Minna Hong

2026 Spinal Cord Artist Residency (SCAR) Fellow

Minna Hong

For the last 26 years, I have lived with a squatter called Guilt. This squatter calls me it’s home because I was the driver of the car that caused the catastrophic injury in 1999. I became a widow with 2 young kids, ages 6 and 8. And, I acquired a spinal cord injury at T12-L1 level.

After painful 2 years of mourning my personal loss, I went to work. I rested my old self to give life to my new self in my new body.

I worked at Shepherd Center, a leading rehabilitation hospital as a SCI/ABI Peer Support manager. I was very instrumental in creating a scientific evidence based program to prove the efficacy of peer support through the PCORI Grant. This research changed the way rehabilitation hospitals view the importance of a peer support program. Peer support programs thus became standard practice in order to be recognized as a rehabilitation facility. As a result, I became the winner of the Hospital Hero Award by the GA Healthcare Association for this work.

After working 18 yrs at Shepherd Center, I retired. Empathy Fatigue is not good for the patients or my soul.

This gave me the opportunity to really look inwards to follow what I deemed meaningful work. Creating art has always been with me, working with clay, sewing, sketching, painting, designing jewelry. It has always called me home. I create advocacy art work.

It is a discovery on disability history and my hopes for anti-ableist future.