Please share a bit of background about yourself.

 

As a former collegiate soccer player and co-captain of the Amherst Women's Soccer team, soccer has remained a consistent thread throughout my life. After graduating college, I coached high school and middle school soccer before leaving sports altogether to pursue a career in advertising. I began my professional journey in Boston, and it wasn't until many years later, after moving to Chicago to work as a brand strategist, that I found my way back to the sport. In my current role, I combine my marketing expertise honed through many years building iconic brands, with my lifelong love of the game.

 

 

What do you love about your current job?

 

One of the most rewarding aspects of my role is my ability to impact culture. My expectation is that when we look back 5…10…20 years from now we will see a sport that has flourished and matured in the United States. There is something very unique about being on a rocket ship that’s about to take off and helping facilitate the growth of a sport that is boundless. There’s no playbook. We take the best of what has been successful from other leagues, teams, even other industries. We create, experiment, and iterate to make something completely unique and resonant for the next generation and hopefully generations to come. I don’t think a lot of people can say that about their jobs.

 

 

What advice would you give to women seeking a position in the sports industry?

 

Be intentional. I think a common mistake among high performing (and therefore in-demand) young women is seeking a new role as a means to leave a suboptimal situation as opposed to leveraging those occasions to intentionally propel them in the direction of a longer-term professional goal or broader, higher-order life objective. I often recommend to my mentees or younger employees that they goal map the next 20+ years. It can be very challenging for people to do, but even just going through the exercise starts to paint a picture of how the decision immediately in front of them can open doors and create future opportunities, or conversely, may limit them.

 

 

How do you see women in sport growing in the future? What would you like to see?

 

During my time in sports, I have seen a groundswell of women entering the field and occupying prominent leadership roles. In addition to seeing this trend continue, one thing that gets me excited for the future, are women showing up to the workplace as their authentic selves. As a young woman in the workforce, I had a very one-dimensional view of what it looked like to be a successful woman in business. As a result, I often found myself obscuring certain aspects of my personality or personal life to fit my perception of that mold. Fast forward to today, I now have many different female role models and colleagues with vastly different professional styles. This has in-turn fueled my confidence and given me permission so to speak to have different, more genuine facets of myself show up in the workplace.