Soccer icon Brandi Chastain has always focused on raising the bar in the sport of soccer.

A 16-year member of the U.S. Women’s National team with 192 caps, she is a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion and a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist. Her string of championship performances began in her teens when she helped lead her Archbishop Mitty High School team to three consecutive state championships. That followed with being named Freshman Play of the Year at the University of California-Berkeley before undergoing successful reconstructive surgery on both knees. After missing two seasons of soccer, she transferred to Santa Clara University and returned to championship form, leading her team to two Final Four NCAA appearances and being named ISAA Player of the Year in 1990.

Known for the penalty kick in the 1999 Women’s World Cup that redefined the U.S. Women’s soccer movement, Chastain is also an active advocate for Title IX, gender equality in sport and empowering young girls to find their voices through soccer. Now the Executive Director of the California Thorns FC, she is focused on developing our country’s future soccer stars, as well as inspiring young women to tackle any obstacle or opportunity presented to them.

Off the playing field, Chastain’s leadership and determination can be seen in the number of initiatives and causes that she actively supports. In 2005, she co-founded the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI), a nonprofit that engages female athletes in service in the communities that need the most support. She is an advocate for the Crohn’s, Colitis and IBD community, and has partnered with AbbVie to support families through the My IBD Game Plan initiative. She helped launch Safer Soccer in 2015 to promote the ban of heading a ball by kids under the age of 11, and has pledged to donate her brain for CTE research.

Chastain is also a public speaker, sports commentator, and author of the book It’s Not About the Bra: How to Play Hard, Play Fair and Put the Fun Back into Competitive Sports.