Melissa Otterbein
Director, Fitness & Healthy Lifestyles, Special Olympics International
The Power of Sport for inclusive health
Melissa Otterbein is the Director, Fitness and Healthy Lifestyles for Special Olympics International. A Certified Health Educator Specialist, she oversees the strategic direction of Special Olympics International’s fitness programming. In her role, she fosters partnership development and technical assistance to drive growth of non-competitive physical activity programming that promotes health education for people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her career began in HIV/AIDS research at Johns Hopkins University. She then earned a fellowship with Global Health Corps in the area of sport-based youth development. She earned her Master of Public Health in Physical Activity and was a Graduate Assistant at George Washington University. She taught as an Adjunct Professor in Towson University’s Department of Family Studies and Community Development and served as the Education Manager at USA Triathlon, where she led coaching education, developed an elite athlete leadership and mental health program, and secured a $600,000 Million Coaches Challenge grant award.
Melissa is the co-managing editor of the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies and an Inclusion Consultant for the American College of Sports Medicine’s Exercise, Sport, and Movement journal. She serves on the Board of Directors for the US Center for Coaching Excellence and is a certified USA Triathlon Level II and US Masters Swimming Certified Coach. She’s the proud sister of a Special Olympics athlete and has been involved as a volunteer alongside her Dad since adolescence.
