Chamber member Sabrina Cohen is a winner in SELF magazine’s “Women Doing Good” contest and is heading to New York City to be honored at a celebrity awards dinner, where Sabrina will receive $10,000 for her nonprofit organization that raises money for medical research. She is also the guest of honor at the Shore Club’s September 6th celebration at 7 p.m. where her fellow Chamber members, family and friends will see her off. Sabrina, who earlier this year won $10,000 in the Examiner.com “America Inspired” contest, was stunned to learn she’d also won this latest honor. But it also means something special for this Miami Beach native to be showcased in SELF’s current issue. The photo, taken at South Pointe Park, shows her as the epitome of a Miami Beach trendsetter, sitting with her legs crossed, her feet encased in trendy highheeled platform shoes, and her hair blowing in the breeze
“What I find most rewarding about this award is that it not only propels my foundation into a national spotlight but it also provides me with an outlet to show the world that women with disabilities can still be fashionable, fun and successful, no matter what challenges we face,” said Sabrina, 34, who was paralyzed nearly 20 years ago in an Alton Road car crash.
As a “Woman Doing Good” winner, she will be honored at a celebrity dinner on Sept. 12, along with two other “hometown” winners. Actresses Jessica Alba, Kerri Washington and Jenna Dewan- Tatum are the celebrity honorees. “I’m so grateful to be recognized amongst five other inspiring women in such high regards. Knowing that I was chosen out of thousands is mind blowing,” Cohen said.
Despite being rendered a quadriplegic, Sabrina is an accomplished woman who runs her foundation from her wheelchair. A University of Miami alumni, she is currently enrolled in a master’s level program there to earn her degree as a certified life coach, while at the same time fulfilling her dream of seeing her foundation become a global force in regenerative medicine. Sabrina launched the nonprofit Sabrina Cohen Stem Cell Foundation in 2006 to help overturn the ban on stem cell funding, and has donated $75,000 so far to medical researchers working in the field of regenerative medicine.
Over the nearly 20 years since the accident, she has spoken to some 20,000 children, students and adults, personally mentored hundreds of the newly disabled, and helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for health-related causes.
She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Chamber’s Amethyst Arts & Culture Not for Profit Award” for outstanding ability to achieve success through innovation, service, growth and commitment to the Community. She’s also been nominated by the City of Miami Beach with a “Sabrina Cohen Day” three times.
On a personal note,
I had the pleasure of nominating Sabrina for this honor, and I’ll be traveling to New York along with her. I will write all about our adventures right here in the Chamber newspaper when we return. In the meantime, follow Sabrina at StemCellGirl#77 as we tweet all the celebrity excitement from New York City!
