Powdered Feet with Alison Desir

Cool Soror with Rashan Ali

The Cool People feature of the week is a woman who is truly running for change: Alison Desir. A native of Englewood, New Jersey, she is leading the pack one step at a time.

Named by Women's Running as one of twenty women who are changing the sport of running and the world, Alison is the founder of Harlem Run (an NYC-based running movement) and Run 4 All Women (an initiative that has raised over $150,000 for Planned Parenthood), and just launched the podcast Finding Meaning (on the RUN), available on iTunes, Google Music, SoundCloud and Stitcher.

Alison is currently featured alongside American Ballet Theatre® principal ballerina Misty Copeland, world champion sprinter Natasha Hastings, professional stuntwoman Jessie Graff, and Chinese taekwondo champion and actress Zoe Zhang (Lanxin Zhang) in Under Armor’s latest global campaign, Unlike Any, which celebrates and honors the unprecedented achievements of female athletes that rise above gender comparisons and stand on their own as marvels of athletic prowess.

Passionate about community, mental health and fitness, Alison's nickname, “powdered feet,” comes from the Haitian Kreyol saying, which describes a person so active that you never see them, just the footprints of where they’ve been in powder. Alison started running distance after a period of depression, and, over the past 4 years, has been able to Find Meaning on the Run. When Alison is not running, she is working to resolve and speaking passionately about issues related to women and girls.

Social Media: www.alisonmdesir.com IG: @alisonmdesir TW: @alisonmdesir FB: Alison Mariella Desir