2012 NAFE WOMEN OF EXCELLENCE – COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD

Tracey Gray-Walker attributes her commitment to community service to the woman who brought her up—her grandmother—who, she says, “would feed others, or take people into our house. People would always have a place to stay. I learned that if you were blessed, you were supposed to bless someone else. How can you turn away someone in need?” Tracey currently serves as SVP, Diversity and Inclusion at AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, which she joined in 1988 and where she experienced considerable career success in marketing, sales, and finance positions, among others. People at her office praise her for not just for her work, but also for her kindness and generosity of spirit. And that, in part, springs from her two decades raising her autistic son Tre, now nearly 22.

“I had a traditional dream about being a mom,” Tracey says, “of having my child grow up and graduate from college, get married, and make me a grandmother. When my son was diagnosed at age three, I had to bury the dream I’d had my entire life. It was very doable once I put it in my mind to embrace the child that God had given me.” Tracey determined to make Tre’s life the best possible life; and research junky that she is, she educated herself about schools, resources, programs.  She soon realized that often parents of autistic children lack information and don’t know what to do, so she began sharing what she’d learned about socializing autistic children by getting them out into the community, enrolling them in the right schools, and leveraging the available resources. All of this she did informally, quietly working with parents’ organizations, getting trained as a parent advocate, serving on boards.

Tre is now an adult who plays Special Olympics sports, including soccer and softball, and he has his own social group. “He is such happy person,” Tracey says happily, attributing that also to her husband, “the best dad.” She calls raising Tre both humbling and gratifying. “He taught me that I don’t have control. He taught me not to take myself too seriously and to take time to enjoy the small things. He allowed me to be a help to others.” For all she has done for the families of autistic children and for the children themselves, NAFE honors Tracey.