Cynthia Germanotta

Cynthia Louise Germanotta (née Bissett; born August 30, 1954) is an American philanthropist and activist. She is the president of the Born This Way Foundation, which she co-founded with her daughter, Lady Gaga, in 2012.

Germanotta was born and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia. Her parents are Paul Douglas Bissett and Veronica Rose Ferrie. She has an older brother, Paul, and a younger sister, Cheryl Ann. Germanotta attended West Virginia University and earned a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University.

Germanotta worked for Verizon as a telecommunications executive in sales and management.

In 2012, Germanotta and her daughter, Lady Gaga, 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 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. 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.

On June 10, 2018, Germanotta addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Born This Way Foundation and launched the United for Global Mental Health initiative.

On May 20, 2019, the United Nations' World Health Organization announced that Germanotta would be one of four new Goodwill Ambassadors, as the ambassador for mental health.

Germanotta is married to Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur and restaurateur, and lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She previously lived in West Village. Germanotta and her husband own an Italian restaurant in New York called Joanne Trattoria. They have two daughters, Stefani and Natali. Germanotta is Catholic and is a parishioner at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.

In 2017, she appeared in the documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.