Frank Stephens

Author, Actor, and Advocate
Board Member, Global Down Syndrome Foundation

Frank Stephens is an active spokesman for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation and the recipient of GLOBAL’s highest honor, the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award. He is also a long-time member of the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Virginia. An accomplished public speaker, Frank has been invited all over North America and Europe promoting inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Frank is also an accomplished actor. As a member of his local theater group known as Artstream, Frank has acted in various original plays over the last ten years. Frank also had a feature role in the film Touched by Grace and has made occasional guest appearances on the Emmy Award winning A&E reality show, Born This Way.

Frank’s articles have been featured in publications like The New York Times, London Daily Mail, and The Huffington Post. He contributed to Amazon bestseller, Stand Up, which featured stories of outstanding young advocates.

In 2017, Frank testified on behalf of GLOBAL at the first U.S. Congressional hearing on the importance of Down syndrome research, which helped result in the first significant increase in Down syndrome funding from the National Institutes of Health in nearly 20 years. His famous line, “If you take one thing away from today, know this: I am a man with Down syndrome and my life is worth living,” received the first-ever standing ovation at a congressional hearing and his testimony on C-Span went viral receiving over 200M views.

Frank has been interviewed on behalf of GLOBAL and many other disability organizations by national outlets including BBC, Fox News, CNN, and Inside Edition.