We’re proud to honor our Executive Director and Co-Founder, Tommie Storms, with the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the American Association of AdaptED Sports Programs at the 2024 ASPIRE Awards!
It is with our deepest appreciation and respect that we recognize Tommie Storm’s vision, lifelong work, passion and the legacy she has built for AAASP – Tommie was Co-Founder of the organization in 1996, and has been CFO, and now Executive Director over her 28 year career. This Lightbearer Award is being presented for unparalleled vision, leadership and advocacy ensuring the inclusion of athletes with physical disabilities in school-based sports.
Tommie Storms drives the business operations of the organization. Through her enterprising nature she has helped propel AAASP to a position of prominence and recognition in Georgia and nationally. She is also a respected speaker in the field of disability sports, traveling extensively throughout the United States to raise awareness.
Having recruited Storms as a volunteer while leading Georgia’s first and only (at that time) school-based adapted sports programs, Bev Vaughn grew to know of Storms’ business aptitude. In 1995, Vaughn shared her vision with Storms of creating additional adapted sports programs throughout school districts in the state based on the DeKalb School Districts model, which was named the model for the nation by the Atlanta Paralympic Youth and Education Committee. Storms knew that to achieve this, she would need to establish a non-profit organization, acquire funding for operations and establish a membership structure for school’s districts. Storms penned the original business plan based on Vaughn’s vision and ideas. This convergence led to the founding of AAASP as the organizational vehicle by which the mission of providing education-based adapted sports for America’s physically disabled students would evolve.
Storms’ role as co–founder would be developing the organization’s business component by directing operations, creating community partnerships and acquiring funding for the statewide programs. Balancing her position as an academic director at an Atlanta college, with her conviction to push forth the AAASP vision, Storms’ developed statewide needs assessments for staged growth. This plan would entail progressing from one school system throughout Georgia, as well as developing national networks of statewide school-based adapted sports programs. This is the foundation for what is now known as Project ASPIRE.
During the early years of AAASP, Storms worked on the Volunteer Placement Steering Committee in preparation for the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta. In 1998, Storms was a member of the Planning Committee for Initiative 2000, a national torch run across the country to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the ADA, the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games and the approaching millennium.
Storms background also includes twenty-five years as a successful broadcaster, executive producer and program manager which led to her recruitment by the Department of Music Entertainment Management at the Art Institute of Atlanta from 1988 to 1997. From an instructor position, she was promoted to Assistant Director and then Director. As Director, she was responsible for running the largest academic department at the college. Concurrent to teaching, Storms owned a company that produced commercial training videos throughout the Southeast.
Storms has a Bachelor of Arts from Limestone College, Gaffney, South Carolina, where she served as president of Alpha Psi Omega, Tau Psi Chapter. She is also an NCPT certified paralegal and received her certification as a mediator from the Justice Center of Atlanta.