Biographical Sketch

Mark Willis is a research administrator at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton , Ohio . Since 1984, his career at Wright State has included work as a medical and science writer, public affairs officer, and web developer. He received national honors from the Association of American Medical Colleges in 1999 for collaborative public health programming in Dayton 's African-American community.

His professional writing career spans thirty-five years and includes work as a newspaper reporter, editor, and media consultant. His creative nonfiction was honored with Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council in 2000 and 2004. His current project, titled Improvising on the Genome, explores his family's multi-generation experience with disability and hereditary disease.

Willis has been a committed disability rights advocate for more than thirty years. He was a member of the board of directors and public affairs director of the American Council of the Blind of Ohio from 1985-1990. He organized Agenda 88, a statewide public information campaign during the 1988 election which produced Ohio 's first voter's guide for people with disabilities. His work as a legislative advocate for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act was recognized in 1990 by an invitation to the White House for the ADA signing ceremony. He was appointed by Governor Richard Celeste to a three-year term on the Ohio Governor's Council on People with Disabilities from 1990 to 1993.

Willis holds an M.A. degree in English and a B.A. degree in Religion Studies from Wright State University . His current scholarly interests include the protection of human subjects in research; the social history of eugenics and genetics; and citizen journalism in the emerging Web 2.0 media environment.