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Why She’s Fearless
Sabrina Cohen saw her whole life change on Halloween night in 1992 after leaving a party with friends. All it took was being a passenger in a car, that decided to suddenly join in on a drag race, for her life to be completely altered. The car crashed hitting a tree, with Sabrina breaking her C3-5 vertebrae on impact.
Injured at the young age of 14, Sabrina had an early start honing her advocacy skills. One of the first ways she became an advocate was speaking at her high school and other schools on the power of saying “no” to bad decisions. After high school, she went on to graduate with degrees in Psychology and Advertising from the University of Miami and received another degree in Ad Writing from the Miami Ad School. She started her ad agency, SabCo Productions, in 2003.
But despite her success, something was missing from Sabrina’s life – advocacy. It took listening to a speech on stem cell research that inspired her to found the Sabrina Cohen Foundation in 2006. Her foundation’s mission is to raise money for stem cell research. Over the years, thanks to Sabrina’s celebrity connections, she’s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for research. She hosted hundreds of fundraisers as well, like the annual CELLebrity Doctors Calendar event.
Outside of fundraising, the Sabrina Cohen Foundation helps people exercise again and access the beach. In 2012, Sabrina approached the City of Miami to finally build an accessible beach. In 2014, the city unanimously approved her plan for not only a fully accessible beach at Oceanside Park, but also an adaptive playground for kids with disabilities nearby.
Since the beach was constructed in 2016, Sabrina’s foundation has invited thousands of people to their adaptive beach days, helping show people disabilities the fun that can still be enjoyed at the beach. On these days, they provide mats for the sand, specialized beach wheelchairs and over 100 volunteers pitch in to help people with disabilities in anyway they need, from transfers to getting their beach wheelchair into the water.
What’s Next?
Never satisfied, Sabrina wanted more for the accessible beach and playground they created: She wanted an accessible fitness center to be built nearby that beachgoers and locals with disabilities could enjoy, as well as provide a great space for storing adaptive beach equipment. In 2021, the City of Miami approved $2.5 million to help build this dream 27,000 sq. ft. facility. It will offer daily physical fitness programs, a rooftop pool with aqua therapy and a fully accessible beachside program.
In addition to her philanthropic work, Sabrina became a real estate agent in 2016, helping sell condos, million dollar homes and accessible properties in the Miami-area. She specializes in universal design, accessible living and smart homes.
— The Sabrina Cohen Foundation
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