Timothy Shriver, chairman and CEO of Special Olympics, visited the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.
Shriver is the son of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, whose leadership established a network of university-affiliated research centers across the United States in 1967 including the center at Vanderbilt.
He is a new member of the Kennedy Center Scientific Advisory Board and was here April 4 to learn about BioVU, ResearchMatch and RED Cap Survey as potential tools for Special Olympics research on healthcare disparities among persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“What the Kennedy Center represents is that people are willing to take seriously the needs and the potential of people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities,” Shriver said. “[The Kennedy Center] has a decades-long track record of standing up to indifference and saying ‘we will marshal the best minds, the best scholars and the best community leaders to create the best science and the best practice in capturing and capitalizing on the best gifts of every citizen.”