Linda M. Driscoll
Founder, President & CEO
Linda brings to Dream Big! more than 35 years of experience in business, sports, events and non-profit management. In an effort to empower girls from economically disadvantaged communities through sports, Linda launched Dream Big! a 501(c)3 charitable organization, in Massachusetts in 2010. The goal of Dream Big! is to help to break down the economic barrier that prevents girls from low-income situations from participating in sports and physical activities by providing them with the equipment, athletic footwear, sports attire, program fees, training expenses and supplies that they need to participate in sports and physical activities that contribute to their health, education and overall well-being.
In just 12 years Dream Big! has had a direct impact on over 55,000 girls and young women from low-income situations through equipment and sports attire donations, program scholarships, sports clinics, college showcases and the annual Dream Big! Leadership Conferences for female student athletes from urban communities.
Prior to founding Dream Big! Linda has held a number of senior sports management and non-profit positions including Senior Director of Area Operations for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, Community Relations Director for the Women’s Sports Foundation GoGirlGo! Boston; Executive Director for the Massachusetts Amateur Sports Foundation – organizers of the Bay State Games; Director of Sports Management and Program Development for Massachusetts Special Olympics; and a Sports Management Consultant for Special Olympics International in South Africa and Unified Sports Internationally. Linda has also been active in many community organizations and has served as the Past President of the Board of Directors for the New England Women’s Fund and a past member of the NCAA Boston Local Organizing Committee, where she served as the Special Events and Hospitality Chair for the Women’s Final Four in Boston in 2006.
Linda’s leadership at Dream Big! has been recognized in the following ways: Linda is the recipient of the 2011 Women's Initiative Live United Award presented by United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley and in 2012 Dream Big! was honored by Boston Magazine as one of ten "Best Businesses" in Boston. More recently Linda was honored in 2014 as an Exceptional Women by Magic 106.7; she received the Youth Villages Women of Excellence Award and in 2015; was awarded The Ad Club 2015 ADmiration Award presented by John Hancock; was presented with the 2017 Community Hero Globie - Editors Choice Award - by the Boston Globe and in 2019 Linda on behalf of Dream Big! received the 2019 Boston Athletic Association Patriots Award.
In June of 2018 Linda was invited by the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG) to present on the work she is doing at Dream Big! at the 7th World Conference on Women and Sport in Botswana, Africa.
