Annual Stewards Conference was an experience that we and our stewards will never forget. Dan spoke for one hour to the stewards and kept them spellbound with his message of determination, inclusion and victory over disabilities in life.
Dan's story is uniquely important and should be shared by the entire community of life, both handicapped and perfectly healthy. Dan touched on all of the specific responsibilities of our stewards and the importance they play in the role of the entire Union.
Hearing this message from Dan was far more affecting than coming from our staff and his studied knowledge and importance of organized labor as it applies to union stewardship was truly remarkable.
Especially impressive
were his remarks regarding the importance of stem cell research and his
close relationship with the late Christopher Reeve. Dan is without question
the finest and most affecting motivational speaker ever to address our
stewards.
Edward
D. Hall, Ph.D.
Director, Spinal Cord & Brain Injury
Research Center
University of Kentucky
It was a great pleasure
meeting you last week in Washington, D.C. Your talk for the Neurotrama
Society audience was marvelous and also much needed by those well intentioned,
but often naive neuroscientists working in the field. Your presentation
was inspirational, educational, and articulate.
Edward
Hall, Ph.D.
Director, Spinal Cord & Brain Injury Research
Center
University of Kentucky, Chandler Medical Center
Just a quick note to thank you for the marvelously inspirational presentation
you gave here at Lexington at the 12th Kentucky Spinal Cord & Head
Injury Research Trust Symposium. You are a terrifically engaging speaker.
It had a great motivating effect on me and the other 170+ scientists who
attended from the Spinal Cord & Brain Injury Research Center here
at the University of Kentucky, those from our sister Kentucky Spinal Cord
Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville and the other participants
from various U.S. and Canadian medical centers, Germany and Great Britain.
It is so important for young scientists who while intellectually interested
in the research challenges typically lack a personal understanding of
what it means to live with a spinal cord injury as you do every day.
I am sure that your presentation provided a life and career changing experience for each of them. On behalf our faculty and scientists here at U.K., we very much look forward to having you visit and work with us again in the future.
Lisa
Ruane
Director,
Component Services
American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)
Danny was the keynote
speaker for the American Physical Therapy Association's 2005 National
Student Conclave. His session, "Go the Extra Mile!" reinforced
that communication and work with a patient is a two-way street. It was
inspirational to listen to a patient who is so motivated to succeed and
so aware of and perceptive to his therapist's strengths and weaknesses.
Danny delivered his message in a sincere way and motivated the healthcare
audience to provide better care.
Karin
A. Duncker
Executive Director
New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA)
Danny recently addressed the membership of the New York Biotechnology Association at our 2005 Annual Meeting. He blew us away with his passion, his positive attitude, and his committment to working with biotech companies to find the cures and bring them to the patient community. Everyone was talking about him throughout the rest of the meeting, a sure sign Danny's message got through. It was a pleasure working with him and we are lucky to have such a committed and passionate advocate on our side. It is my sincere hope that Danny and his message are brought to the larger national biotech community.
Ron
Cohen, M.D.
President and CEO
Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.
Danny Heumann is one of those rare people who can inspire others to reach beyond themselves, to achieve things they barely thought themselves capable of. Danny does this both by his extraordinary speaking ability and by the compelling example of his own life story. He has inspired me personally, as founder and CEO of a biotechnology company, and he has similarly affected my associates. Listening to him has made us better people and more effective at what we do."
Rebecca
Reed Kantrowitz
Director, Residence Life
Syracuse University
It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Danny Heumann as an excellent speaker and resource for any campus committed to improving the quality of residential life. Danny Heumann spoke with a group of residence life professionals at Syracuse University, Danny's alma mater, in October 2004. His words were inspiring, genuine, and full of helpful information for our staff.
Danny talked about his personal journey, frustrations of being in a wheelchair and not being able to do what other students were doing, perceptions and misperceptions students had of him, learning disabilities, stem cell research, and ways to create an inclusive residence life for people with disabilities. Below are just some comments from those whom attended his presentation.
- "It was inspiring to see someone with so much courage!"
- "Danny had a great way of telling his story. We appreciated his candidness, sense of humor and genuine concern for our learning as well as our students' experience."
- "Thank you for being so open!"
- "Danny's talk was both educational and entertaining."
- "He was refreshing, candid and funny."
After watching his video clip, hearing his story and participating in Q and A, our staff recommended that Danny return to speak with numerous others on campus including: resident advisors, our Greek community, first year students, residence hall community councils, physical plant personnel and public safety.
It's our hope that Danny will continue to educate the Syracuse community in such a heart-felt and effective manner. Please feel free to contact me with additional questions. I would be delighted to speak on Danny's behalf.
