Brooke Ellison, PhD, is an associate professor of health policy and medical ethics at Stony Brook University. Following a car accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator at age eleven, Ellison went on to graduate from Harvard University in 2000 and received her master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2002. She ran for New York State Senate in 2006 and was granted an honorary degree from Rutger’s University in 2011. In 2014 Ellison was chosen to be a World Forum Young Global Leader. She joined the board of directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union in 2017 and was chosen to be a Truman National Security Project Political Partner in 2018. She was appointed to the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission in 2020. Her first book, Miracles Happen (2002), was adapted into a movie directed by Christopher Reeve, The Brooke Ellison Story. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her family.