Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Astou Ndiaye-Diatta

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2016  –  Cameroon

Astou Ndiaye-Diatta is a former Senegalese professional women’s basketball player and current assistant coach at Utah State University in the United States.

A 1997 cum laude graduate of Southern Nazerene with a bachelor’s degree in business, Ndiaye-Diatta was named a Kodak/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association NAIA All-American as a senior and was a two-time NAIA First Team All-American. She also earned the Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a senior and was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year during her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

In 1999, Ndiaye-Diatta was selected in the fourth round (41st overall) of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft by the Detroit Shock. Ndiaye-Diatta played five seasons for the Shock, including winning the 2003 WNBA Championship. She went on to play for the Indiana Fever (2004), Houston Comets (2006) and Seattle Storm (2007). She also played professionally in Italy and France during her career.

Ndiaye-Diatta represented Senegal in international competition at the World Championships in Malaysia (1990), Germany (1998), China (2002) and Brazil (2006) and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Charlie Bell

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2016  –  Cameroon

Charlie Bell is a former American professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Bell attended Michigan State University, where he appeared in three NCAA Final Fours and won the NCAA Championship in 2000. Undrafted in the 2001 NBA Draft, Bell had brief stints with the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks before playing professionally in Italy and Spain from 2002-05. He won the Italian League with Benetton Treviso in 2002 and was named to the Spanish League First Team for the 2004-05 season as a member of Leche Rio Breogan Lugo.

Bell joined the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks for the 2005-06 season and recorded his first career triple-double on March 28, 2006. He went on to play for the Bucks through the 2009-10 season before joining the Golden State Warriors for the 2010-11 season. Bell last played in 2012 for Otto Caserta in Italy.

Lisa Berg

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2016  –  Venezuela
  • 2017  –  Vietnam
  • 2019  –  Burma
  • 2019  –  Kuwait
  • 2022  –  Cameroon
  • 2023  –  Mexico

Lisa Berg is currently a US Soccer Scout for the US Women’s Youth National Teams and she is coaching with Club Atlético Zacatepec and Academia Satélite Futsat in Mexico City, Mexico. She is on staff at the state and regional levels of the Olympic Development Program and she instructs coaching courses for the USSF and FUFA. She was the Technical Advisor for Uganda’s Women’s National Football Team from 2011-2016, coaching the senior women’s Ugandan national football team against Egypt and DR Congo in 2012 and the U20 squad against South Sudan in 2014. 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). She has the USSF A Coaching License, a M.S. in Exercise and Sport Psychology (Texas Tech University), and a B.S. in Kinesiology (University of Minnesota). She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist of the NSCA and has the Level 3 Goalkeeping Diploma from the NSCAA. She played NCAA Division I soccer at the University of Minnesota.

Together with the head coach of the Ugandan Women’s National Team, she co-founded Growing the Game for Girls in 2010. G3 has educated over 1,000 coaches and empowered over 10,000 girls through out all parts of Uganda and different parts of Africa. Earlier this year, she created the Leadership Experience Retreat in Mexico to empower girls to take up roles in leadership and use soccer as a platform to transform their community. In 2018, she partnered with the Fare Network to bring coaching education to schools of girls with hearing disabilities and physical disabilities in Uganda. In 2016, she spoke at the Girl Power in Play Women’s World Cup Symposium in Ottawa, Canada and attended the 2016 FIFA Women’s Football and Leadership Symposium in Zurich, Switzerland. Berg has been trained by UN Women and Valencia CF on sustainable practices for sport for development and ways to empower women through football programs. She has been a part of the espnW GSMP, SportUnited funded programs in Uganda with the International Sport Connection, and the Brazil soccer visitor exchange. She was an Envoy to Venezuela in 2016 and Vietnam in 2017.

She has the USSF A Coaching License, a M.S. in Exercise and Sport Psychology (Texas Tech University), and a B.S. in Kinesiology (University of Minnesota). She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist of the NSCA and has the Level 3 Goalkeeping Diploma from the NSCAA. She played NCAA Division I soccer at the University of Minnesota.

Together with the head coach of the Ugandan Women’s National Team, she co-founded Growing the Game for Girls in 2010. G3 has educated over 1,000 coaches and empowered over 10,000 girls through out all parts of Uganda and different parts of Africa. Earlier this year, she created the Leadership Experience Retreat in Mexico to empower girls to take up roles in leadership and use soccer as a platform to transform their community. In 2018, she partnered with the Fare Network to bring coaching education to schools of girls with hearing disabilities and physical disabilities in Uganda. In 2016, she spoke at the Girl Power in Play Women’s World Cup Symposium in Ottawa, Canada and attended the 2016 FIFA Women’s Football and Leadership Symposium in Zurich, Switzerland. Berg has been trained by UN Women and Valencia CF on sustainable practices for sport for development and ways to empower women through football programs.

She has been a part of the espnW GSMP, SportUnited funded programs in Uganda with the International Sport Connection, and the Brazil soccer visitor exchange. She was an Envoy to Venezuela in 2016 and Vietnam in 2017.

Staci Wilson

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  Peru
  • 2016  –  Senegal
  • 2018  –  Niger
  • 2019  –  Nigeria
  • 2019  –  Ethiopia
  • 2022  –  Cameroon
  • 2023  –  Mexico

Staci Wilson – former professional soccer player with extensive experience training athletes, teams and coaches. An NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach, she holds a US Soccer B Coaching License, and has teaching certifications in yoga and Pilates. She played professional soccer for the Carolina Courage and on the 1996 USWNT that won the first ever Olympic Gold Medal for Women’s Football. Currently Wilson coaches youth, high school in south Florida and has a soccer consulting business. She devotes free time to giving back to the sport through charitable organizations that target females and underserved communities.