天美传媒

 is a research affiliate at the  and the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services, or DRES, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He has served as the head coach of the University of Illinois wheelchair track and road racing team since 2005. In that time, his athletes have won 55 medals across four paralympic games while setting 14 world records on the track, and have won the Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and New York City Marathon. In recognition of such performances, he has been named the USOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year on three occasions.
Bleakney conducts research related to assistive technology and devices for individuals with disabilities as well as research related to human performance, specifically for athletes with disabilities. In 2017, he established the UIUC Human Performance and Mobility Maker Lab, an interdisciplinary lab where students with and without disabilities collaborate to design and develop assistive technology. As director of the HPML, Bleakney is faculty in the School of Art + Design at UIUC. He also co-directs the  at the Beckman Institute, which supports interdisciplinary design research centered around the lived experiences of people with disabilities.
He has also consulted with BMW, Toyota, Bridgestone Americas, and several Champaign-based start-ups in advancing racing wheelchair and other accessible technology research and development initiatives.
Education

M.S., print journalism, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2002
B.A., English literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000

Honors

2019: Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence Award
2016: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year
2015: USOPC Doc Counsilman Science Award
2015: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year
2009: Alexis Wernsing Innovation Award
2007: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year