Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Sport: Running

Sarah Berardo

Sarah Berardo

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Fiji

Sarah grew up participating in various youth sports- those experiences shaped her love of athleticism and were an underlying thread throughout her life and early career. She capitalized on her athletic career to study at Ursinus College while playing softball and working in the Sports Medicine Clinic as the Head Athletic Training Aide. After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Health and Exercise Physiology and concentrations in Coaching and Wellness education, she pursued her passion of youth development as a Student Success Coach in Memphis, Tennessee with the AmeriCorps organization – City Year Memphis.

In Memphis, she worked in a 7th grade math classroom providing academic, attendance and social-emotional learning support through a Positive Youth Development lens. She also led the Afterschool program focused on additional academic support and diverse enrichment activities. During her time with City Year Memphis, she also coached the school’s first softball team in 10 years. After her service year, Sarah joined Peace Corps Ukraine as a Community Youth Development Volunteer.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, Sarah worked with a local youth sports NGO coaching soccer trainings and tournaments in local underserved communities and at a local school for youth with mental disabilities. She also facilitated Adult English clubs focused on Emotional Intelligence and Youth Clubs focused on Youth Empowerment and Community Involvement. These experiences in Sport-based Youth Development and Positive Youth Development helped form the base of her “Whole Child” youth development approach she now utilizes in Washington, DC.

Currently, Sarah is the Associate Program Manager at Teens Run DC. Teens Run DC is a community organization focused on empowering youth to envision and work towards the achievement of personal goals through distance running, mentoring and social emotional learning programs in underserved areas of Washington, DC. Sarah manages the coaches in the partnered schools as they provide lunch time programs, after school run clubs and Saturday community wide programing.
When Youth Sports are combined with Positive Youth Development, the affect on the youth involved is exponential and life altering. Programs such as Teens Run DC help provide youth with the social support they need to continue on a positive life path and strive for the fulfilling future at the height of their potential.

Dean Karnazes

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2016  –  Kyrgyzstan
  • 2016  –  Kazakhstan
  • 2016  –  Uzbekistan
  • 2018  –  Peru
  • 2022  –  Fiji

TIME magazine named him one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in the World.” Men’s Fitness hailed him as one of the fittest men on the planet. Stan Lee, of Marvel Comics fame, called him, “A real superhuman.” An acclaimed endurance athlete and NY Times bestselling author, Dean Karnazes has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits. Among his many accomplishments, he has run 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 consecutive days, he’s run 350 continuous miles, foregoing sleep for three nights. He’s run across the Sahara Desert in 120-degree temperatures, and he’s run a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. On ten separate occasions he’s run a 200-mile relay race solo, racing alongside teams of twelve. His long list of competitive achievements include winning the World’s Toughest Footrace, the Badwater Ultramarathon, running 135 miles nonstop across Death Valley during the middle of summer. He has raced and competed on all seven continents of the planet, twice over.

Dean is an ESPN ESPY winner, a 3-time recipient of Competitor magazines Endurance Athlete of the Year award and serves as a US Athlete Ambassador. He’s twice carried the Olympic Torch and in 2019 received the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dean and his incredible adventures have been featured on The Today Show, 60 Minutes, The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS News, CNN, ESPN, The Howard Stern Show, NPR’s Morning Edition, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the BBC, and many others. He has appeared on the cover of Runner’s World, Outside, and Wired magazine’s, and has been featured in TIME, Newsweek, People, GQ, The New York Times, USA TODAY, The Washington Post, Men’s Journal, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and the London Telegraph, to mention a few.

Yet, it is his unique ability to enthuse athletes of all abilities and backgrounds that truly set Dean apart. Despite his many accomplishments, awards and distinctions, he remains most proud of his ongoing contributions of time and funding to programs aimed at getting children and youth outdoors and active. He has raised millions of dollars for charity and was awarded the prestigious Community Leadership Award by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports.

Beyond being a celebrated endurance athlete, philanthropist, and bestselling author, Dean is an accomplished businessman with a notable professional career working for several Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. A graduate of the USF McLaren School of Business & Management, he is uniquely able to demonstrate how the lessons learned from athletics can be applied to business, and he is able to convey, with authenticity, the many insights he has gleaned along the way as a record-setting athlete and professional businessman.

Dean is a sought after speaker who has captivated and inspired audiences across the globe with his stories of persistence and perseverance. His dynamic, engaging and rousing presentations focus on going beyond perceived limitations to be the best that you can be. He talks about unlocking an inner strength to achieve extraordinary results. His real-life examples explore the topics of: dealing with adversity, overcoming obstacles, setting and reaching lofty goals, the importance of teamwork, even in solo endeavors, and excelling in a competitive, and often confusing, world. In his presentations, he examines and discusses the essential ingredients necessary for high-achievement and developing the ability to prevail and preserve against staggering odds.

Dean is believable, because his achievements and accomplishments are real. He delivers his message with the insight and candor that only an individual who has lived through such experiences can. Dean’s stories of endurance and perseverance are often comical, sometimes tear-jerking, and always thought-provoking and entertaining. His roster of clients include: Nike, Google, Sony, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo, Apple Computer, Merck, Toyota, Starbucks, Accenture, Stanford University, Yale, JP Morgan Chase, Amazon, Facebook, and a host of others.

Greg Meyer

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Greg Meyer was the last American man to win the Boston Marathon (in 2:09.00 in 1983). He set American road racing records at 8k, 10k, 15k, 25k, and ten miles, and established world bests in the 15K (at Gasparilla in Tampa, FL) and ten miles (the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile in Washington, DC). He was also a sub-4:00 miler. Meyer was nominated for the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete in 1983. He has been inducted into the ESPN Road Racing, Road Runners Club of America, and Grand Rapids Sports Halls of Fame. Besides Boston, Meyer won the 1980 Detroit and 1982 Chicago Marathons and was the River Bank Run 25K champ seven times. Meyer is the University of Michigan’s Regional Director for Planned Giving.

Lisa Rainsberger

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Lisa Larsen Rainsberger, previously known as Lisa Larsen Weidenbach, (born May 7, 1961) is a distance runner. She is a member of the University of Michigan Track and Field and Road Runners of America Halls of Fame. Her marathon times were among the top ten in the US in 1984 and 1987–1994. As of 2008, she was listed four times in the top 100 all-time US women’s marathon performances, with a best time of 2:28:15.

In 1984, she ran the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon trials where she finished fourth, missing a spot in the Olympic games. In 1985, she won the Boston Marathon in a time of 2:34:06. An American did not win the Boston Marathon again until 2018, 33 years later, when Desiree Linden ran to victory. Rainsberger finished first back-to-back in the Chicago Marathon in 1988 (2:29:17) and 1989 (2:28:15), something no American woman has repeated since. She had run in numerous other distance races on the track and road, in the United States and abroad (notably Japan’s Hokkaido Marathon).

Rainsberger ended her 12-year career of professional competition after a final attempt to become a professional triathlete and training for the Olympics. She now focuses on her family and coaching. She coaches members of the Army’s world class athlete program, and her daughter, Katie Rainsberger, who is a champion in her own right.

Thomas Grilk

Running

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Egypt

Thomas S. Grilk, Chief Executive Officer | Boston Athletic Association | Boston Marathon

Tom Grilk is the Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Athletic Association | Boston Marathon, taking on that role in January of 2011. He served as President of the B.A.A. Board of Governors from 2003 until 2011.

In addition to his duties as Chief Executive Officer, he served as the marathon’s finish line announcer from 1979 through 2013, and he is a former marathon competitor, with a personal best of 2:49 and a personal best at Boston of 2:54.

He was for many years a corporate and business lawyer, both with the Boston law firm Hale and Dorr and serving as counsel and general counsel to Boston area technology companies. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School.