FLUSHING, N.Y. (May 14, 2019) - A global expert in adaptive sports opportunities, Ryan Martin was announced as the CUNYAC's Advisor for Inclusive Sports on Tuesday.

A press conference will be held Saturday (May 18) at 1 p.m. to formally introduce Martin at Fitzgerald Gymnasium at Queens College. This will take place in conjunction with the third CUNY Wheelchair Basketball Clinic this year, with other significant announcements forthcoming.

"I am thrilled to be joining the CUNY Athletic Conference and their intercollegiate inclusive sports initiative," Martin said. "There is a tremendous potential to create a world-class adaptive sports program in the heart of New York City."

"We are proud to have Ryan join our CUNY Athletics team," quoted CUNY Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Christopher Rosa. "Ryan is a national leader in inclusive athletics and we are grateful to be able to leverage his expertise to develop truly inclusive intercollegiate athletic opportunities for CUNY's more than 11,000 students with disabilities."

In December 2017, the CUNYAC released a groundbreaking inclusive and adaptive sports platform to educate student-athletes with disabilities about the great opportunities to play competitive sports within the city's five boroughs.

Through the work of Executive Director Zak Ivkovic, the CUNYAC developed relationships with U.S. Paralympics, the Wheelchair Sports Federation, Achilles International, Row New York, Garden Empire Volleyball Association and the United States Tennis Association and Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to launch the initiative.

From that, Martin was brought onboard to help in organizing and building CUNY's more focused effort around growing wheelchair basketball, as none exists east of Edinboro, Pa.

In order to lead the strategic planning process, Martin will join the team at the CUNY Learning Disabilities Project at Hostos Community College.

Because of its leadership in advancing the principles of Universal Design in Learning (UDL) at CUNY, the CUNY LD Project will serve as the perfect home for strategic planning around inclusive athletics.

"We are grateful to partner with the Learning Disabilities Project at Hostos Community College in this strategic planning effort," Rosa added. "The LD Project at Hostos is a leader in universal program design and we are fortunate to be able to leverage their insights into UDL principles to develop inclusive athletics programs that are accessible for the most CUNY students."

"Our project has been very successful in supporting faculty and disability services professionals to develop curricula and instruction around universal design principles," Hostos Director of the Accessibility Resource Center and CUNY LD project leader Raymond Perez said. "We are excited to work with Ryan to apply these same UDL principles in the design of co-curricular programs in general, and intercollegiate athletics in particular."

Martin has also aided CUNY in teaching wheelchair basketball to the local youths around New York City, by ways of the CUNY Wheelchair Basketball Clinic. These camps have made stops at Hostos Community College and College of Staten Island, and will take place at Queens College on Saturday.

Martin founded the Ryan Martin Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that helps youth and adult athletes with disabilities live independent, impassioned, productive and full lives through sports training, mentoring and education.

Martin was born with Spina Bifida and lost both of his legs at the age of two. He went on to defy the odds and played wheelchair basketball collegiately for Southwest Minnesota State University, before going to play professionally in Europe. He currently plays for the New York Rollin' Knicks of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.