Spotlight: Grace Cortezzo

Grace Cortezzo, Clinical Research Coordinator, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation

What is your occupation at Yale, and what do you do in your role? 

I am a clinical research coordinator, and my duties include recruiting subjects, helping with regulatory, creating source for the studies, and entering data. I also help with the preparations needed before you can recruit patients and communicate with sponsors.

Do you feel you have adequate support and resources in the workplace?

I would say yes to this, especially during the past three years when I started walking from a cane to a walker, and things were getting progressively worse with me. I had to speak to my managers and my doctors, and they provided guidance so that I could continue my job.

How do you approach balancing your well-being with your professional responsibilities?

I try to remember throughout the day to get up from my sitting position to walk and stretch. There are programs within Yale that I participate in such as chair yoga where I do what I can. Hinge Health is an app through Yale that offers 3-minute stretches you can do while sitting. The longer I sit, the stiffer I get, so it’s important to me to balance stretching and movement with work.

What do you think could be improved in the workplace to better support people with physical disabilities?

This is always a trick question because I feel there is always room for improvement. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been around now 35 years, and we as a country have not fully complied with the law. I have found myself in situations where there is no automatic door so I am fighting with the door to get in with my walker. Or my son will help me with my walker, but there is no flat part of the sidewalk where I can zoom up, since trying to step up to the curb with a walker is a process with me. There are so many things I can list that could be improved. As a country, we can always improve and be up-to-speed with the ADA.

What is something you wish more people understood about living with a physical disability, whether at work or in life?

Not all disabilities look the same. How my disability compares to someone else that has Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), or any other autoimmune disease can look different. Just because you don’t see a disability does not mean a person doesn’t have one, and not all disabilities are the same. If someone saw me just sitting and talking, they would not know I have a disability but the minute I stand up and grab my walker you will see something is amiss. Everyone’s body reacts differently even when it comes to treatments; one medication that works on someone may not work on someone else. This is why research is so important; we are always looking for something that works better or even cures a disease. This is what motivates me to speak.