Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Year: 2023

Maluhia Kinimaka

Surfing

Served as envoy

  • 2023  –  Papua New Guinea

Maluhiahali’iokauaiepilialoha Kinimaka, known affectionately as Maluhia, grew up on the east coast of Kaua’i in the Anahola Hawaiian Homesteads. As the eldest daughter of big wave surfing legend, Titus Kinimaka, Maluhia was raised amongst some of Hawaii’s finest water-men, hula masters, and musicians. Preserving Hawaiian heritage, language, environment, and way of life has been, and will always be, imperative to her.

At the age of four, Maluhia began surfing and developed a deep passion for her ancestral practice. She would go on to qualify for the Hawaii Junior Olympic Surf Team at the age of 11, as well as winning State and National Championship titles for herself before the age of 16. Maluhia’s mother is a small-business owner and former school teacher, and was very insistent that she also pursue her academic gifts. At the age of 17, Maluhia was accepted to Stanford University on full academic scholarship, where she would go on to graduate in 2018 with a degree in Atmosphere and Energy Engineering.

Since then, Maluhia has worked at a Kauai-based architecture firm, Design Concepts Hawaii, creating residential homes with an emphasis on sustainable development. Simultaneously, Maluhia has been balancing her professional surfing career with Roxy and Reef, two of the industry’s largest corporations. She is currently ranked at number 9 on the World Surf League’s Women’s qualifying series in Hawaii, and is applying to start her PhD next year while continuing to advance her professional surfing career. Maluhia hopes to honor the resilience of her ancestors by giving back to her island community, and to perpetuate her cultural practices of surfing and environmental stewardship with integrity for future generations to come.

Christina Murillo

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Montenegro
  • 2023  –  Colombia

Christina Murillo Sanchez is currently a Director for Chicago Fire FC and oversees 13u-15U age groups as well as being an Olympic Development Coach. She supports the Chicago community in her role through fundraising and outreach efforts that support with creating more opportunities. She previously was signed to Chicago Red Stars back in 2018 and in 2017 competed in Champions League with Gintra Universitetas getting to the round of 16. She represented the Mexican National Soccer Team from 2009-2018 and participated in the World Cup at the U17, U20, and Senior Level receiving 46 caps with the senior national team . Murillo was one of the first women to be part of the FIFA video game back in 2015. At University of Michigan, she competed with the team from 2011 to 2015 while taking off the 2014 season to train and compete at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She was captain of the University of Michigan and made the all-Big Ten Tournament team her senior year. Murillo currently holds the record for most assists in a game at her university and was the first student athlete from Michigan to participate in a FIFA World Cup at the senior level.

Bonnie Young

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Trinidad and Tobago
  • 2023  –  Saudi Arabia

Bonnie currently coaches in USYS ODP program with the Midwest and West regions, the Colorado Select program, and Real Colorado soccer club.

Young had been the director of the FC Boulder girls academy since January, 2018 and has previous experience playing professional soccer. Young has more than 17 years of experience in coaching and club leadership across all levels, from recreational soccer through women’s professional soccer with the Chicago Red Stars and the Washington Spirit

Maren McCrary

Soccer

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Montenegro
  • 2023  –  Saudi Arabia

Maren Hendershot McCrary is a retired professional soccer player, former Team Handball U.S. National Team member, U.S. Soccer Federation Coach Educator, Olympic Development National Team Head Coach, U.S. Soccer Youth National Team Assistant Coach, U.S. Youth National Team Scout, elementary Physical Education teacher, and Color Commentator for NET broadcasting.

McCrary was a 2- time Division I All-American forward at Brigham Young University where she is still the school’s second all time leading scorer. During her time at BYU she was a 4-time all conference player and 2-time conference MVP She also won a national championship and MVP of the semi-pro W-league. After graduating, McCrary, was drafted to the Carolina Courage and then traded to the San Jose CyberRays and played professionally for three years in the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional women’s soccer league in the USA. After retiring from professional soccer, McCrary played Team Handball for the United States National Team. McCrary, who was inducted into the BYU Hall of Fame in 2010, has coached at the Division I, Division II and NAIA college levels and held multiple Technical Director and Director of Coaching roles in youth soccer. McCrary has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and holds a USSF “A” license. In her role as a Coach Educator she instructs, leads and mentors coaches in their coach development.

Coach Maren loves her multi-faceted work in soccer that allows her to have a positive influence in the game in various capacities. She feels extremely fortunate for the opportunities, experiences, education, and empowerment that soccer has provided to her and she hopes to continue to open doors and opportunities for other females by educating and empowering women and girls through the game of soccer.

Maren and her husband Josh live in Denver, Colorado and have three children: daughters, Cumorah and Jordan, and son, Justis.

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.

Lacey Henderson

Track & Field Paralympics

Served as envoy

  • 2022  –  Peru
  • 2023  –  Mexico

Lacey was diagnosed with Synovial Sarcoma at the age of 9 that resulted in the amputation of her right leg. Despite her disability, she pursued sports cheerleading in high school and college.

After a Division I athletic scholarship for cheerleading, Lacey discovered the world of disability. Only until she started Paralympic track and field did she realize she had been not only avoiding her disability but a huge part of herself. It was a long journey of therapy, finding resilience and a lot of time training on the track, she became an American Record Holder and a Rio Paralympian. She works now as a disability advocate having conversations that normalize being and feeling different and how it is our differences that truly unite us.

She is the host of her own podcast, Picked Last in Gym Class. She has also hosted for Microsoft’s InCulture season on Accessibility and for Ottobock Healthcare’s Fireside Chats.

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.

Chineze Nwagbo

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Kosovo
  • 2019  –  Azerbaijan
  • 2019  –  Albania
  • 2019  –  Tanzania
  • 2023  –  Malaysia

Chineze Nwagbo started her basketball career at Duval Senior High School in Lanham, Maryland, where she is recognized as a four-year varsity letter recipient and two-time team captain. Her honors include two back-to-back State Championship Titles, All-American Honorable Mention, All-County First Team, All-Gazette, USA Today’s Most Improved and Most Important Player to Scout in Maryland, amongst a plethora of other accolades.

Chinny was a standout basketball player at Syracuse, where she earned her B.S. in Biology. Shortly after graduating, Chinny embarked on a career playing professionally for 11 years in Spain, Chile, Brazil, Poland, Portugal, & Israel, winning 4 MVP titles and appearances in championship games. The highlight of her career was when she represented her parent’s native country of Nigeria in the 2006 World Championship Games.

After retiring in 2016, Chinny began a series of ventures with the NBA. In China, she helped develop the grassroots implementation of an NBA-based basketball curriculum. She has done work for Jr. NBA programs, the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders developmental camps, and has been brought on to work with the Atlanta Hawks, NY Knicks, Washington Wizards, and the National Basketball Players Association as a youth development coach and mentor.

She has served as an Envoy for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Sports Diplomacy program, which was designed to use the transformative power of sports to create social change in global communities around the world by bridging divides, creating cultural understanding, supporting women’s empowerment (& gender equality), advocating safe environments for kids with disabilities to play, and championing the importance of creating a more equitable and peaceful society.

As an Envoy, Chinny has traveled to various parts of the world, building relations with various U.S. Embassies, Sports Federations, Sultans, Chargé d’ Affaires, administrators, coaches, and elite players. She has also dedicated her time as a motivational speaker to various youth programs and amazing nonprofits geared toward providing resources for under-represented & underserved youth worldwide. In her spare time, she has appeared on New Channel 8’s SportsTalk show as a guest sports analyst and hopes to play an instrumental role in the game’s growth, primarily serving as a role model for
young girls.

In 2020, Chinny joined PeacePlayers International, an organization utilizing the
transformative power of sports to bridge divides in historically conflicted
communities worldwide. There she served as the Director of Youth Programs & Development for Baltimore city providing unserved and underrepresented young people of color with afterschool programming geared towards connecting the community, providing equitable experiences and tools to mitigate conflict.

All these experiences have led Chinny to the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) where she is the Director of Player Programs and Engagement dedicated to creating programs and resources to ensure Professional Athletes succeed far beyond the playing field!

Taj McWilliams-Franklin

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  China
  • 2017  –  Kazakhstan
  • 2023  –  Serbia

During her senior year of high school, Taj McWilliams-Franklin gave birth to a daughter, Michele. Sixteen months after the birth of Michele, McWilliams-Franklin welcomed a second daughter, Schera, into the world. As such, she now had to find a basketball family that would accept her expanding family.

St. Edward’s University, an NAIA school in Austin, Texas, the city where her mother lived, would serve as McWilliams-Franklin’s new college basketball home, offering her a partial scholarship that she supplemented with loans. To sustain her basketball career while surviving her academic and everyday obligations, McWilliams-Franklin gave Schera up for adoption. Despite these stresses, McWilliams-Franklin excelled on the court, attracting the attention of Division I programs. Yet, appreciative of the opportunity, McWilliams-Franklin stuck with St. Edward’s. She was named 1993 NAIA Player of the Year her senior season.

In need of money to finish school and support her family, McWilliams-Franklin headed overseas. She played in Wolfenbüttel, Germany (1993-94), Contern, Luxembourg (1994-95) and Galilee, Israel (1995-96), all with Michele in tow. Hooping in far-flung locales did not strain her love for the game, instead confirming that basketball was the career she wanted.

While McWilliams-Franklin combined her commitments — to the game and to her daughter — her unconventional arrangement did not earn widespread approval, including from Michele’s biological father. He sued for custody, successfully raising questions about McWilliams-Franklin’s “fitness as a mother.” The parental rights he won did not last long, however, with McWilliams-Franklin regaining custody from Michele’s father after his one-month fatherhood experiment failed.

Soon thereafter, it seemed McWilliams-Franklin’s perseverance would pay off. A professional women’s basketball league, the ABL, was established in the U.S. in 1996. After participating in a combine for prospective players, she was selected by the Richmond Rage in the inaugural ABL Draft with the 40th overall pick. In Richmond, McWilliams provided a powerful post presence, complimenting star point guard Dawn Staley and versatile forward Adrienne Goodson to form a talented threesome that led the Rage to the ABL championship series, where they fell to the Columbus Quest.

This successful season did not secure the Rage a permanent place in the Richmond sporting landscape. The team was relocated to Philadelphia, giving McWilliams-Franklin another new basketball home. After an underwhelming 1997-98 season, the Rage folded early in the 1998-99 season. McWilliams-Franklin, thus, traveled overseas, this time to Greece. McWilliams-Franklin took another shot at making a roster in the WNBA by attending the 1999 combine. Despite her documented success in the ABL, however, she remained available until the third round, when the Orlando Miracle, an expansion team, selected her with the 32nd pick. In a fitting match, one of women’s basketball’s ultimate underdogs would join an unquestionably underdog expansion team.

Led by McWilliams-Franklin, the Miracle overachieved during their debut season after opening their inaugural season with two-straight road losses. The Miracle finally scored a win with McWilliams-Franklin converting a game-winning bucket with 21.7 seconds remaining. McWilliams-Franklin was named an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve along with teammates Nykesha Sales and Shannon Johnson. The Miracle finished 15-17 for the 1999 season. In 2000, Orlando would establish itself as a legitimate playoff contender driven by an ever-determined McWilliams-Franklin.

As the fulcrum of the Orlando offense, she turned in one of the most productive offensive seasons of her career, averaging nearly 14 points per game on better than 52 percent shooting. Fans showed appreciation for McWilliams-Franklin’s play, voting her in as an All-Star starter — an honor that confirmed the underdog had become one of women’s basketball’s elites. The Miracle also would earn a playoff berth and meet the Cleveland Rockers in the first round. The lower-seeded Miracle stole Game 1, powered by a perfect McWilliams-Franklin, who made all seven of her field goal attempts. Yet, the road woes that had bedeviled Orlando all season stalled a deeper playoff run. The Miracle dropped Games 2 and 3 of the three-game Eastern Conference Semifinals.

For McWilliams-Franklin, overall on-court success was accompanied by off-court stability. While playing abroad in Italy during the WNBA offseason, McWilliams-Franklin met Reggie Franklin, an Army sergeant. In December 2000, they were married, and three years later, they gave birth to a third daughter, Maia. With Reggie willing to serve as the primary parent, McWilliams-Franklin appeared to have found the balance needed to fulfill her hooping dreams and familial desires.

All the more, the precariousness of women’s professional basketball presented her with additional difficulties. After the 2002 season, the Orlando Miracle would become the Connecticut Sun, making Uncasville, Connecticut, McWilliams’ new basketball home.

McWilliams-Franklin would spend four seasons as a Connecticut Sun, a time that would cement the underdog’s reputation as a winning player. In 2004, Connecticut advanced all the way to the WNBA Finals, where they fell 2-1 to the Seattle Storm. In 2005, the Sun were even better, with the fantastic foursome of McWilliams-Franklin, Sales, Lindsay Whalen and Katie Douglas pushing to a league-best 26-8 record.

McWilliams-Franklin also collected individual honors in 2005, securing her third All-Star selection and being named to the All-WNBA Second Team. However, the ultimate achievement — a championship — eluded McWilliams-Franklin and the Sun. They again came up short, losing the WNBA Finals 3-1 to the Sacramento Monarchs.

The 2006 season followed a similar script. At 26-8, the Sun again had the WNBA’s best record. McWilliams-Franklin again earned All-Star and All-WNBA Second Team honors. Yet, more disappointingly, Connecticut fell to the Detroit Shock in the Eastern Conference Finals.

So, for all the success that McWilliams-Franklin had attained, she still remained an underdog because her teams were unable to break through and earn a title. To continue her quest for a championship, she would have to journey elsewhere.

Ahead of the 2007 season, McWilliams-Franklin requested a trade to the Los Angeles Sparks, with the opportunity to live and play in L.A. best meeting the needs of her family at that time. Although she had turned in another All-Star season, another cross-country journey was in her future. The next offseason, she was traded to the Washington Mystics. Then, at the 2008 trade deadline, the Detroit Shock sought McWilliams-Franklin’s services for the playoff run.

In the Motor City, all this movement would pay off, with McWilliams-Franklin proving the perfect booster for the Shock. After adding McWilliams-Franklin, Detroit finished the season 12-3 and, most importantly, won the WNBA title.

The Shock envisioned serving McWilliams-Franklin as a role player, supporting stars Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan. Soon after her arrival in Detroit, she told the Ocala Star-Banner:

For the past couple years, I’ve been on young teams where I’ve been expected to be the leader for a lot of young players. It’s been a nice change to be on a team where I’m just one of the veterans — where I have so many great players surrounding me.

However, during Detroit’s playoff run, McWilliams-Franklin exceeded her role. Then almost 38 years old, McWilliams-Franklin proved she still possessed the clutch gene.

In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, McWilliams-Franklin added 19 points and eight rebounds, pushing the Shock past the Liberty and sending them back to the WNBA Finals. In Game 3 of the Finals, she spurred the Shock to their championship-clinching victory, going on a personal 4-0 scoring run with approximately four minutes remaining to give the Shock an insurmountable double-digit lead.

In 2007, McWilliams-Franklin reconnected with Schera, re-establishing a relationship with the then-Shawnee State University basketball player.

Seemingly, McWilliams-Franklin might have decided to retire after the 2008 season, completing her unexpected, underdog career with a championship. Yet, as she asserted soon after beginning her professional career abroad, McWilliams-Franklin was determined to play as long as possible.

As an indication of her obsession with the game, McWilliams-Franklin continued to play abroad throughout her WNBA career, suiting up in Italy, South Korea and Russia. After another WNBA season in Detroit and single season with the New York Liberty, Cheryl Reeve, who had been an assistant coach with the Shock, lured McWilliams-Franklin to the Minnesota Lynx.

Ahead of the 2011 WNBA season, a rather unremarkable Minnesota team added two very different yet equally important talents — a seemingly guaranteed superstar in the much-heralded rookie Maya Moore and the 40-year-old, over-achieving basketball lifer in McWilliams-Franklin. Combined with Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson, the Lynx coalesced into a championship contender.

In full ‘“Mama Taj” mode, McWilliams-Franklin provided sturdy, veteran leadership for an organization with a losing reputation. Her experienced play also proved pivotal. With McWilliams-Franklin manning the back line, the Lynx captured the 2011 WNBA title and appeared poised to add a second in 2012, until a GOAT and her pack of underdogs — the Tamika Catchings-led Indiana Fever — ruined the repeat.

Somewhat ironically, McWilliams-Franklin, the longtime underdog, decided to call it quits right after she was no longer the underdog, but a member of the top dog squad that suffered an upset. McWilliams-Franklin retired from the WNBA at age 41 after the 2012 season. She would play one more season abroad, joining Clube Amigos do Basquet in Spain in 2013-14. In total, her professional basketball career, which spanned over 30 years, was a testament to perseverance.

Chinenye “Chiney” Ogwumike

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Brazil
  • 2023  –  Cote d'Ivoire

Chinenye “Chiney” Ogwumike is a professional basketball player for The Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Chiney holds the record for most rebounds in the history of Stanford Women’s Basketball and the Pac-12 Conference.

In 2014, Ogwumike signed an endorsement deal with Nike soon after being drafted first overall in the WNBA. As of 2016, Ogwumike was elected Vice-President of the WNBA Players Association, and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas. In May 2018, Ogwumike signed a multi-year contract with ESPN to become a full-time in-sports analyst.