Programs and Events

Join the YWCA Princeton on Thursday, September 13 at the Bedens Brook Club in Skillman to hear thoughts on women and leadership with guest speaker Bonnie St. John. Book sale and signing of Ms. St. John’s new book, How Great Women Lead, will follow the lunch.

Despite having her right leg amputated at age five, Bonnie St. John became the first African-American ever to win Olympic or Paralympic medals in ski racing, taking home a silver and two bronze medals in downhill events at the 1984 Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. In recognition of this historic achievement, Bonnie was quoted on millions of Starbucks coffee cups and was honored at the White House by President George W. Bush as part of the 2007 celebration of Black History Month.

Bonnie has achieved the highest levels of success in a variety of endeavors throughout her life. In addition to her success as a Paralympic athlete, she is the author of six books, a highly sought after keynote speaker, a television and radio personality, a business owner, and the single mother of a teenage daughter. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1986, and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, taking an M.Litt. in Economics. Upon her return to the United States, Bonnie was appointed by President Bill Clinton as a Director for Human Capital Issues on the White House National Economic Council.

Today, Bonnie travels the globe speaking, leading seminars, and researching her various writing projects. She frequently donates personal appearances to schools, homeless shelters, community groups, and other organizations in hundreds of locations while traveling for corporate clients. During the winter, she coaches disabled ski racers for the Adaptive Sports Foundation in Windham, New York. Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bonnie served as one of a handful of Paralympic Ambassadors who helped train our athletes going to China to be positive representatives of the United States. In 2010, Bonnie once again represented the USA as a member of President Obama’s official delegation to the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

The celebrated author of six books, Bonnie co-authored her #1 best-seller, How Great Women Lead, with her teenage daughter, Darcy. Together they traveled around the world on an extraordinary mother-daughter journey into the lives, and life lessons, of fascinating women leaders including Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, fashion designers, CEOs, women’s rights activists, and many more.

NBC Nightly News called Bonnie, "One of the five most inspiring women in America." She has been featured extensively in both national and international media including: The Today Show, CNN, CBS Morning News, NBC News, and The New York Times, as well as People, “O”, and Essence magazines, to name just a few.