so when I was asked to speak I I thought
I would just give my normal bio which is
what I normally do and I speak at a kind
of occasions like this I talk about my
journey because people are curious as to
how I got to run the Red Sox Foundation
and how I got to run the foundation at
the Celtics now it was a professional
athlete who gets to do all that right
but there is no secret sauce there is no
secret magic formula that got me these
amazing positions in my life and as John
said I like to think the best is yet to
come for me so I don’t know where I’ll
be in a couple years but I mean here but
maybe 15 years I don’t know where I’ll
be
I will say one thing that does
distinguish me though I think having met
a lot of people managed a lot of people
and been around the world
is I am probably the most competitive
person you’ll meet my husband does not
like that about me but a lot of people
have found that that competitiveness is
quite helpful through life I have an
intense desire to win and I think I know
where that comes from and it comes from
my family life I grew up in a very busy
full house of seven people I’m the
fourth of five children my mom is the
oldest of eleven children all of them
were local I grew up in Cambridge and so
our house was always always full
there was jostling for air time and
space and just to be heard was a big
effort and not to mention that my mom is
black and my dad is white so my mom’s
families from Barbados my dad’s families
from Ireland and so it was this very
interesting convergence and mix of
culture and ethnicity and language and
food and it was a beautiful thing
but it was hard it was hard to find your
identity in that crazy chaotic time in
space and so there was love but there
was also dysfunction in many ways and
for me that played out with a bunch of
fears growing up in some anxieties that
I still carried to this day fears of
being judged fears of not having my
parents approve of me fears of being
alone and fears of being invisible and
so I was fortunate to have been plopped
onto a field probably because my
parents that have the time to to care
for all of us us but I started playing
soccer at about 4 or 5 years old and I
remember the very first day that I put
my feet on a soccer field it was this
intense feeling of freedom it was this
intensity of joy and happiness and more
than anything it was a space where I
felt like I found my voice I found my
identity it was the one place where
people rallied around me instead of me
chasing people it was the one space
where I felt I was being recognized and
I was receiving accomplishments and kind
of the praise that I felt like I
deserved and so I gravitated to sports I
think the best benefit of me
participating in sports as a young age
is that it started to squash some of
these fears and anxieties that I had and
in turn started building up a ton of
self-confidence and I think that’s my
greatest strength is my confidence that
I know I can directly correlate that
back to my participation in athletics at
a young age and so you know I feel very
fortunate that I was able to play sports
and I feel more fortunate that I was
athletic ly gifted I very quickly became
pretty good at soccer basketball and
lacrosse I was all-american and soccer
and lacrosse and all New England and
basketball in high school and it was one
of those things that became just this
positive feedback loop the more I put in
the better I became and the more
recognition I got and the more my
confidence grew so I gave everything to
soccer I gave everything to sport every
single day every decision I made every
friend I chose to have all was based on
my my participation in sports I wasn’t
going out on Friday nights in high
school in college because I had games
every single Saturday and that meant
that I was making right choices about
what I put into my body I selected my
friends my mom likes to use the word
riffraff I wasn’t hanging out with
riffraff you know in high school in
college because I wanted to be around
like-minded people people that were as
committed to being successful on a field
as I was and certain people have that in
certain people don’t and so all of these
decisions that I can look back and say
that I made that I didn’t really think
much of them now but for the young
people here making decisions like that
that have long-term consequences are the
most important moments in our lives I
believe and so for me I can attribute
that all back to sports
so I was very fortunate like I said I
was successful in soccer I went and
played at Brown University and upon
graduating in 2001 I was even more
fortunate to get a call to go down to a
combine in Florida and try out for the
newly formed woman’s it was WS a woman’s
United Soccer Association which was the
first woman’s professional league and I
remember going down and I was about 15
maybe 16 pounds overweight but I was
like whatever I’ll be good I went down
and I did not make the team it was the
first time in my life that Becca didn’t
make a team I was always used to being
on the team captaining the team being
the player and I went down name wasn’t
on a roster name wasn’t called back and
it was devastating devastating I
remember in that moment I was like 21
and I was like my career is over I’m
never gonna play good and I just
remember this kind of sliding door
moment of thinking do I want to continue
to follow that dream or do I give it up
do I hang up the boots and move on and
clearly was not able to give up my first
love of soccer and so I continued to
play semi-pro for a couple years and won
two national championships with that
team and was fortunate enough to get a
phone call from the Boston Breakers to
come and play for their team they played
out to be you at the time they now play
over at well they’re not anymore but
they used to play at Harvard and so I
remember getting a phone call one
afternoon in the next morning I was
training on a field with Kristine Lilly
and I don’t know if anybody knows who
Kristine Lilly is but she’s one of the
greatest all-time players a woman soccer
ever and so I was I found myself on this
field in a very humbling space because
again having been used to being one of
the top players on a team I was the
worst of the worst on the berth Boston
Breakers I can say that now but I was
not a starter I was at the bottom of the
barrel on the team but I was still there
and I still knew that it was a dream
that I had my entire life so I still
continue to give it my all and we ended
up winning the league that year which
was tremendous and after the postseason
when we’d won the league we’d all sat
down after training session our general
manager is walking up to us and I
remember like elbowing my teammate
saying oh my god we’re gonna get a bonus
it’s gonna be like $50,000 we win the
league and he came over and quickly
burst that bubble by saying that you all
are out of jobs that the WUSA fold is
folding and that every team
is closing because there are not enough
funds to support women’s soccer women’s
professional soccer in the United States
and again devastation is an
understatement
I think you know every game we sold out
in Boston the market here for soccer was
amazing but it wasn’t enough to sustain
the league and so all of those women all
of my teammates at that moment either
continued to play if they’re on the
national or Olympic team but most of us
had to get jobs and that was when I was
thrust into non-profit work and I
started running a very small nonprofit
that married academics with athletics
and for me that was a no-brainer right
I’d always kind of combined or had this
formula of academics and athletics
equals success for me and so it was a no
brainer to dive into work that did that
what I did not account for was the
immediate reward that I felt seeing that
tangible action happened with young
people and seeing that needle move so
remarkably and seeing that
transformation in young people that when
you give them that opportunity to
participate in sport yes I went through
it but I’d never seen it firsthand and
so running a nonprofit that provided
access an opportunity to participate in
sport I could see the armor being built
around these young people to protect
them from their fears to protect them
from their anxieties and that for me was
the most rewarding experience working in
non-profit I knew I was hooked I knew
it’s where I want it to be I will say
though the difference having worked like
I said I worked at the Boston Celtics
from 2006 through 10 through their
championship and I’m now here running
the Red Sox Foundation as executive
director the difference between working
in a front office for a professional
sports team as you can imagine is our
brands are our power right I can go
anywhere and wear a hat with a be on it
one letter and people know exactly what
that stands for
and people will open the door for me and
people will call me back and that power
as an executive director is so
transformative and really at the crux of
my success because I now feel so
privileged to have the resources that we
have here at the Boston Red Sox and the
resources I had at the Celtics which as
you can see one of the resources here is
Fenway Park
I get to host events in here you know I
get to have access to players and there
was a player down there there’s a player
right there
we get to get these guys and bring them
into schools and bring them into
hospitals and and leverage their
celebrity to influence and incent young
people to do better in school we get
tickets we have programming so all these
assets and resources that I can put my
hands on and turn on that around and put
dump it into the New England community
it’s really a privilege and something
that I that excites me and drives me
every single day I will say though the
distinct difference between the Celtics
and the Red Sox is Red Sox Nation they
are crazy I can say without a doubt that
we have the greatest fans in all of
professional sports I think coming here
I was not prepared for the craziness the
fierce loyalty the insatiable appetite
that our fans have they want access to
everything which is great you know as an
executive director so much of what I do
is put on events here in family Park or
put on events that leverage the team or
the the ballpark and every single event
we have we’d have people crazy fans
knocking down our door wanting to come
and that that’s what we want their
support helps generate the revenue that
and turn around and dump back into the
community as resources for our young
people and so it’s very very helpful as
crazy as they are to have Red Sox Nation
and I’m committed to Red Sox Nation to
making sure that they continue to have
the access because I know that’s what
they want and so you know that was I
think a growing growth for me coming to
the Red Sox’s I was not prepared for how
many fans we have that are at every
single game and we have what you guys
probably know more than I hunted and
something games a season they are here
every game wanting more and more and
more and more so in my position I really
try to leverage that power and that
support to do to do better in the
community and so you know moving forward
now that I have young children I have
three kids one three and five which is
crazytown crazy times every single I’m
like blacked out right now I don’t even
know what I’m saying because I didn’t
sleep last night but having children I’m
even more deeply committed to my cause
and my personal mission of giving back
because I can see on my young children
the need for that space and that that
opportunity to grow in their confidence
the need for that space to kill their
fears and their
ladies and so I very intentionally
create a household that is free of fear
and free of anxiety and I very
intentionally make sure that my children
have the space to grow into themselves
and to grow their confidence through
sports or through arts or for whatever
it is and we’re all we all have
different needs that I and I respect
that but for me here I think it’s making
sure that I can take that personal
mission that I have for my kids and have
that same intensity and same intention
and apply it to the young people across
New England because that really is our
mission here and I’ll just close by
saying that you know for me I’m very
much driven again by the need to win yes
and my competitiveness but more than
that it is the culture here that has
empowered me to continue to chase my
dreams the leadership here at the Red
Sox Foundation and the Red Sox really
really are deeply committed to
philanthropy and deeply committed to the
work that we’re doing through the
foundation and so that leadership
coupled with Red Sox Nation who is not
going anywhere clearly and will be
behind supporting the Red Sox foundation
really is going to infuse my ability to
be successful in the New England
community and so I just I I thank you
all for being here today I thank you for
this opportunity and I promise that I
will continue to do this work thank you [Applause]
I would just give my normal bio which is
what I normally do and I speak at a kind
of occasions like this I talk about my
journey because people are curious as to
how I got to run the Red Sox Foundation
and how I got to run the foundation at
the Celtics now it was a professional
athlete who gets to do all that right
but there is no secret sauce there is no
secret magic formula that got me these
amazing positions in my life and as John
said I like to think the best is yet to
come for me so I don’t know where I’ll
be in a couple years but I mean here but
maybe 15 years I don’t know where I’ll
be
I will say one thing that does
distinguish me though I think having met
a lot of people managed a lot of people
and been around the world
is I am probably the most competitive
person you’ll meet my husband does not
like that about me but a lot of people
have found that that competitiveness is
quite helpful through life I have an
intense desire to win and I think I know
where that comes from and it comes from
my family life I grew up in a very busy
full house of seven people I’m the
fourth of five children my mom is the
oldest of eleven children all of them
were local I grew up in Cambridge and so
our house was always always full
there was jostling for air time and
space and just to be heard was a big
effort and not to mention that my mom is
black and my dad is white so my mom’s
families from Barbados my dad’s families
from Ireland and so it was this very
interesting convergence and mix of
culture and ethnicity and language and
food and it was a beautiful thing
but it was hard it was hard to find your
identity in that crazy chaotic time in
space and so there was love but there
was also dysfunction in many ways and
for me that played out with a bunch of
fears growing up in some anxieties that
I still carried to this day fears of
being judged fears of not having my
parents approve of me fears of being
alone and fears of being invisible and
so I was fortunate to have been plopped
onto a field probably because my
parents that have the time to to care
for all of us us but I started playing
soccer at about 4 or 5 years old and I
remember the very first day that I put
my feet on a soccer field it was this
intense feeling of freedom it was this
intensity of joy and happiness and more
than anything it was a space where I
felt like I found my voice I found my
identity it was the one place where
people rallied around me instead of me
chasing people it was the one space
where I felt I was being recognized and
I was receiving accomplishments and kind
of the praise that I felt like I
deserved and so I gravitated to sports I
think the best benefit of me
participating in sports as a young age
is that it started to squash some of
these fears and anxieties that I had and
in turn started building up a ton of
self-confidence and I think that’s my
greatest strength is my confidence that
I know I can directly correlate that
back to my participation in athletics at
a young age and so you know I feel very
fortunate that I was able to play sports
and I feel more fortunate that I was
athletic ly gifted I very quickly became
pretty good at soccer basketball and
lacrosse I was all-american and soccer
and lacrosse and all New England and
basketball in high school and it was one
of those things that became just this
positive feedback loop the more I put in
the better I became and the more
recognition I got and the more my
confidence grew so I gave everything to
soccer I gave everything to sport every
single day every decision I made every
friend I chose to have all was based on
my my participation in sports I wasn’t
going out on Friday nights in high
school in college because I had games
every single Saturday and that meant
that I was making right choices about
what I put into my body I selected my
friends my mom likes to use the word
riffraff I wasn’t hanging out with
riffraff you know in high school in
college because I wanted to be around
like-minded people people that were as
committed to being successful on a field
as I was and certain people have that in
certain people don’t and so all of these
decisions that I can look back and say
that I made that I didn’t really think
much of them now but for the young
people here making decisions like that
that have long-term consequences are the
most important moments in our lives I
believe and so for me I can attribute
that all back to sports
so I was very fortunate like I said I
was successful in soccer I went and
played at Brown University and upon
graduating in 2001 I was even more
fortunate to get a call to go down to a
combine in Florida and try out for the
newly formed woman’s it was WS a woman’s
United Soccer Association which was the
first woman’s professional league and I
remember going down and I was about 15
maybe 16 pounds overweight but I was
like whatever I’ll be good I went down
and I did not make the team it was the
first time in my life that Becca didn’t
make a team I was always used to being
on the team captaining the team being
the player and I went down name wasn’t
on a roster name wasn’t called back and
it was devastating devastating I
remember in that moment I was like 21
and I was like my career is over I’m
never gonna play good and I just
remember this kind of sliding door
moment of thinking do I want to continue
to follow that dream or do I give it up
do I hang up the boots and move on and
clearly was not able to give up my first
love of soccer and so I continued to
play semi-pro for a couple years and won
two national championships with that
team and was fortunate enough to get a
phone call from the Boston Breakers to
come and play for their team they played
out to be you at the time they now play
over at well they’re not anymore but
they used to play at Harvard and so I
remember getting a phone call one
afternoon in the next morning I was
training on a field with Kristine Lilly
and I don’t know if anybody knows who
Kristine Lilly is but she’s one of the
greatest all-time players a woman soccer
ever and so I was I found myself on this
field in a very humbling space because
again having been used to being one of
the top players on a team I was the
worst of the worst on the berth Boston
Breakers I can say that now but I was
not a starter I was at the bottom of the
barrel on the team but I was still there
and I still knew that it was a dream
that I had my entire life so I still
continue to give it my all and we ended
up winning the league that year which
was tremendous and after the postseason
when we’d won the league we’d all sat
down after training session our general
manager is walking up to us and I
remember like elbowing my teammate
saying oh my god we’re gonna get a bonus
it’s gonna be like $50,000 we win the
league and he came over and quickly
burst that bubble by saying that you all
are out of jobs that the WUSA fold is
folding and that every team
is closing because there are not enough
funds to support women’s soccer women’s
professional soccer in the United States
and again devastation is an
understatement
I think you know every game we sold out
in Boston the market here for soccer was
amazing but it wasn’t enough to sustain
the league and so all of those women all
of my teammates at that moment either
continued to play if they’re on the
national or Olympic team but most of us
had to get jobs and that was when I was
thrust into non-profit work and I
started running a very small nonprofit
that married academics with athletics
and for me that was a no-brainer right
I’d always kind of combined or had this
formula of academics and athletics
equals success for me and so it was a no
brainer to dive into work that did that
what I did not account for was the
immediate reward that I felt seeing that
tangible action happened with young
people and seeing that needle move so
remarkably and seeing that
transformation in young people that when
you give them that opportunity to
participate in sport yes I went through
it but I’d never seen it firsthand and
so running a nonprofit that provided
access an opportunity to participate in
sport I could see the armor being built
around these young people to protect
them from their fears to protect them
from their anxieties and that for me was
the most rewarding experience working in
non-profit I knew I was hooked I knew
it’s where I want it to be I will say
though the difference having worked like
I said I worked at the Boston Celtics
from 2006 through 10 through their
championship and I’m now here running
the Red Sox Foundation as executive
director the difference between working
in a front office for a professional
sports team as you can imagine is our
brands are our power right I can go
anywhere and wear a hat with a be on it
one letter and people know exactly what
that stands for
and people will open the door for me and
people will call me back and that power
as an executive director is so
transformative and really at the crux of
my success because I now feel so
privileged to have the resources that we
have here at the Boston Red Sox and the
resources I had at the Celtics which as
you can see one of the resources here is
Fenway Park
I get to host events in here you know I
get to have access to players and there
was a player down there there’s a player
right there
we get to get these guys and bring them
into schools and bring them into
hospitals and and leverage their
celebrity to influence and incent young
people to do better in school we get
tickets we have programming so all these
assets and resources that I can put my
hands on and turn on that around and put
dump it into the New England community
it’s really a privilege and something
that I that excites me and drives me
every single day I will say though the
distinct difference between the Celtics
and the Red Sox is Red Sox Nation they
are crazy I can say without a doubt that
we have the greatest fans in all of
professional sports I think coming here
I was not prepared for the craziness the
fierce loyalty the insatiable appetite
that our fans have they want access to
everything which is great you know as an
executive director so much of what I do
is put on events here in family Park or
put on events that leverage the team or
the the ballpark and every single event
we have we’d have people crazy fans
knocking down our door wanting to come
and that that’s what we want their
support helps generate the revenue that
and turn around and dump back into the
community as resources for our young
people and so it’s very very helpful as
crazy as they are to have Red Sox Nation
and I’m committed to Red Sox Nation to
making sure that they continue to have
the access because I know that’s what
they want and so you know that was I
think a growing growth for me coming to
the Red Sox’s I was not prepared for how
many fans we have that are at every
single game and we have what you guys
probably know more than I hunted and
something games a season they are here
every game wanting more and more and
more and more so in my position I really
try to leverage that power and that
support to do to do better in the
community and so you know moving forward
now that I have young children I have
three kids one three and five which is
crazytown crazy times every single I’m
like blacked out right now I don’t even
know what I’m saying because I didn’t
sleep last night but having children I’m
even more deeply committed to my cause
and my personal mission of giving back
because I can see on my young children
the need for that space and that that
opportunity to grow in their confidence
the need for that space to kill their
fears and their
ladies and so I very intentionally
create a household that is free of fear
and free of anxiety and I very
intentionally make sure that my children
have the space to grow into themselves
and to grow their confidence through
sports or through arts or for whatever
it is and we’re all we all have
different needs that I and I respect
that but for me here I think it’s making
sure that I can take that personal
mission that I have for my kids and have
that same intensity and same intention
and apply it to the young people across
New England because that really is our
mission here and I’ll just close by
saying that you know for me I’m very
much driven again by the need to win yes
and my competitiveness but more than
that it is the culture here that has
empowered me to continue to chase my
dreams the leadership here at the Red
Sox Foundation and the Red Sox really
really are deeply committed to
philanthropy and deeply committed to the
work that we’re doing through the
foundation and so that leadership
coupled with Red Sox Nation who is not
going anywhere clearly and will be
behind supporting the Red Sox foundation
really is going to infuse my ability to
be successful in the New England
community and so I just I I thank you
all for being here today I thank you for
this opportunity and I promise that I
will continue to do this work thank you [Applause]
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