Lauren Costabile

Founder and Executive Director

Lauren Costabile is the Founder and Executive Director of Hearts of Joy International, a non profit that provides life saving heart surgeries for individuals with Down syndrome. A New Jersey native, Lauren is a Speaker and fierce advocate for those with Down syndrome. Lauren studied recreational therapy in college and during the pandemic went back to school to study to be a Child Life Special. She has over 13 years of experience working with children with special needs and is deeply passionate about serving this population and showing the world the immense gift that these children are.

After traveling to Uganda, East Africa in 2017, she witnessed firsthand how individuals with Down syndrome are disregarded and seen as a burden to society. As a result, these children are not receiving proper medical care and therefore are dying. This pierced Lauren’s heart and she was inspired to create a program exclusively for children with Down syndrome to receive proper cardiac treatment. In 2018, Hearts of Joy International was born. Lauren also counsels and provides education about Down syndrome and heart defects to families, communities and orphanages around the world. She believes that no matter what country you are born in or what your life circumstances are, every child deserves an equal chance at a happy and healthy life and will never stop fighting to make that possible!