The Most Powerful Women in Sports 2026: Wielding Influence to Elevate Others
February 4, 2026
There’s never been more high-profile women in the world of sports, both on the court and behind the scenes, making the kind of deals previously unheard of for female athletes.
Whether it’s building a new league from scratch, elevating voices no one has heard before, or fighting for athletes’ post-competition careers, our Most Powerful Women in Sports 2026 honorees are blazing trails that simply didn’t exist before.
This year’s judges grappled with the evolving definition of power within sports. Our internal team looked at the influence being exercised by executives and players, as well as agents and creators using their talents to call attention to others.
The Most Powerful Women in Sports 2026 list features 35 honorees who significantly advanced their organizations and sports, leaving a blueprint for others to follow.
Val Ackerman
The future of college sports is being built right now, from NIL rules and regulations to conference realignments and the introduction of private equity. Through it all, Val Ackerman has brought her steady, strategic leadership to the Big East Conference. Last year alone, Ackerman secured a six-year digital media rights deal with ESPN that gives visibility to all 22 Big East sports, expanded brand activations, and oversaw the sold-out Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden. She also led the conference’s move to a new home inside the Empire State Building, reinforcing its New York identity, and continued her longstanding mentorship role with espnW to promote inclusion and women leaders in sports.
Liz Buhn
With no true offseason, tennis needs marketing strategies that capitalize on its year-round elite competition. Liz Buhn has led Tennis Channel’s transformation by putting the focus on social-first, cross-culture storytelling that meets fans across all touch points, elevating storylines that blend tennis with lifestyle content and highlighting the sport’s increasing diversity. Buhn has further expanded tennis into culture spaces through influencer partnerships and inclusive programming with the likes of Essence and Popsugar. Through her work, Tennis Channel’s 2025 WTA Finals audience grew by 16%, with the share of adults 18-49 jumping 68% and doubling overall app viewing (106%).
Suzy Deering
As the chief executive of Publicis Sports, Suzy Deering operates at the intersection of marketing, culture, and technology. With three decades of experience working with organizations including NASCAR, the NFL and MLB, Deering is building one of the industry’s most comprehensive sports practices, combining data, media, creators, and expert voices to help brands prove ROI at scale. One of the few women leading a global sports agency of this size, Deering has guided key acquisitions, launched Women’s Sports Connect, and forged innovative partnerships such as Publicis Sports’ deal with Genius Sports to create more engaging fan experiences.
Uzma Rawn Dowler
After major rule changes reinvigorated Major League Baseball, its marketing needed a refresh to keep the interest of a younger, more diverse fanbase. Enter Uzma Rawn Dowler, who has propelled baseball into new cultural territory since being promoted to CMO in December 2024. Last year for the first time, MLB began and ended its season in two different countries outside of the U.S., with Opening Day in Tokyo and the World Series ending in Toronto, drawing one of the sport’s largest worldwide audiences in decades. Dowler and her team are also growing fan engagement with initiatives such as the “Heroes of the Game” anime campaign, the Pharrell-starring “October Hits Different” postseason rollout, and expanded Boardroom content partnership.
Elle Duncan
As Netflix expands its live sports offerings into Major League Baseball games and World Wrestling Federation events, the streamer needed a proven analyst with a charismatic hosting style to lead its coverage. Over nearly a decade at ESPN, Elle Duncan has become a gameday mainstay, hosting the network’s flagship SportsCenter program and leading its coverage of college and professional basketball. Beginning this year, she’s bringing that expertise to Netflix as on-air host across sports and live events. “For a lifelong utility player, a multisport assignment is a full-circle moment,” Duncan said. “I’m bringing boundless energy, storytelling, and bad puns no one asked for but will be subjected to anyway.”
Rheann Engelke
Promoting the athletes in women’s sports is not just negotiating the right contracts—it’s being an advocate. As head of women’s sports at marketing, production, and representation firm Range Sports, Rheann Engelke has secured more than $12.5 million in partnerships with brands ranging from Adidas and Glossier to Conair and Michelob Ultra, while advancing equity, visibility, and creative opportunity. Engelke represents an elite roster spanning WNBA champions, Olympic and Paralympic medalists, and NCAA stars, notably helping to turn Team USA rugby sensation Ilona Maher into a global crossover figure. Beyond endorsements, Engelke expands athletes’ careers into media, production and storytelling—building power that lasts well beyond competition.
Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick
Since arriving as CMO of the LA Rams in 2021, Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick has made “Defiantly Original” the team’s internal mantra and embodied it by delivering award-winning, Hollywood-level campaigns that drive more than a billion owned-and-operated impressions annually and fuel significant fan growth. From Draft Films featuring A-listers like Bryan Cranston to experiential tentpoles such as the Rams Draft House, her work has won Clio Sports, Webbys, and more. A former Live Nation CMO, Frederick pairs data-driven strategy with cultural cachet to build year-round fandom.
Dany Garcia
There’s no playbook for what Dany Garcia has accomplished in the sports world. The co-owner of the United Football League—the first woman to hold a co-equal or majority stake in a U.S. pro sports league—and chairwoman of The Garcia Companies added founder to her list of titles last year with Danimás. The luxury performance brand and media platform serves strength-training women, Garcia among them, in the gym and beyond. An athlete-first league owner and visionary brand builder, Garcia pairs cultural influence with ownership, shaping a more inclusive future for sport..
Mónica Gil
At NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, Mónica Gil is reshaping how sports stories are told, connecting millions of fans across borders and cultures. Under her marketing leadership, Telemundo delivered its largest Spanish-language Olympics ever in Paris by bringing on over 40 hosts and reporters hailing from the Hispanic communities watching back home, helping to drive record viewership for the Games. Her work previously helped reach 96% of U.S. Hispanic households during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and she has equally ambitious plans for the 2026 tournament. Off the field, Gil champions purpose-driven impact through platforms like Mujeres Imparables and The Playmakers to elevate women leaders, social responsibility, and Latinx voices.
Kayla Green
When women’s track & field event Athlos launched as an experiment two years ago, Kayla Green set out to make it more than a moment. As CMO, the former Angel City FC creative built the marketing, media, and partnership engine that turned Athlos NYC into a cultural event that drew 4.5 million viewers in year two across ION, X, YouTube, and ESPN+, with 26 million social impressions. In 2025, Green secured 16 brand partners, adding Cash App and Instacart to sponsors Toyota and Tiffany & Co., doubling revenue growth with athlete-first activations and event revenue shared with competitors. Now, with multi-platform distribution and a team-based league planned for 2026, she’s proving track can scale.
Odessa “OJ” Jenkins
With the WNFC’s IX Cup tip-off on ESPN2 in 2025, Odessa “OJ” Jenkins delivered a landmark moment: a Women’s National Football Conference championship airing live on national TV. Not only that, the game became the network’s most-watched program that day. As founder and CEO, Jenkins has spent five years building the league into a 16-team property with real media, sponsors and scale. This year she’s added a national streaming deal with Victory+, Super Bowl-week programming with Dove, and new brand partnerships, while bringing on athletes from 19 countries. Jenkins’ relentless efforts have pushed women’s football into the mainstream in just five years.
Annie Lokesh
Turning the iconic X Games tournament into a year-round, team-based, co-ed sports league is an entirely different business, but Annie Lokesh was ready for the challenge. Previously the No. 2 executive at the WNBA during its period of historic funding and media growth, Lokesh was named head of the X Games League in March 2025. She designed the entire league from scratch, notable for its economics—athletes will receive base compensation in addition to any endorsements or prizes—and a club system for an eight-city global competition. Look for the league’s first season to begin in Summer 2026, following the inaugural XGL draft set at LA’s fan experience venue Cosm.
Michon Martin
Just 10 years ago, Las Vegas didn’t have a single professional sports team. Today, it’s home to the NFL’s Raiders, the NHL’s Golden Knights, the WNBA’s three-time champion Aces, and a Formula 1 Grand Prix that takes place partially on the iconic Strip. (The MLB’s Athletics are also heading to Sin City in 2028). As CEO of Las Vegas’ longtime creative agency of record R&R partners, Michon Martin has been among the key leaders in the city’s evolution into a sports epicenter. To tout everything Las Vegas now has to offer, R&R launched the city’s first new brand platform in 20 years, “Welcome to Fabulous,” in September.
Karina Martinez
Social-first media agency Drafted began after Karina Martinez and her co-founder decided to stop waiting for the spotlight to shine on Latina athletes and coaches, and built a company where they’re always front and center. As CEO, she aims to extend athletes’ careers beyond the game, connecting them to opportunities in media, brand partnerships, and professional development. Martinez has positioned Drafted as a bridge between sports, culture, and the workforce, helping athletes translate their competitive skills into long-term value. By turning post-playing uncertainty into possibility, Martinez has created a platform that treats athletes as assets well beyond their final whistle.
Louise McEwen
Even though she’s not a Formula 1 driver, Louise McEwen got all the way to the podium at the Miami Grand Prix, where she became just the 11th woman to collect a Constructors’ Championship trophy. As the CMO of McLaren Racing, she has turned the team into a cultural force off the track, pairing racing success with deeply immersive touch points such as McLaren’s 2024 Ayrton Senna tribute livery, its most successful campaign ever. From bringing out 40,000 race fans with London Live to F1’s first women’s apparel collaboration with Abercrombie & Fitch, McEwen is a passionately fan-first marketer who has mastered meeting audiences where others didn’t even think to look for them.
Amy Neben
As more women enter the professional sports world, athlete representation is changing. Amy Neben, partner at Select Management Group, has built a long-term model that turns peak performance into lasting careers, from NIL strategy and brand building to entrepreneurship and hands-on mentorship. Neben finds emerging stars and guides them through sudden visibility while helping them own their narratives and businesses. Her roster includes gymnast Jordan Chiles, Paralympian Oksana Masters, and skateboarder Sky Brown, with partnerships spanning Nike, Visa, Chanel, Omega, and more. Last year, Neben launched a dedicated Select Sports division to further put power back in the hands of her clients.
Gina Paradiso
Over the past year, Gina Paradiso turned momentum in women’s sports into real deals, ownership and media power. As chief content officer at Lift Sports Management, she expanded the agency’s roster and portfolio with six- and seven-figure partnerships for athletes like Sydney Douglas, Maya Brady and WNBA champion Dearica Hamby, spanning brands from Puma and Ulta to Easton Rawlings. A certified WNBA/NBA agent managing more than 60 athletes and creators, Paradiso has also grown Lift’s NIL business and launched creator-led IP, including the Unsupervised podcast with Togethxr. Her focus: contracts, content, and control that let women athletes build lasting platforms.
Giselle Parets
As executive producer at Religion of Sports studio, Giselle Parets has built a slate that centers athletes’ inner lives. She has guided projects like Simone Biles Rising—which had a No. 1 debut on Netflix and won a Critics Choice Award—alongside In the Arena: Serena Williams. Since the studio’s founding in 2017, Parets has helped grow it into a destination for character-driven sports films across Netflix, Apple TV+, and Amazon. In 2024, she expanded that vision as showrunner on Hulu’s Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, extending the reach of ROS into culture-spanning premium storytelling.
Julia Pecora
When the New York Islanders needed a hand to get out of the NHL’s revenue basement, they called Julia Pecora. She got the team into the league’s top half in revenue—within a single year. As VP of partnerships, she secured new multi-year deals with national and regional brands, turning sponsorships into long-term business relationships that strengthened both revenue and reputation. Her approach favors shared values over quick wins, positioning the Islanders as a stronger New York sports property. Beyond the numbers, Pecora is known for connecting people and mentoring emerging leaders, particularly women navigating male-dominated fields.
Emily Prazer
The Las Vegas Grand Prix hit the Strip in November 2023, a project three years in the making for race president and CEO Emily Prazer. The event drew more than 300,000 attendees and tens of millions of broadcast viewers worldwide in its inaugural year, generating over $1.5 billion in economic impact for the city—surpassing the total of Super Bowl 2023 and earning Prazer the promotion to the league’s chief commercial officer. With over a decade of experience in the sports and entertainment industries, Prazer now wields global and regional commercial partnerships, marketing, and hospitality to amplify elite motorsports stateside and beyond.
Taylor Rooks
Taylor Rooks has become one of the most trusted voices in modern sports media, now stepping into a marquee role as a host for NBA on Prime Video. Known for interviews that consistently draw out athletes’ candor and cultural insight, Rooks brings credibility built through stops at Bleacher Report, TNT Sports, and Turner Sports. Her influence extends beyond the mic: In 2025, she signed as a brand partner with Crown Royal, Lowe’s, and Procter & Gamble. Balancing sharp journalism with crossover appeal, Rooks owns the intersection of basketball, culture, and brand storytelling.
Kate Schoff
There are no cookie-cutter ambitions when it comes to women’s sports investment at JPMorgan Chase. Leading the way is head of sports and entertainment marketing Kate Schoff, who has brokered partnerships spanning the US Open, Madison Square Garden, and the PGA. But her defining move came with Chase’s investment in the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team in more than a decade, which paired brand visibility with community programs supporting small businesses and local creators. Schoff also extended Chase’s 44-year US Open relationship and evolved athlete partnerships with A’ja Wilson and Alex Morgan, treating women’s sports as a long-term asset that creates value for fans and their communities.
Constance Schwartz-Morini
Under the leadership of CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini, SMAC Entertainment helped their clients sign a brand deal almost every other day of 2025. She personally secured Deion Sanders’ $54 million contract with the University of Colorado, then followed it with eight-figure endorsements for Coach Prime and a widely seen bladder cancer awareness campaign with Depend. She also guided Travis Hunter from college star to No. 2 NFL draft pick, building his off-field portfolio with State Farm, Snickers, and Adidas. Between the meteoric rise of flag football and multiple No. 1 Prime Video series, Schwartz-Morini’s success is a formidable combination of dealmaking and storytelling.
Claressa Shields
The only boxer in history, male or female, to become an undisputed world champion in two weight classes, Claressa Shields’ dominance inside the ring is matched only by her growing influence outside of it. In the past year, Shields has headlined major national campaigns with ESPN, Nike, and BET while balancing her mentorship work with young athletes through her Follow Your Dreams initiative, investing in her hometown of Flint, Mich., and using her global platform to challenge systemic barriers for women in boxing and advocate for fair pay and visibility in combat sports.
Jess Smith
Jess Smith didn’t ease the Golden State Valkyries into the WNBA in 2025—she launched them at full speed. As president, she oversaw an expansion franchise that made the playoffs in its first season, won 23 games (a WNBA expansion team record), and filled Chase Center with an average of 18,064 fans per game, the highest attendance in league history. Off the court, Smith landed marquee partners including JPMorgan Chase, Kaiser Permanente, and Sephora, while Valkyries merchandise became a breakout cultural signal, capped by the most expensive jersey in WNBA history. Player and coach honors followed, as did Deloitte’s Business Executive Leadership Award, cementing Smith’s strategic blend of entrepreneurship and competitive excellence for building a franchise.
Marissa Solis
Over 16 years at PepsiCo, Marissa Solis built her career on turning pop culture into brand momentum. She’s channeled that expertise into leading the NFL’s brand and consumer marketing since 2021. In that time, Solis has brought the game closer to fans and broadened the base, especially among young people, through initiatives like “Helmets Off” to develop player storytelling off the field and modernizing how the NFL shows up on social media. Bringing flag football into the mainstream has earned her a Sports Emmy and has been a key way for Solis, a Mexican immigrant, to give back to her community with the NFL Latino Youth Honors.
Kameryn Stanhouse
Kameryn Stanhouse’s path to IBM started in sports media relations at the University of Oklahoma and wound through Under Armour, where she helped power the “I Will What I Want” campaign featuring Misty Copeland and Gisele Bündchen, driving billions of impressions and redefining women’s relationship with the brand. Now as VP of global sports and entertainment partnerships at IBM, Stanhouse oversees relationships with Wimbledon, the US Open, the Masters, UFC, ESPN Fantasy Football, and Scuderia Ferrari HP. Her team delivers AI-driven fan experiences at massive scale, doubling daily users to Ferrari’s reimagined mobile platform and bringing on-demand narration for each swing to the Masters’ already data-rich app.
Kim Stone
When she became the Washington Spirit’s first CEO in January 2024, Kim Stone ran the women’s soccer club like a public company, reviewing 17 KPIs a month alongside owner Michele Kang. With her disciplined, data-driven approach, the Spirit is projecting 60% year-over-year revenue growth, led the NWSL in full-season ticket revenue gains in 2025, and drew a record 198,000 fans despite league-wide attendance dips. Stone brought sponsorship sales in-house, landing CVS Health’s three-year front-of-kit deal, and hired the league’s first creative director to launch fashion-forward merch that sold out on site. To cap it off, the Spirit played in the most-watched NWSL Championship series ever.
Emily Stutzman
Making women athletes impossible to ignore is the mission at Happylucky. As CEO of the woman- and queer-owned agency, Emily Stutzman has turned creative work into leverage, partnering with brands like Adidas, Stanley, and On Running to give women’s sports sustained visibility. Over the past year, her team led Adidas initiatives spotlighting WNBA players, launched League One Volleyball’s 2026 season, and told multidimensional stories about the grit, joy, challenges, and communities that shape NCAA women athletes. Stutzman pushes brands to invest beyond one-off moments, pairing athletes with brands willing to move past performative support and into long-term investment, narrative ownership, and meaningful cultural impact. Her values-driven leadership has made Happylucky a quiet force behind women’s sports’ growing cultural and commercial momentum.
Kami Taylor
The driving force behind one of the busiest marketing engines in sports, Octagon, EVP of experiential Kami Taylor leads a team of more than 200 delivering over 800 activations a year for clients such as Coca-Cola, AB InBev, BMW, and Bank of America. Last year, Taylor steered complex global programs tied to the FIFA Club World Cup, including Coca-Cola’s multi-continent Coin Toss Assistant and Match Ball Coordinator initiatives. She also led Mastercard’s McLaren F1 partnership launch, generating 1.6 billion views. Since 2020, Taylor has modernized Octagon’s experiential practice while building a pipeline of women leaders inside the agency.
Togethxr
Togethxr began when twice-FIFA Women’s World Cup-winning soccer star Alex Morgan took a look at the sports landscape in 2021 and didn’t like what she saw. When she recruited fellow elite athletes Sue Bird, Chloé Kim, and Simone Manuel to start media and commerce company Togethxr, less than 5% of sports coverage focused on women. The four founders, alongside chief brand officer Jess Robertson, set out to put women’s sports squarely in the spotlight through brand partnerships, a media engine for telling athlete stories, and its signature “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” merchandise, which has become a visible badge of fandom across leagues and locker rooms. By pairing cultural fluency with star power, they’ve built a platform that converts attention into sustained momentum—and has boosted women’s share of sports coverage to 20%.
Cameron Wagner
Cameron Wagner has spent the past five years building Elevate’s brand consulting and activation business from scratch. In 2024, that bet paid off with 120% growth over the prior year; in 2025, client retention sat above 90%. As chief client officer, Wagner has turned the vertical into one of Elevate’s most essential engines, securing new blue-chip clients while expanding services so brands can activate under one roof. She also helped bring Elevate’s Epic fan insights platform to life, giving teams and sponsors uncommon clarity on audiences. To do this, Wagner pairs data fluency with trust-based leadership, driving growth while changing who holds power inside sports agencies.
Denise White
Nearly three decades ago, Denise White made history by opening EAG Sports Management, becoming the first woman to own her own sports management firm—and proving every year since why it matters. Her client roster has included MMA fighter Jon Jones, NFL tight end Antonio Gates, NWLS player Christen Press, WNBA star Swin Cash, and dozens more, built through a reputation for trust, crisis management, and thinking beyond her clients’ on-field careers. Honored by the NFL with the She Mogul Award and named an SBJ Game Changer, her latest honor is a TV series inspired by her life—another marker of a career that changed who gets to lead.
Susie Wolff
In just two seasons, Susie Wolff took F1 Academy from an idea to a global series. She united all 10 Formula 1 teams behind the all-women championship, drove more than $20 million in sponsorship, and built a model that covers 82% of each driver’s budget, lowering one of motorsport’s biggest barriers. She secured broadcast deals across 160 territories, expanded the grid to 18 cars, and added races in Canada and China to grow the audience. Partnerships with Charlotte Tilbury, TAG Heuer, and American Express proved the commercial case. Even her memoir, Driven, directs visibility back into the series, building lasting infrastructure for women in racing.
Michelle Zarzaca
When Warner Bros. Discovery was assembling NHL on TNT in 2021, their architect was Michelle Zarzaca. With just months between the league’s return to WBD and Opening Night, she assembled and negotiated the full talent roster, pairing Wayne Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Rick Tocchet, and Anson Carter into a studio team that clicked instantly. The debut season delivered a 29% ratings jump and a Sports Emmy nomination. Zarzaca continues to build and elevate talent, changing the face of NHL coverage by empowering them to be authentic and engaging. Her influence lives in the voices fans now associate with hockey—and the modern tone of NHL coverage itself. Ad Week
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