STAR STUDENT Barry Dean Makes Wheelchairs Smarter

Photo by Shelley Mayes/The Tennessean

Hit songwriter Barry Dean has been one of my STAR STUDENTS for close to twenty years. With oodles of chart-toppers (“Pontoon” & “Day Drinking”/Little Big Town, “Think a Little Less”/Michael Ray, “Girls Chase Boys”/Ingrid Michaelson) plus a Grammy nomination (“Diamond Rings and Old Barstools”/Tim McGraw), he has now applied his huge talents to making power wheelchairs smarter. The father of five, whose 19-year-old daughter Katherine uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, has somehow found time to create a safety accessory called LUCI that helps prevent collisions and falls.

Like all teens - actually, all people - Katherine values her independence, but Barry and his wife Jen always worried about her safety as she navigated the world on wheels. Never one to shrink from a challenge (I mean, after all, he IS in the music business!), Barry and his team at LUCI have created the first-of-its-kind accessory using 21st century technology that can sense potential dangers and intervene to prevent accidents before they happen.

Barry is living proof that creativity can take many forms and that creative people are, in the end, problem-solvers. Now if he would only figure out how to end the pandemic!

Here’s a wonderful piece on the local TV news about Barry, Katherine, and LUCI.

Find out more at LUCI.com