Founders

Girls on the Run of Maricopa County was founded in March of 2004 by three passionate and dedicated women

Girls on the Run of Maricopa County Founders

Ashley Fenzl Crossman received her doctorate in sociology from Arizona State University where her main areas of research were in adolescent obesity, adolescent substance use, self-esteem, and parent-child relationships. Ashley spent much of her adolescence and early adulthood with a poor body image and low self-esteem. That all changed when she ran her first marathon at 22 years of age and finally saw her body not for what it looked like, but what it was capable of achieving. Ashley is very passionate about bringing this feeling of self-satisfaction to young girls and empowering them to become strong, healthy, and confident young women. Through the process of founding, coaching, and serving on the Board of Directors for Girls on the Run of Maricopa County, Ashley realized that many of these issues are not only relevant to adolescents, but they are relevant to women of all ages. She has since started coaching women of all abilities to train for running events from 5Ks to Marathons. Her company, She Runs Strong, incorporates tools for women to empower themselves not only in their running, but in all areas of their lives.
- Email Ashley

Cathy Kent-Murtaugh is a Registered Nurse with a BA in Anthropology and has started graduate course work in Psychology. She has been running competitively since age 13. She held highschool track records for the mile, participated in various runs for community causes and has completed three marathons. Cathy volunteered for Girls on the Run of the Grand Valley (Grand Junction, CO). Her experiences with GOTR helped her to rediscover her niche in the world and inspired her to change her career focus. Currently, Cathy works with children and adolescents in a behavioral health setting. She teaches pre-teen and teenage girls skills to help them cope with body image and self-esteem issues, at times relying on her own past battles with an eating disorder and
depression to encourage them to find their unique strengths to help them, just as she and many of the Girls on the Run® girls did with running. Cathy is dedicated to empowering girls to become healthy women.

Sharon Baltmanis McLaughlin Sharon McLaughlin currently teaches Health, Wellness and Exercise Science at Mesa Community College. She has a master’s degree in Sports Health Care and is a certified athletic trainer and strength and conditioning specialist. Having seen her cousin benefit from the program in Michigan, Sharon wanted to help bring the program to Arizona. She is very passionate about the program’s method of teaching girls to break out of the “Girl Box” (the idea that girls need to look and act a certain way). Having spent year trapped in the Girl Box herself, Sharon wants to help young girls to grow up respecting themselves and avoiding battles with low self-esteem and poor body image. In college Sharon first learned the empowering feeling that running can provide, and this was reiterated when she completed her first marathon. She hopes that she can help girls to discover all the positive things running can bring.
- Email Sharon