Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Region: Middle East

Lynette Woodard

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Saudi Arabia

Considered one of basketball’s greatest female players, Lynette Woodard excelled in the sport during her professional career in the 1980s and 1990s. A two-time Olympic Game basketball player, Woodard served as co-captain of the United States’ gold medal team in 1984. She became the first female member of the famed Harlem Globetrotters in 1985, and was named Big Eight Player of the Decade for the 1980s. In 1996 Woodard was named best female player in Big Eight Conference history, having set career records for scoring and rebounding. After a four-year retirement in the mid-1990s, Woodard returned to join the new Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), playing for the Cleveland Rockers and the Detroit Shock. A worldwide basketball star, Woodard is known equally well in her native United States as in Italy and Japan, where she has also played professionally.

Edwina Brown

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2007  –  Israel

Edwina Brown was born in Dallas, TX and shortly after moved to Lockhart, TX. As a natural athlete, Edwina grew up playing all sports but developed a love for basketball at an early age. In her senior year, she was named the Texas Class 4A Player of the Year and was awarded a basketball scholarship to The University of Texas at Austin.

Edwina had four successful seasons at The University of Texas. She holds a number of UT records including 1,705 career points, 517 career assists and 257 career steals, which is the only player to have at least 1,500 points, 500 assists, and 250 steals. She remains the only individual in school history to lead the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals in the same year, an accomplishment she achieved in both her junior and senior years.

As the 3rd overall pick in the 2000 WNBA Draft, Edwina played five years in the WNBA: Detroit Shock (2000-2002), Phoenix Mercury (2003-2004), Houston Comets (2006 post-season).

Her international experience includes playing in Austria (2001),
Lebanon (2002), Israel (2003-2005, 2007-2010), Spain (2005), and France (2006).

Her NCAA coaching experience includes her positions at the University of Texas (2011) as Strength & Conditioning Coach, at the University of Texas (2011-12) as Assistant Coach, at the University of New Mexico (2012-2014) as Assistant Coach, at the Texas Christian University (2014-2016) as Recruiting Coordinator, and at the Southern Methodist University (2016-2017) as Recruiting Coordinator.

Off the court, Edwina is pursuing her passion of giving back to the community and recently founded a non-profit, MAP’D Out (Mentoring Athletes and Providing Dreams). Raised by her mother and grandmother in Lockhart, TX, Edwina realizes the importance of an inspirational mentor and started MAP’D Out to lend a helping hand to youth in the community that exemplify sportsmanship, integrity and the desire to “MAP OUT” their future goals.

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Edwina also acts as a consultant to coaches that aspire in growing their knowledge and platform in their specific craft. She recently grounded the idea of “Whiteboard Exchange” in which she relays and mentors those with the same vision of growing our community through sport.

Ebony Hoffman

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2009  –  Lebanon
  • 2013  –  Thailand
  • 2014  –  South Africa
  • 2014  –  Rwanda
  • 2015  –  Botswana
  • 2015  –  Mozambique
  • 2015  –  South Africa

Ebony Hoffman (born in 1982), played basketball at USC before being drafted by the Indiana Fever in the 1st round of the 2004 WNBA Draft. Hoffman left Indiana in 2011 when she moved to play for the Los Angeles Sparks. Hoffman spent her final WNBA season with the Connecticut Sun in 2014. Across her 11 seasons, Hoffman started 172 games, averaging 5.8 points per game.

From 2013, Hoffman has been the President and CEO of EbHoops Clinics, an organization geared towards coaching young kids interested in basketball. Hoffman is also currently Assistant Basketball Coach at Windward School in the greater Los Angeles area.

Donna Orender

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2009  –  Lebanon

Donna was recruited by Adam Silver to lead the WNBA in its most vulnerable time. She served 6 years as the President/Commissioner of the league, during which time she solidified its base and led double digit growth in all key business metrics.

Orender is a highly respected corporate business leader having led growth and innovation in several high-profile companies. She has been recognized as one of the top 10 Most Powerful Women in Sports and one of Newsweeks100 most Influential people in the business of sports and is a best-selling author with her 2018 release of Wowsdom! the Girl’s Guide to the Positive and the Possible.

In addition, she serves on the nominating and compensation committees for the V Foundation for Cancer Research board, was elected to the executive committee of Maccabi USA and contributes to the boards of the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at UCF, UNF Brooks School of Health, Co-Chairs the UJA Sports for Youth Initiative and a founding member of the board of W.O.M.E.N, a mentoring organization for young women capable of reaching the C-suite. She has also been a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices, traveling to India to help mentor young women entrepreneurs.

Donna has been a recipient of the March of Dimes Sports Leadership Award and was honored by the UJA-Federation of New York’s Entertainment, Media and Communications Division for her dedication to the community. A Hall of Fame athlete at Queens College, her business acumen and experience make her a sought-after speaker on topics such as leadership, teamwork, motivation and gender/diversity issues.

Carla McGhee

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2009  –  Qatar

Carla McGhee enters her first year as a member of the Nevada women’s basketball staff. McGhee, who had a Hall of Fame career at Tennessee before playing five seasons in the WNBA, will assist with team travel, coordinating camps and academics and manage other operational duties for the Wolf Pack.

McGhee brings an impressive basketball résumé to Nevada. She has spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach in the SEC, the last two at Auburn and previously at South Carolina. She also has experience as a consultant and player personnel director with the WNBA, in addition to her playing career in the league from 1998-2003. She also spent two seasons as a sideline reporter for ESPN in addition to previous coaching spots at Temple and Auburn.

Her professional career was preceded by a standout career at Tennessee for legendary coach Pat Summit. While with the Lady Vols from 1986-90, McGhee and the team collected national championships in 1987 and 1989. McGhee was inducted into the Lady Vol Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2007.

Altogether, McGhee has more than eight years of experience as a collegiate coach and WNBA administrator, along with her 13-year professional career as a player that includes a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

McGhee then played professionally for teams in Germany, France, Turkey, South Korea, Spain, Italy and Greece for six years. With the start of professional leagues in the United States, she earned a spot on the Atlanta Glory of the ABL where she played from 1996 to 1998. From there, she went on to spend five years with the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle.

McGhee’s playing experience includes a lengthy stint in the USA Basketball organization, beginning with the 1987 Sports Festival. She went on to participate in the 1993 World Qualifying, 1994 World Championship and Goodwill Games, the 1995 Pan American Games and the 1996 Olympics. McGhee got her coaching start at Temple during the 2003-04 season when she helped the Owls to an Atlantic 10 Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance. She played an integral role in developing Candace Dupree into a first round pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft, the first such selection in Temple’s history.

Becky Bonner

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Kazakhstan
  • 2008  –  Kyrgyzstan
  • 2013  –  Ukraine
  • 2014  –  Sri Lanka
  • 2015  –  Saudi Arabia

Becky Bonner enters her first season as Director of Basketball Operations for the University of Louisville women’s basketball program. Bonner joined Walz after spending the last season as the Assistant Director of Operations at the University of Maryland.

At Maryland, Bonner worked with marketing and promotions, as well as facilitating the day-to-day operations of the team, which included supervising the team’s managers.

Bonner joined the Maryland staff after a successful stint playing professional basketball in Sweden and after a four-year career in collegiate basketball.

Bonner began her collegiate playing career at Stanford University, helping the Cardinal win the 2002 Pac-10 Championship. She transferred to Boston University after her sophomore year and started in all 30 games of the 2003-04 season. She earned third team All-America East Conference honors, after averaging 14.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game her junior year. She set the single-season school record with 72 three-pointers, while shooting 42.9 percent from behind the arc.

In her two seasons with the Terriers, Bonner connected on 113 three-pointers, which ranks fourth in the career annuals and ranks second all-time with a 37.3 career three-point shooting percentage.

After graduation from Boston University in 2005, Bonner spent the summer working for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats minor league baseball team before being contracted to play with Sweden’s Norrkoping.

Bonner is a native of Concord, N.H. She was a third team Parade All-American at Concord High School and was selected her home state’s Gatorade Player of the Year. In her junior year, she averaged a triple-double with 28.4 points, 16.0 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game while earning All-American honors from Street & Smith’s that year.

Bonner earned a degree in communications from Boston University. She is the younger sister of Matt Bonner who is a member of the 2007 NBA Champions, the San Antonio Spurs. Her younger brother, Luke, will be a junior at UMass where he is a member of the basketball team.

Andrea Stinson

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2005  –  Algeria
  • 2009  –  Bahrain
  • 2011  –  Jordan

Andrea is considered by many to be the best female player ever from North Carolina. At North Mecklenburg High School, she led her team to two State Championships, and was named player of the year by the High School Association, and Miss Basketball by The Charlotte Observer. She was named the USA Today National Player of the year.

Andrea won AAU National Championships as a ninth grader, and again her junior year when she was MVP (Charlotte Monarchs, now Royals). At NC State she scored 2136 points and was All-Conference and All American.

As a professional she played for the WNBA Charlotte Sting and the Detroit Shock, as well teams in Italy, Turkey, and France. She was a Four Time Italian League All-Star.

Andrea also played on USA Basketball National Teams, participating in the Pan American games, and winning a gold medal in the Jones Cups.

Andrea has been an active participant in The Sports United Envoy Program, traveling to Africa and the Middle East to conduct clinics and events for youth.

After retiring as a player Andrea became a high school coach in NC, and now is the coach at Newton-Conover High School.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Track & Field

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  Palestinian Territories

Born in 1962, in East St. Louis, IL, Jackie came from very humble beginnings but despite the at times, very strained conditions she describes her early home life as being full of love, principle and discipline. Engrained values have served Jackie well both on and on the field through her life. She has been described by the sports media as one of the warmest, most even-tempered, grace-led persons in all of athletics.

Having been dubbed ‘Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century’ by Sports Illustrated, Jackie Joyner Kersee’s athletic accomplishments are literally second to none. By the conclusion of her career in the heptathlon and long jump events she had amassed six Olympic medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) and four World Champion titles over four consecutive Olympic Games. Jackie was the first woman in history to earn more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon and today, over 20 years later, she still holds the world heptathlon record of 7,291 points. She continues to hold the Olympic and national records in the long jump and her 1994 performance in the long jump remains the second longest in history.

In addition to heptathlon and long jump, Jackie was a world class 100m and 200m runner and, after a decorated All-American career in basketball at UCLA, she eventually played professional basketball for a short time. Jackie’s athletic accomplishments have been well documented and remain some of the best ever across all of sports. Less well know are her tireless efforts and remarkable accomplishments off the field as a philanthropist and an advocate for children’s education, health issues (in particular asthma from which she has suffered throughout her life), racial equality, social reform and women’s rights.

Kayla Jeter

Volleyball

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  United Arab Emirates

Beginning her volleyball career at Solon Highschool in Ohio, Kayla Jeter was rated No. 67 on the PrepVolleyball.com Senior Aces list and was named to the AVCA High School Senior All-America Team. During her four years at Solon, the team reached the playoffs in all four seasons, nabbing district championship crowns each year, conference titles in the final three and a trip to the state tournament as regional champions in 2006.

Jeter went on to a play as a Lady Vol at the University of Tennessee from 2008-2012. During her career at UT, Jeter accumulated numerous honors and awards, including 2011 Preseason All-SEC Team, 2011 SEC Community Service Award, 2010 AVCA All-America Honorable Mention, 2010 AVCA All-South Region, 2010 First Team All-SEC, and 2009 Second Team All-SEC.

In 2012, Jeter graduated from UT with a major in Sociology and a minor in Gerontology.

Katie Charles

Volleyball

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  United Arab Emirates

Hired in January 2008, Katie Charles took over as the Kenyon Ladies’ head coach after spending one year as the director of volleyball operations at the University of Georgia. Prior to that, she worked as an assistant coach at Dartmouth College for one season (2006-07) and as an assistant coach with both the men’s and women’s teams at Endicott College for one season (2005-06).

Charged with rebuilding the program, Charles laid the foundation over her first two seasons during which began to pay off in 2010 when Kenyon posted a 13-win season — its best mark in six years. At the conclusion of the season, three members of the 2010 recruiting class received All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors marking the first time since 2000 multiple Ladies claimed the accolade. The Ladies built upon that success in 2011 with a 14-win campaign that included eight NCAC victories — the most ever by a Kenyon team.

To date, she has developed players that have totaled eight all-conference selections and one NCAC Newcomer of the Year honoree.

A native of Lancaster, Pa., Charles is a 2005 graduate of Juniata College with a Bachelor of Arts in Peace Studies, Politics, and Economics. While at Juniata, she played four seasons of volleyball for the Eagles, who made three final four appearances during her time and captured the 2004 NCAA national championship. Charles was a two-time all-conference selection and was named both an all-region and All-America player in 2003. She finished her collegiate career with 888 kills, a hitting percentage of .302, 450 digs, and 130 blocks in 100 matches played.