Andrea Montalbano

Andrea Montalbano is a writer, advocate, coach, and soccer player. She grew up playing soccer in Miami and took that love to Harvard, where she was a cocaptain and a Hall of Famer. She then attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, kicking off a long career at NBC News as a writer, producer, and supervising producer for the Today show. Andrea left broadcast journalism to write books and authored Breakaway in 2010. Determined to create a series for girls, she spent the next few years writing the Soccer Sisters novels. Off the field, Andrea is an activist for using sports for social change, and has represented the U.S. government abroad to teach the importance of sports for girls. She is a founder of the Girls of Armenia Leadership Soccer charity and is also on several boards for Coaches Across Continents, a global leader in education through sports. She has enjoyed coaching her own two children on local club teams and lives with them and her husband, Diron Jebejian, outside New York City.