Join us Wednesday, Oct. 15th to engage Wounded Warrior Project and council members during our series on disability narratives!

Our Disability Narrative Webinar Series initiative is designed to empower journalists, storytellers, and advocates with the tools to create accurate, inclusive and impactful narratives about disability. 

This month Dan Nevins with WWP with speak to us about journalism going Beyond the Surface – Covering Physical and Non-Visible Wounds Responsibly

This webinar series is offered FREE for MVJ members, journalists and newsroom teams interested in learning how to improve their coverage of disability communities.

RSVP

Please note: these sessions will be recorded.

About the Speaker(s)

Wounded Warrior Project Warrior

Dan Nevins

Dan Nevins enlisted as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army immediately after graduating high school so he could make a difference in the world. He was an active duty soldier for eight years before he left to pursue his education in business, but he still felt the call to serve — so he joined the California National Guard. For many years, Dan led a normal life; he got married, had a daughter, and embarked on a successful career in pharmaceutical sales. But in January 2004, Dan had to leave his family to deploy to Balad, Iraq. On November 10, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated beneath his vehicle, blowing up Dan’s world as he knew it. As a result, he lost both legs below the knee and lives with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as the emotional wounds of war. “What can a guy with no legs do?” Dan asked himself. “In my mind, I thought it was ‘nothing.’ I felt broken and useless, lying in a hospital bed with nothing left to give. Then I was met at my hospital bedside by an organization called Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) — And they changed my life.” One of the first things WWP did was get Dan out of his hospital bed to go to a multi-day cycling event called Soldier Ride®. “They encouraged me to get active and do things I never thought I’d do again,” says Dan. “They just had to show me that it was possible, but maybe just a little differently than I used to. It helped me realize my disability didn’t define me; I had the chance to define what the rest of my life was going to be like. And Wounded Warrior Project was there every step of the way.” Dan also re-discovered his passion for service and realized he could still make a difference in the world. He became an advocate for WWP, inspiring both his peers and the public to create positive change for themselves and those around them. But like many warriors’ journeys, Dan’s path to recovery has not been a straight line. In 2013, while recovering from a revision surgery that meant he couldn’t wear his right prosthetic, he was confined to his house to recover and found himself falling into a dark mindset. That’s when he found what was, for him, an unlikely outlet: yoga. “I often say one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever said is ‘I’m Dan Nevins, and I’m a yoga teacher,’” says Dan. “But it wasn’t ridiculous in general; it was ridiculous to the man I’d been for the previous 40 years. I didn’t understand yoga. As I came to learn more about it and it became a part of my life, I realized the tools yoga teaches are a powerful catalyst for change. And I felt I had to bring that healing and change to others, especially other warriors struggling with the invisible wounds of war.” Since becoming a yoga teacher, Dan has been invited to teach throughout the world, from the White House in Washington, D.C. to the Africa Yoga Project in Nairobi, Kenya. Now, when he’s not leading yoga classes for hundreds of participants, Dan can be found sharing his passion for life, WWP, yoga and his fellow wounded warriors with the attendees of major events across the nation.