Lisa Berg

Lisa Berg is a professional soccer coach, development strategist, talent scout, and an international instructor who consults with federations and organizations around the world to develop the lives of women and girls through sport.

Berg has over 20 years of coaching experience and she has taught coaching courses in more than 20 countries. She holds the USSF A Coaching License, CONCACAF D License, M.S. in Exercise and Sport Psychology (Texas Tech University), and B.S. in Kinesiology (University of Minnesota). She earned the NSCAA Level 3 Goalkeeping Diploma, USC Director of Coaching Diploma, USC Performance Analysis Diploma, and is a CSCS from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Berg is currently located in Mexico City, Mexico. She is a former scout for the FMF assisting with talent identification for the Seleccion Nacional Mexicana. In her role, she identified women players for all categories of the Mexican National Teams, she connected players to professional teams, mentored female coaches, and worked with youth soccer academies. She assisted with evaluations of the FMF’s FIFA Academia Femenil Project to identify players for the U15 and U17 youth national teams. She continues to work with She Wins a Mexican non-profit and she travels globally to execute her work to empower women and girls globally through education, consulting, and coaching.

Berg has served as an Envoy for the US Department of State’s Sports Diplomacy program in Mexico (2023), Cameroon (2022), Burma (2019), Kuwait (2019), Vietnam (2017), and Venezuela (2016). She co-founded Growing the Game for Girls in 2010 which handles projects of the 501c3 non-profit ISC Outreach, Inc. in the following countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Egypt, Zanzibar, Swaziland, Rwanda, South Sudan, Brazil, and Mexico. The aim is to use grassroot sport clinics, courses, and workshops to reach at-risk and disadvantaged communities of children and women including those with deafness and disabilities.

Berg is the Head Coach in the Midwest ODP Regional Program. She served as the Girls’ Technical Director of Dakota Olympic Development Program (ODP) from 2018-2020. She has instructed coaching courses for MYSA, WYSA, USSF, SFA (Swaziland), and FUFA (Uganda). She previously worked with Salvo Soccer Club in Minnesota as their Director of Athletic Development, goalkeeper trainer, and head coach of their top girls and boys teams. She has served as an assistant women’s soccer coach at Bethel University (DIV III), Arkansas State University (DIV I), and University of MN (DIV I) and has brought each program to post-season play. She played NCAA Division I soccer at the University of Minnesota, T.C. from 2002-2005. She was a former US Soccer Talent Scout and works alongside other federations to establish scouting structures and strategies.

In 2011-2015, she was the Technical Advisor for Uganda’s Women’s National Football Team and served as the assistant coach during the 2012 Olympic Qualifiers against Egypt and DR Congo and the 2014 U20 Women’s World Cup Qualifiers against South Sudan. In addition to her technical roles with the Ugandan National Team, she led the first ever CAF C License Course in Uganda creating curriculum, mentoring instructors and candidates, and overseeing the evaluation and certification of top professional and national team coaches in Uganda. Lisa was part of the 2013 launch of the immensely successful Airtel Rising Stars Tournament in Uganda which finds new talents to feature in their U17 National Teams. She advocated for the inclusion of more girls teams and proper scouting of youth players to overcome age-cheating and tribalism. Berg continues to mentor former national team players to become the up and coming leaders of the future. She has created a mentoring program that exposes professional players and national team stars to careers in sport. Through workshops and one on one mentoring, these players become leaders in sport.

She has been a presenter at multiple events promoting sport for development advocating for gender equality hosted by CONCACAF, UNWomen, Valencia FC, and Women Deliver. She has also attended conferences and symposiums hosted by FIFA, the US Olympic Committee, and CONCACAF. She has been a key presenter at the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) Winter Coaching Symposium. In addition to these speaking appearances, she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Texas Tech University.