Background
Her mother, Ruby Cremaschi-Schwimmer, was a principal at Lincoln High School (San Diego). Her father, Lee Saint John, left before she was born. Bonnie was born in Detroit but raised in San Diego.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Bonnie Saint John
Edit ProfileEducation
Harvard University; Trinity College.
Career
At the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Saint John was asked to speak during the opening ceremonies. Due to a condition called pre-femoral focal disorder, Saint John had her right leg amputated below the knee when she was 5 years old. Her first stepfather, Paul Cremaschi, sexually abused her.
Despite these challenges, she went on to excel as an athlete, a scholar, a mother and a businesswoman. degree in economics in 1990.
She worked in the White House during the Clinton administration as a Director for the National Economic Council, and is currently Chief Executive Officer of Courageous Spirit, Incorporated. John was formerly married to Doctor Grant Deane, an ocean acoustician and physicist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Saint John has written and published six books: Succeeding Sane. Getting Ahead at Work Without Leaving Your Family Behind.
Money: Fall Down? Together, they traveled around the world on an extraordinary mother-daughter journey into the lives, and life lessons, of fascinating women leaders including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, fashion designers, Chief executive officers, women's rights activists, and many more.
In February 2007, as part of the celebration of Black History Month, Saint John was honored at the White House by President George West. Bush who said: " is the kind of person that you really want to be around, and the kind of person that shows that individual courage matters in life." Saint John was featured on a nationwide Starbucks beverage cup with the quote "I was ahead in the slalom. But in the second run, everyone fell on a dangerous spot. I was beaten by a woman that got up faster than I did.
I learned that people fall down, winners get up, and gold medal winners just get up faster." National Broadcasting Company Nightly News selected Saint John as "One of the five most inspiring women in America".
She has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Cable News Network, Montel and the Discovery Health Channel.
Achievements
-
In the 1984 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Saint John won a bronze medal in the slalom, a bronze medal in the giant slalom, and was awarded a silver medal for overall performance thereby earning her the distinction of being the second fastest woman in the world on one leg in that year. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, Saint John won a Rhodes Scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, where she earned her Master of Literature Leading publications, such as The New York Times and People have profiled Saint John and noted her extraordinary achievements.
-
Born
-
Nationality
United States