Sonoran Center’s Paavlena Madhivanan honored with self-advocacy award

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Paavlena Madhivanan, a program aide and peer mentor with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities, was named the Down Syndrome Network’s 2026 Self-Advocate of the Year.

She was honored at the organization’s 11^th annual Lights, Camera, Auction Awards Gala at the Phoenix Zoo April 11. The Down Syndrome Network is a nonprofit Arizona advocacy group for those with Down syndrome and their families.

Madhivanan said the award came as a complete surprise. She said she wasn’t even aware she had been nominated, and word of the honor came when she wasn’t on duty. 

“If I’m off work, I don’t look at my email or check my texts, and I didn’t know what was happening,” said Madhivanan, who has been with the Sonoran Center since 2023. 

Her mom, Purnima Madhivanan, PhD, MBBS, MPH, an associate professor of health promotion at the U of A Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, heard it first and broke the news. 

“I said, ‘What’s going on? Why are you congratulating me?’ I thought she was gaslighting me,” Madhivanan said.

While she may have been caught off guard, Paavlena Madhivanan’s job coach, Lesley Howe, said the award came as no surprise to those who know her.

“She’s a great spokesperson,” Howe said. “She’s very articulate. She engages in conversations. She asks questions. And she listens for people's responses. If she doesn't understand something, she says, ‘Hey, can you say that again?’ Or ‘Can you say that in a different way?’ She is so good at self-advocating.”

Madhivanan said she’s won medals in the Special Olympics as a multisport athlete, but this was her first work-related award. She said she felt happy and proud to receive it.

“My disability doesn’t hold me back,” she said.