Roswell Resident Named Executive Director of BlazeSports America

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BlazeSports America has a new executive director. Cynthia Frisina comes to BlazeSports America with more than 25 years as an award-winning marketing professional for Fortune 500 companies, biotech companies, global healthcare organizations and technology startups.

Frisina will be responsible for the strategic direction, growth and overall operations of BlazeSports America as well as coordinating U.S. and international activities through the 2016 Paralympics Games in Brazil and beyond.

Frisina is known as a worldwide expert on disability advocacy and family education. As a successful marketing, fund development and nonprofit professional, she has been committed to improving the lives of others through advocacy, education and strategic outreach. Frisina is recognized for excellence in brand building, marketing strategy, fund development and strategic alliances.

For her tireless work on behalf of people with disabilities, she was awarded the international Cathleen Lyle Murray Award by the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

Frisina has co-authored numerous articles, publications and curriculum content, and has presented many instructional courses, educational conferences and workshops for families impacted by physical disabilities and clinicians on several continents.

Frisina was the first to establish a U.S. National Awareness Day for Cerebral Palsy through bi-partisan Congressional agreement and has been a champion of bringing the power of sport to children with physical challenges on a global basis.

She has been a frequent presenter and speaker at the National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine, CP Alliance of Australia, Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy and many research institutions and universities including University of Michigan, University of Massachusetts, Washington University Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

After Frisina’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, she launched the nonprofit foundation, Reaching for the Stars: A Foundation of Hope for Children with Cerebral Palsy in 2005 in order to change the future of the most common motor disability in children.

In a few short years, Reaching for the Stars rapidly grew into the largest pediatric nonprofit cerebral palsy foundation in the world with presence in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Australia.

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Photo: Frisina with daughter Cathryn. Credit: Reaching for the Stars