Cynthia Louise Germanotta (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Bissett; born August 30, 1954) is an American philanthropist, activist and entrepreneur. She is the president of the Born This Way Foundation, which she co-founded with her daughter

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

in 2012.

Early life, education, and career

Germanotta was born and raised in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

. Her parents were Paul Douglas Bissett, a

State Farm State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the la ...

insurance agent who sang with the McMechen Men's Chorus and the McMechen Methodist Choir, and Veronica Rose Ferrie. She is of Italian descent through her mother and Scottish, English and German descent through her father. She has an older brother, Paul, and a younger sister, Cheryl Ann. Germanotta graduated from John Marshall High School. She then attended

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

and earned a master's degree in

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. While at West Virginia University, Germanotta was a cheerleader and a member of

Chi Omega Chi Omega (, also known as ChiO) is a women's fraternity and a member of the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization of 26 women's fraternities. Chi Omega has 181 active collegiate chapters and approximately 240 alumnae chapte ...

. Germanotta worked for

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

as a telecommunications executive in sales and management.

Philanthropy and activism

In 2012, Germanotta and her daughter,

, co-founded the Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on inspiring youth, ending bullying, and building up communities. Later that year, the foundation was awarded the Family Online Safety Institute's Award for Outstanding Achievement. Under Germanotta's leadership, the foundation also received the National Association of School Psychologists' Special Friend to Children Award in 2013 and the Anti-Defamation League's No Place for Hate Making a Difference Award in 2015. Germanotta was honored by Boston

PFLAG PFLAG is the United States' first and largest organization uniting parents, families, and allies with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+). PFLAG National is the national organization, which provides support to ...

and by Dancing Classrooms for her advocacy regarding youth mental health. Germanotta is an advocate for the Women's Council on Heart Health for the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute and serves on the board of the Empowerment Initiative at the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. She also served on the Ladies Auxiliary Committee of The Columbus Citizens Foundation, for which she received the Humanitarian Award in 2015. As of 2016, she serves as a member of the Board of Governors for the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

. On June 10, 2018, Germanotta addressed the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

on behalf of the Born This Way Foundation and launched the United for Global Mental Health initiative. On May 20, 2019, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

' World Health Organization announced that Germanotta would be one of four new Goodwill Ambassadors, as the ambassador for mental health.

Personal life

Germanotta is married to Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur and restaurateur (owner of the Art Bird & Whiskey Bar in

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

), and lives on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. She previously lived in

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, 14th Street (Manhattan ...

. They own an Italian restaurant in New York called Joanne Trattoria and have two daughters, Stefani and Natali. Germanotta is

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and is a parishioner at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. In 2017, she appeared in the documentary '' Gaga: Five Foot Two''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germanotta, Cynthia 1954 births Living people Activists from West Virginia People from Wheeling, West Virginia American women philanthropists American Roman Catholics American women business executives Germanotta family Lady Gaga Mental health activists Organization founders Verizon Communications people West Virginia University alumni Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration alumni American people of Italian descent American people of French descent American people of French-Canadian descent Philanthropists from West Virginia