Master's in Sports Industry Management
Kristen Seckler

Kirsten Suto Seckler is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in America.

Seckler has spent her career using marketing, communications, and sports to drive social change and impact. At Shatterproof, she addresses the ever-growing substance use disorder epidemic impacting the nation. Her work is focused on bringing science-based interventions to the public and ending the stigma of addiction negatively impacting those with substance use disorder and their families. She is leading the organization through a brand alignment and will be launching the organization’s first public-facing social impact marketing campaign for the organization in 2023. She helped launch new initiatives such as the Shatterproof Treatment Atlas, a platform to help individuals and their families find the right type of quality addiction treatment, and a national plan to end addiction stigma in the United States. She also leads mass-market fundraising initiatives for Shatterproof. 

For over 20 years, she was with Special Olympics International, most recently as the global Chief Brand and Communications Officer, leading a team worldwide to creatively shape and challenge perceptions about people with intellectual disabilities through sports.

As a member of the global executive leadership team, and over her time with the movement, she was instrumental in the global growth of Special Olympics, which is now in nearly 200 countries around the world and reaches more than 6 million athletes, and has nearly 90 percent brand recognition and familiarity. Her accomplishments included setting the global strategic agenda for the organization and organizing and promoting 11 Special Olympics World Games, both Winter and Summer, in locations throughout the world, including China, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Greece, Austria, and the United Arab Emirates. She established a multiyear global broadcast partnership with ESPN, which grew to be the first-time athletes with intellectual disabilities received live sports coverage. She also took the Special Olympics from being a U.S.-Centric brand to a global brand. 

Seckler has been an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, teaching with the Integrated Marketing and Sports Industry Management Programs since 2013. Before joining Special Olympics, Seckler worked in the marketing department at Kraft, where she helped manage the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile brand icon and year-round marketing tour. She also spent five years working as a print journalist.

Seckler was an honoree of the Washington Women in Public Relations Woman of the Year Award and is an accomplished speaker and guest lecturer. She was recently named one of PRWeek’s Health Influencer 30 Class of 2022. Seckler has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delaware and a Certificate in Nonprofit Executive Management from Georgetown University.