Burlington, VT, Monday, October 21, 2025 – The Kelly Brush Foundation Board of Directors today announced that Wing Pepper has been named the organization’s new Executive Director, after a lengthy national search. Pepper has served as Interim Director since May, has been a longtime supporter, and is a former board member. He takes over leadership as the organization celebrates its 20th year and focuses on major goals to expand access to adaptive sports.

“Our board is thrilled to have Wing assume leadership of KBF,” said board president Ian Sanderson. “He has been a long-term supporter of our mission and work, and immediately impressed us with his dedication when he joined the board last year. We have substantial ambitions for our next 20 years and are confident that Wing’s experience and leadership will guide the organization to achieve Kelly’s and the board’s vision of expanding access to adaptive sports.”

Pepper, a seasoned executive and entrepreneur, has led innovation programs that lead to new ventures for consumer brands including Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Cisco. He led a digital marketing team servicing Microsoft with an annual budget of $75M, before founding a healthcare startup accelerator backed by Blue Cross Blue Shield. More recently, Pepper founded a cooperative housing organization for people unable to age in their own homes. He is also a former non-profit board member at two organizations in California and is an alumnus of Middlebury College, having originally connected with Kelly Brush through the Middlebury alumni network ten years ago.

“Since joining as our interim director this spring, Wing has shown how invested he is in leading our team and expanding the ways we’re improving access to adaptive sports,” said KBF Founder Kelly Brush. “Wing’s been a long-time advisor to me and our organization, has seen the success of our work, and has shown himself to be an invaluable member of our team as we set ambitious goals for our next 20 years.”

Kelly Brush and her family established KBF after she sustained a spinal cord injury while competing in an NCAA alpine ski race in 2006 and learned about the barriers to accessing adaptive sports. In the organization’s first 20 years, KBF has awarded more than 2,100 adaptive equipment grants to people in 50 states, totalling more than $6.8M in direct funding. KBF has engaged more than 25,000 individuals with spinal cord injuries and provided more than 400 first-time adaptive sports experiences.

In the next 20 years, the KBF is focused on three strategic pillars in adaptive sports:
Empowering more people to participate in adaptive sports and ensuring that all people with disabilities have access to at least one piece of adaptive recreation equipment
Inspiring more people to participate in adaptive sports and ensuring that all potential participants know what sports are available, and the tools available to them
Transforming recreational spaces to improve access to those spaces for all adaptive sports participants

Additionally, Pepper will lead KBF’s ongoing work to promote ski racing safety through educational and grant programs that improve safety for thousands of ski racers.

“I am honored to be the next Executive Director of the Kelly Brush Foundation and feel lucky to build on the great work of our previous executive directors, Kelly, and the whole Brush family. I especially look forward to leading our amazing KBF team,” said Pepper. “Our primary focus will be to broaden our work nationally by relentlessly focusing on getting more people with disabilities active through our grant program, the Active Project digital platform, and on helping communities transform spaces to make recreation accessible to everyone. I’ve worked with Kelly for years and look forward to collaborating closely with her on our shared vision of ensuring access to recreation for every person with a disability.”