Kristen Fitzgerald is the founder and president of Brave Kids, a non-profit organization
that helps children with chronic, life-threatening illnesses or disabilities.
Having lost her own two children to catastrophic illness, she brings first hand
experience and a personal commitment to this endeavor. Kristen pledged that she
would redirect the anguish of her own tragic experiences towards easing the suffering
of seriously ill children and helping parents avoid the struggle of finding resources
and emotional support for their own children.
On June 9, 1999, Kristen founded Brave Kids (http://www.bravekids.org) which locates
resources and provides emotional support to seriously ill children and their families.
Brave Kids also donates resource centers to pediatric wards of hospitals. Currently
helping more than 100,000 seriously ill children, Brave Kids plans to increase its
reach to 2.5 million children by 2010. The Brave Kids program is approved by and
links with over 20 national health organizations such as: The National Kidney Foundation,
The Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California, the National Institute of Health
and The American Lung Association.
The Brave Kids program and Web site were successfully launched in the San Francisco
Bay Area in March 2000. In collaboration with the University of California, San
Francisco; the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and a growing number of corporate
sponsors including Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Network Associates
and Hill and Knowlton; the Brave Kids Web site rolled out nationwide in 2002.
Kristen has ambitious plans for the future of Brave Kids. By 2010, the organization
will extend its health care resources and support for children with special needs
to 20 cities across the nation.
Kristen received a special acknowledgement for her work with Brave Kids from His
Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Kristen received a bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in marketing from
the University of Florida and has extensive marketing experience with leading broadcast
companies in the United States. She is also a member of the Work Group for the Los
Angeles Child Care Planning Committee and the Project Advisory Committee for the
Institute of Health Policy (U of F)
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