National President • Alex Otte
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National President, Alex Otte
• A Glance at Alex's First Year
The year 2021 was a pivotal year for MADD. On January 1, Alex Otte became the youngest National President in the organization’s history. At 24 years old, Alex had already been heavily involved with MADD following a boating under the influence crash that nearly killed her when she was just 13. Her election to the position represented a profound desire to extend MADD’s reach to new audiences and recognize the hundreds of thousands of injured victims MADD serves. As MADD National President, Alex led a “War Room” of victims and survivors who achieved what seemed an insurmountable victory: the passage of the Honoring the Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate (HALT) Drunk Driving Act. The group courageously shared their stories and appealed to their elected representatives in Congress to pass this law requiring the federal government to establish an auto safety standard for passive impaired driving prevention technology in all new cars. Alex was at the White House on November 15 2021, when the HALT Act was signed into law as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The HALT Act set a three-year deadline for the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish the safety standard, followed by two
to three more years for new cars to come equipped with impaired driving prevention systems. The HALT Act signing was the second White House visit for Alex. Four months earlier, on July 21 2021, she joined a coalition of victim services organizations at the White House to watch the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fix as it was signed into law. The law expanded the sources of funding for VOCA, which provides essential grants to victim services organizations, like MADD, to provide supportive services to crime victims. These funds helped MADD provide a service to a victim of impaired driving every 4 minutes in 2021.
Throughout the year, Alex delivered her inspiring message of survival and hope for a future when no one will ever become a victim of someone else’s choice to drive while impaired by alcohol or other drugs. She walked with victims and survivors at Walk Like MADD events and encouraged enforcement of drunk and drug-impaired driving laws at Law Enforcement Recognition ceremonies. As the lead spokesperson for MADD, Alex was interviewed by major broadcast networks and news outlets across the country, including The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, ESPN and The Washington Post.
She delivered her message from coast to coast, honoring the lives of victims who were senselessly taken and lives of survivors who are forever changed. “As I travel across the country to meet so many victims, survivors and families who have been impacted by this 100% preventable crime, I am in awe,” Alex says. “I am amazed and indebted to all of them for their willingness to show up, on the good days and the bad, to turn their passion into purpose and to fight for a world in which our stories won’t become anyone else’s story.”
" She delivered her message from coast to coast, honoring the lives of victims who were senselessly taken and lives of survivors who are forever changed."
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Annual Report • 2021
Mothers Against Drunk Driving ®
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