Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Year: 2012

Cheryl Bailey

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2012  –  Malaysia

Cheryl Bailey is a former executive director of the National Women’s Soccer League as well as the former general manager of the US women’s national soccer team from 2007 to 2011.

Bailey was appointed as the Athletic Director of Denison University until 1990. During her time there, she oversaw 12 women’s sports and was the head women’s soccer coach. For 15 years, she served in the Athletic Administration at the University of Wisconsin, overseeing 22 different teams. In 2007, she was appointed the general manager of the US Women’s National Soccer Team. She led the support staff for the US team during the 2007 and 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cups and the 2008 Olympics.

Lesle Gallimore

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2012  –  Morocco
  • 2016  –  Ethiopia
  • 2022  –  Israel

At Washington
• Started in 1994 at UW, completed her 22nd season with the Huskies – the longest tenure of any coach in the Pac-12
• Appeared in 14 NCAA tournaments, twice having advanced as far as the quarterfinals J(ELITE EIGHT)
• Won a Pac-10 Championship in 2000
• Coached Hope Solo and Tina Ellertson (Frimpong), both with ties to the U.S. WNT, as well as Kate Deines and Veronica Perez, with all four playing in the NWSL (Lindsay Elston and Kate Bennett now also)

Previous/Other Coaching Experience
• Four-time All-American at California (1982-85)
• Led the Golden Bears to the national playoffs three out of her four seasons
• Named the school’s 1976-86 Athlete of the Decade
• Served as an assistant at California from 1986 through 1989
• Helped the Golden Bears reach the NCAA soccer Final Four twice, in 1987 and 1988
• Obtained her United States Soccer Federation “A” License, the highest coaching license available, in 1993
• Member of U.S. Soccer National Coaching Instructor Staff
• Member of U.S. Soccer Youth National Teams Staff
• Vice President of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and will become President in 2018

Playing Career
• Four-time All-American at Cal from 1982-86
• 3 x Olympic Sports Festival Gold Medalist
• US National B Team
• Reached the Final Four in 1984
• Inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 19954
• Inducted into the California Women’s Soccer Inaugural Lair of Legends in 2015
• Named to the Pac-12 Conference All-Century Team Starting XI in 2015

Personal
• Native of Redondo Beach, Calif., currently lives in Seattle
• Has a 22 year-old son, Zachary, that is a Lance coporal in the U.S. Marine Corp, stationed in Okinawa, Japan married to Elhiany and has a 3-month old daughter, Leila June
• Graduate from California in 1986 with a degree in psychology

Lauren Gregg

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2006  –  Nigeria
  • 2008  –  Nigeria
  • 2012  –  Argentina
  • 2016  –  China

A long-time assistant coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Lauren Gregg was a member of the coaching staff for the U.S. at the 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China, the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sweden and the 1996 Olympic Games in the USA.
During her tenure as assistant coach, from 1989-2000, Gregg also served as U.S. U-21 Women’s National Team head coach, leading the team to Nordic Cup titles in the 1997 and 1999 editions of the tournament and second place in the 1998 Nordic Cup.

Prior to becoming an assistant coach with U.S. Soccer, Gregg led the University of Virginia to the NCAA Final Four in 1991 and seven straight NCAA tournaments, from 1988-94. Gregg was named NSCAA Coach of the Year in 1990 and was the first woman to lead a team to the NCAA Division I Final Four.

Gregg holds a U.S. Soccer “A” coaching license and earned one cap for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 1986.

Lorrie Fair

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2008  –  Morocco
  • 2010  –  Paraguay
  • 2012  –  Afghanistan
  • 2012  –  Venezuela
  • 2013  –  Iraq
  • 2014  –  Burma
  • 2016  –  Nepal
  • 2018  –  Pakistan
  • 2020  –  Virtual
  • 2022  –  Cote d'Ivoire
  • 2023  –  Brunei

As an undergraduate student at Carolina, Lorrie Fair Allen helped the women’s soccer team to national championships in 1996, 1997 and 1999. During the same period of time, Allen was succeeding on the field globally, becoming a FIFA World Cup champion and an Olympic silver medalist in 2000.

These days, Allen, a mother of two boys under the age of five, works as a program director for the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project and volunteers as a sports envoy for the U.S. Department of State.

Her dual passion of soccer and advocacy began to take root when she arrived at Chapel Hill. The women’s soccer program is special, and one of coach Anson Dorrance’s goals is to build leaders, Allen said in a 2018 interview. “His biggest hope is that that extends beyond the soccer field.”

As a State Department sports envoy since 2008, Allen works to support the embassies’ diplomatic missions abroad by connecting with people from diverse cultures using a shared love for soccer. Allen also led a six-month expedition beginning in London and ending in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup as part of the organization, Kickabout, which she co-founded and self-funded.

At the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, Allen spearheads the foundation’s grantmaking. She seeks out and identifies community-based organizations in Southern Africa that engage young people to keep themselves and their peers safe from HIV and helps them apply for grants to support them in accomplishing their goals.

In 2016, Allen became a Carolina student once again, pursuing an online master’s degree in public administration through the School of Government.

Danielle Slaton

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Paraguay
  • 2012  –  Malaysia
  • 2012  –  Burma
  • 2014  –  Jordan
  • 2021  –  Jordan

Danielle Slaton currently works as the Director of the Coaching for Life Academy at Santa Clara University where she teaches coaches, athletes, and parents about how to integrate life skills development through sports. She is also a sideline reporter for the San Jose Earthquakes and a women’s soccer analyst for NBC, Fox Sports, and the Pac-12 Networks.

Danielle was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team from 2000-2005, winning a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics and a bronze in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She attended Santa Clara University where she captained the women’s soccer team to the 2001 NCAA National Championship. After she retired from playing, Danielle coached soccer at Northwestern from 2006-2009, where she also earned her Master’s Degree in Sports Administration.

Danielle is passionate about continuing to grow the game of soccer and teaching life lessons through sports. She serves as an advisor to U.S. Soccer’s Athlete Council, travels as a sports envoy on behalf of the U.S. State Department coaching youth about the life lessons that soccer can teach, and is a certified Positive Coaching Alliance trainer.

Siri Mullinix

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2012  –  Venezuela
  • 2013  –  Costa Rica

Currently an assistant coach at Clemson University, Siri Mullinix is the third-most capped goalkeeper for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Mullinix earned 45 caps for the U.S. Women between 1999 and 2004. Mullinix was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. at the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia.
Mullinix was the USA’s back-up goalkeeper at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She earned her first full national team cap against Japan in Atlanta on May 2, 1999. As a member of the U.S. U-21 Women’s National Team, Mullinix played in the 1996 Nordic Cup in Sweden and the 1997 Nordic Cup in Denmark.
Mullinix helped lead the Washington Freedom to the WUSA Founders Cup title in 2003. She was an original allocated player in the WUSA for the Washington Freedom in 2001. A three-year starter at the University of North Carolina, Mullinix was a member of three ACC and two NCAA championship teams during her college career. As a freshman, she backed up All American and former national team goalkeeper Tracy Ducar.

Kate Sobrero Markgraf

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2012  –  Ethiopia
  • 2013  –  Chile
  • 2014  –  Peru

Defender Kate Markgraf (née Sobrero) debuted with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 1998 and earned 201 caps before retiring in 2010. Markgraf was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Teams in the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Olympic Games, playing every minute of all three tournaments. Markgraf also helped to lead the team from the backline at the 2007, 2003 and 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cups.

After becoming the only player to play every minute of every U.S. Women’s National Team game in 2005, she had her first child, Keegan, in 2006. In 2009, she once again took time off from soccer, giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Xavier and Carson.

Markgraf was a four-year starter at Notre Dame, where she was a three time NSCAA All American, earning First Team honors twice and winning the 1995 NCAA championship.

Allocated to the Chicago Red Stars for the inaugural WPS season in 2009, Markgraf sat out the year as she was pregnant with twins. She was a founding player in the WUSA for the Boston Breakers and in 2003 she started all 19 games in which she played, helping the Breakers to the playoffs for the first time.

Tony Sanneh

Tony Sanneh

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Cyprus
  • 2012  –  Ethiopia
  • 2012  –  Malaysia
  • 2014  –  Bangladesh
  • 2014  –  Bolivia
  • 2018  –  Pakistan
  • 2019  –  Kenya
  • 2019  –  Bahrain
  • 2020  –  Virtual
  • 2022  –  Cote d'Ivoire

Among the most successful American soccer players of his generation, Tony Sanneh enjoyed an impressive 17-year professional soccer career. Major career highlights include starring in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, two Major League Soccer championships with D.C. United, and participation in the UEFA Champions League with Hertha Berlin during his six years in the German Bundesliga. Sanneh’s impact on American soccer was recognized by his selection to the Soccer America U.S. Men’s National Team “All-Decade Team,” and he was a finalist for the United States Soccer Hall of Fame Class of 2018.

At the height of his playing career, he created The Sanneh Foundation (TSF) to leverage sport’s unique potential to create positive social change for under-served youth through relationships. Since retiring from professional soccer in 2010 and becoming the organization’s full-time CEO, TSF has evolved into one of Minnesota’s leading youth development organizations by serving the holistic youth development needs of increasingly diverse Twin Cities Metro, Central and Southeastern Minnesota.

The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation recently recognized the organization’s work by awarding TSF their annual Sports Award, among the highest honors any organization in the field of health equity and community well-being can receive. The 2018 RWJF Sports award validates The Sanneh Foundation’s approach to creating a culture of community health by leveraging the universal appeal of sports to provide a range of holistic youth programs that address the social determinants that help diverse youth develop the skills to become productive adults

In addition to his executive leadership role with The Sanneh Foundation, Sanneh continues to serve the United States as a Sports Envoy on behalf of the SportsUnited Division of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.