Nicole Luongo

Background

About Nicole Luongo

FAST FACTS: I'm a charismatic, driven, engaging, highly motivated passionate trailblazer who values authenticity, connection, and meaningful relationships. Connecting people is my superpower. I love getting information, opportunities into the right person's hands. The best part is watching them take the ball, run, and succeed with it. I'm the person people count on when they want to get something DONE. I'm an author, a disability advocate (thriving with cerebral palsy) and a published writer. In the past, I've been a caregiver (to my mother who had Alzheimer's), a cerebral palsy conference coordinator, a mentor (to children, and to many people in the disability community), a member of Toastmasters International (during my nearly ten year tenure, I served as President as well as other Executive roles, I competed in speaking competitions, and I taught the Jr. Toastmasters program to a combined class of fourth and fifth graders), a poet (my poetry book, Naked Desires, will celebrate 20 years in print in December 2022), a podcast host (I interviewed Emmy award-winning actor Maurice Benard,"Sonny Corinthos" on General Hospital), and a volunteer (I LOVED working with the kids in a Kindergarten class). I'm well known in the cerebral palsy community for raising awareness, and for sharing my journey after having selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR), a life-changing surgery for adults (like me) and children with CP. My HuffPost article SDR: Life-Changing Surgery for Cerebral Palsy is the reason many adults and children from around the world have learned about, had SDR surgery. My work has been published in myriad places including Medium, The Mighty, Thrive Global, Yahoo, and YooCan. In 2021, I started a campaign to get the White House to light up in green on March 25 for National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. My efforts led to a tweet that has 60K+ views. This sparked a movement, and a Change.org petition which received 40K+ signatures in less than two months. In 2019, I created the Go Green for CP campaign. I became the first person ever — without compensation or prior experience; this was a solo endeavor — to secure at least one building, landmark, etc. in almost all 50 states to light up in green on National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day (March 25) and on World CP Day (October 6), with lightings in three different countries. I'm driven, engaging, highly motivated (not to mention motivating) and passionate. When I'm not trying to save the world (lol), I'm usually cooking in my Instant Pots (I have three), baking, working out or watching Hallmark movies.