Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Region: South & Central Asia

Colleen Callahan

Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2023  –  Sri Lanka

Originally from Ventnor City, New Jersey. Swimming has been my passion since the age of 4, leading me to compete as a Division 1 swimmer at the University of Tennessee, where I majored in Nutrition Sciences. Later, I pursued a Master’s Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson College in Boston, MA. While living in Boston, I also ran the Boston Marathon! For 4 years, I worked as a speech language pathologist before transitioning to my current role, managing a renewal sales team at a tech startup. Currently, I reside in Denver, Colorado.

Alex Cleveland

Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2023  –  Sri Lanka

Alex Cleveland is a swim coach and outdoor educator. She has four years of experience across multiple cultures in coaching and educating, and helps combine water safety with environmental education. She is a lifelong swimmer and swam competitively at the University of Tennessee for four years before moving to Monterey, CA to focus on ocean safety.

Vlastimir Davidovic

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2023  –  Bangladesh

Vlastimir Davidovic is currently a head coach at Phoenix College of the Men’s Soccer team in addition to a youth head coach role at Real Salt Lake – Arizona working with three boys Elite Academy teams ages U17, U15, and U14.

Vlastimir is a passionate and experienced soccer coach and soccer ambassador who loves using the power of the beautiful game to guide student athletes of all ages to accomplish individual and team goals, but more importantly to positively impact players in establishing overall well being and in becoming good citizens.

Schellas Hyndman

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2023  –  Bangladesh

2023 United Soccer Coaches recipient Honor Award
2020 Selected into United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame
2019 5th Division 1 Coach to Win 500 Games
2015 Inducted Into Southern Methodist University Hall of Fame
2010 MLS Coach of the Year
2008 – 2013 FC Dallas Coach
2005 President of United Soccer Coaches Association
2004 Director Of Coaching NSCAA
2001 Inducted into Eastern Illinois Hall Fame

Melissa Ausilio

Boxing

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Tajikistan

Melissa Ausilio is co-founder of Revolheart, women’s boxing advocate, community mental health leader and former athlete representative for USA Boxing Women’s Commission. Melissa’s organization Revolheart worked to develop a boxing glove designed specifically for female athletes, understanding not having properly fitting gear can be a barrier for girls and women to participate in sport.

Melissa has served her community through direct service and leadership in nonprofit, business, and government sectors. She currently serves as Executive Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Solano County, California. Her passion for community and athlete wellbeing is fueled by her lived experience and work within marginalized communities.

Nora Deleske

Swimming

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  India

Nora Deleske is a former Student Athlete on the Arizona State University Swimming & Diving Team. She is obtained a masters degree in Sports Law and Business from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University graduating in May of 2022. Through her experience traveling both internationally and domestically training for the 2016 and 2021 Olympic Trials and working with Sun Devil Athletics on programming for female athletes, Nora discovered her passion for empowering women. As a result of her participation in this program, Nora gained the leadership, communication, and discipline skills that propelled her into being one of the top female athletes in the U.S. and the Captain of the ASU Women’s Swim Team.

Julia Harbaugh

Swimming

Swimming (para)

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  India
  • 2023  –  Vietnam

Julia Harbaugh is a lifelong swimmer, surfer, high tech saleswoman, and is avidly involved in philanthropy in San Francisco with frequent international trips focused on service and inclusion. Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Global Politics from Washington and Lee University and studied developing economics at the University of Cape Town. Julia has completed various Alcatraz crossings and placed in triathlons since she was 14 years old. Locally in San Francisco she started the SF Achilles chapter which guides impaired athletes in mainstream athletic. She is a core surf coach volunteer for the MeWater Foundation. Julia currently resides in California and is an advocate for underserved communities in sport and technology.

Christy Halbert

Boxing

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  Timor Leste
  • 2022  –  Tajikistan

Coach Christy Halbert is a sociologist, coach, advocate, educator, and internationally recognized expert on boxing. She believes that sport can bring people together for positive social change, enhance lives, and build communities.

 

Halbert values a multi-disciplinary approach to improve human performance, the social experience of sport participation, and overall wellness.  She coaches athletes and coaches in the U.S. and abroad, in programs ranging from development to high performance through collegiate, Olympic, and professional pathways.

 

Her work spans research-based athletic development and injury prevention, mental health and preparedness, athlete advocacy, strategic initiatives, engagement through the lifecourse, administration, and educational design.  Halbert has worked for national and international sport federations, universities, and nonprofit agencies.

 

She is a public speaker and academic lecturer, and author of educational materials and academic publications, as well as her instructional book The Ultimate Boxer: Understanding the Sport and Skills of Boxing.

 

In 2011, Halbert was a recipient of the United States Olympic Committee’s Torch Award for her humanitarian efforts to bring women’s boxing into the Olympic Games and to advance women athletes.  She was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, and finished her professional boxing career with an undefeated record.  She was an assistant coach and technical advisor for the gold-medal and bronze-medal winning U.S. Boxing team at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

 

Halbert was a Division I college athlete in volleyball and track.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University, and a Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.

 

Christy Halbert is curious, committed, and passionate about helping people reach their full human potential within the collaborative space of larger society and community.

Katharine DeLorenzo

Field Hockey

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  India
  • 2019  –  India
  • 2023  –  India

DeLorenzo enters her 19th season in 2019-20 as the head coach of the Panther field hockey program. She came to Middlebury after serving as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach at Skidmore for the previous six seasons.

DeLorenzo has led the Panthers to tremendous successes during her 18 years, including an impressive 287-61 record. In that time, the Panthers advanced to the NCAA Championship game on seven occasions with 16-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament (2003-18). During the 2015 season, she guided the Panthers to the program’s second NCAA Championship (1998) with a 1-0 victory over Bowdoin in Lexington, Virginia. In 2017, DeLorenzo and the Panthers claimed the program’s third overall NCAA Championship with a 4-0 win against Messiah in Louisville, Kentucky. Last fall, Middlebury earned its third NCAA title in the last four seasons with a 2-0 victory against Tufts in Manheim, Pennsylvania.

She earned New England Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and 2004, while being deemed the NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year in both 2003 and 2015. DeLorenzo and her coaching staff were named both the 2017 and 2018 NFHCA Coaching Staffs of the Year. The team also captured the 2003, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018 NESCAC titles, with DeLorenzo earning NESCAC Coach of the Year honors three times.

DeLorenzo graduated from Goucher College in 1990, where she was an All-American field hockey and lacrosse player as well as a swimmer. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in the spring of 2013.

Following graduation, she attended Indiana State University where she earned her master’s degree in athletic administration in 1992. While at Indiana State, she began her coaching career with a two-year stint as an assistant field hockey coach for DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1991, the Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament. After receiving her master’s degree, DeLorenzo took a position at Oberlin College in Ohio as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach in the fall of 1992, becoming an assistant athletic director during her third and final year.

DeLorenzo began working at Skidmore College in the fall of 1995 as the head field hockey and lacrosse coach. She led the field hockey team to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1998 and 1999 and was named the UCAA (Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association) Coach of the Year in both of those seasons. She earned a six-year record of 69-37 at Skidmore, including a school-record 18 wins in 1999 when she was named the NFCAA Regional Coach of the Year. That season, her team also captured the UCAA Championship.

She is an active member of several field hockey national committees, including stints with several rules committees, such as currently serving on the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) National Rules Committee. DeLorenzo directs clinics on Middlebury’s campus throughout the year. She is also the director of two Nike field hockey camps as well as being involved with the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) Futures Program.

Julian “Zeus” McClurkin

Harlem Globetrotters Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Uzbekistan

Zeus McClurkin is a testament to not giving up or letting obstacles get in the way of achieving one’s dreams.

He was cut from every basketball team he tried out for from seventh grade through tenth grade, but he kept pushing and finally made his high school team his junior and senior seasons. He played his first couple of years of college ball at a Division II program, but the departure of the head coach left Zeus on the outside looking in. Undeterred, he enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University, and he made the basketball team as a walk-on, beating out 30 other hopefuls in the process. Zeus earned an undergraduate degree in business management at North Carolina A&T and then a master’s degree in marketing and communications from Franklin University, based in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

Zeus is also one of the most decorated athletes on the Globetrotters roster holding three Guinness World Records titles. Zeus has set the mark for most basketball slam dunks in one minute, with 16 (2017), most bounced three-pointers in one minute, with five (2017), and most behind-the-back three-pointers, with three baskets made (2018).

Zeus is known for his fun personality and crazy trick shots from places like Ohio State and the Mall of America, which have been featured on ESPN. Since joining the Globetrotters, he’s also transcended language barriers with appearances on popular Spanish-language television shows like Univision’s “Republica Deportiva,” and Telemundo’s “Un Nuevo Dia.”

He has accomplished all of this while dealing with exercise-induced asthma, a narrowing of the airways in the lungs that is triggered by strenuous exercise. To this day, Zeus carries an inhaler with him.

Zeus was introduced to basketball by his older brother, Robert, and cites his brother as the most influential person in his athletic career. “I fell in love with basketball because of my brother’s passion for the sport,” explains Zeus. “I wanted to be just like him, and to this day, I still can’t beat him one-on-one.”

An extremely versatile athlete, Zeus was on the swim team growing up and also played football, tennis, baseball, and soccer (“The best athletes in the world today are playing soccer,” he says). He also played volleyball and would have loved to have played professional beach volleyball and represent the U.S. in the Olympics.

Zeus has this piece of advice for young athletes: “Be coachable. Be the player that the coach never has to worry about and can depend on when called upon. I have played a lot of minutes over players that were more talented than me, simply because I was coachable and understood what the strategy and philosophy was for each team on which I played.”