Disabilities No Barrier to Water Sports Success
“AccesSportAmerica is important to me because it’s the shortest distance between us and our best selves. Every single day.”
Cheryl Shea Art Director, Acces Sport America
Cheryl Shea brings her talent and dedication as Art Director, a position she has held since the organization’s founding. Creatively and thoughtfully, Cheryl continues to successfully brand AccesSportAmerica. She is responsible for the design and development of all corporate identity and collateral materials including this website. During the school year, Cheryl is an Art Teacher for grades 6-8 in the Concord Public Schools. Year round, she also provides award-winning graphic and creative direction services for clients in Massachusetts and California. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally. “AccesSportAmerica is important to me because it’s the shortest distance between us and our best selves. Every single day.”
Jean is responsible for the day-to-day operations of AccesSportAmerica including responding to requests. One of her primary responsibilities is the scheduling of athletes and determining the program best suited for the athlete’s particular needs. Jean has been involved since AccesSportAmerica’s founding in 1996. She help found AccesSport with her husband, Ross.
Chris brings a lifetime of adaptive sport and training to AccesSportAmerica. He has worked at St. Colletta Day School, Kennedy Day School, Mass. Hospital School, and Quincy Public Schools as an educator with a specialty of children living with disabilities. Chris has worked with AccesSport since 1996 and his time at the Mass.Hospital School (now the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital. Now, retired from Quincy Public schools, Chris works with AccesSport on a year round basis.
Nate has been with AccesSportAmerica since 2002, serving a year as a volunteer, quickly becoming a team leader, and since 2008 as Program Director of AccesSportAmerica. Nate has been instrumental in designing and implementing programs/training regimens at all of our sites. He is indefatigable in his efforts to urge our athletes to higher function. His spirit is infectious in the way he inspires all trainers/instructors to get the most out of each session. Nate’s responsibilities include overseeing programs at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Camp Harbor View, Massachusetts Hospital School, Boston Public Schools, and the YMCA. A graduate of St. Michael’s College, Nate is National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) Certified Personal Trainer. AccesSportAmerica is greatly enhanced by his leadership and commitment.
Ross has been adapting and teaching high-challenge sports since 1983. He has been involved in personal training and coaching since the late 1970’s. An ordained minister, his primary interest has been in creating places and activities to overcome disparity and discrimination, especially for people living with disabilities. Ross is the foremost authority on adaptive windsurfing in the United States. In 1986, his son Josh was born with cerebral palsy and resulting spastic quadriplegia. When Josh was four years old, Josh and Ross began windsurfing together. Josh became the catalyst and inspiration for AccesSportAmerica and to this day is AccesSport’s “Chief Test Pilot”.
The first to adapt the sport of windsurfing, Ross adapts sports and creates/develops equipment to accommodate all disabilities. He also creates programs and training/coaching regimens in collaboration with the trainers to accommodate a wide range of disabilities to inspire the athlete to achieve higher function and fitness, better conditioning and improved health all within a welcoming and hope-filled community.
Ross has twice received the Boston Celtics’ Heroes Among Us Award, the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports’ Neighborhood Superstar Award, and numerous other awards. He received a BA in Economics from New York University and a M.Div from Andover Newton Theological School. He served as the pastor of South Acton Congregational Church, a post he held until 2001 when he resigned to devote himself full-time to AccesSportAmerica. Ross is a National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) Certified Personal Trainer. Ross and Jean Lilley, and their children – Joshua and Hanna – are involved with AccesSportAmerica.
