Dave Breen '88

Alumni Achievement Award Winner

• Retired President/CEO, Special Olympics Illinois; Bloomington
• Major: Recreation Program Management

David Breen earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation management from Illinois State and has spent his career in service of others. In 2023, he retired as president and CEO of Special Olympics Illinois after serving over a decade in the role. Prior to serving as CEO, he served as vice president of area management.  

In 1998, Breen created the first Special Olympics Medfest, a program that offers free sports physicals for students. Medfest is now fostered in 30 countries worldwide.

With Breen’s leadership, Special Olympics Illinois successfully partnered with the Illinois High School Association to increase the number of Unified Champion Schools and Unified State Championships in multiple sports. The program aims to create socially unified schools through inclusive sports activities and teams.

In 2015, Breen created the first Special Olympics Capitol Hill Day in Springfield, Illinois. The event hosted a Law Enforcement Torch Run, bringing together 60 leading athletes, and elected representatives in cooperation with pro-bono lobbyists. 2015 also saw Breen leading the effort to create the Illinois Lottery Ticket “Go for the Gold” program, which has generated over $8 million for Special Olympics.

In 2018, Breen organized the 50th anniversary celebration of the Special Olympics and the first Unified Cup, a soccer tournament that most recently welcomed over 300 footballers from more than 20 nations to its field.

Breen has also kept Illinois State as the annual home of the Summer Games, with the campus welcoming more than 3,000 eager athletes and hundreds of volunteers every June.