MEET THE TEAM

Early Praise and Enthusiasm for
Always An Athlete book

Athletes, Coaches & Executives

Jenna Fuentes

Advisor, Guidance Groups

Jenna Fuentes, a former volleyball and track and field competitive athlete, is dedicated to facilitating transformative learning and community experiences worldwide. With a background in curating innovative programs across sectors like edtech, startup accelerators, higher education, and nonprofits, she specializes in enhancing company cultures, scaling initiatives, and fostering meaningful dialogue.

Inspired by a transformative stay in Spain and living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she prioritizes building inclusive communities and promoting humanity in technology. She values creativity, learning, and fostering connections across diverse sectors.

Jenna will be helping leading Guidance Groups, including specialized programs for athletes, focused on creativity, innovation, personal development, and fostering open dialogue and action steps for athletes.

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Jenné Blackburn

Author

Jenné Blackburn is a social good activist, entrepreneur, and lifelong athlete. Founder of Always An Athlete® and Ball2Bike®, she is passionate about helping athletes transition to the next phase of their personal and athletic lives. The book “Always an Athlete” chronicles the beginnings of Ball2Bike®, and aims to engage audiences in the story, mission, and vision of this national campaign to keep our nations athletes moving forward on a bicycle. Blackburn has been at the forefront of innovative and effective strategies for more than 13 years working with brands like VMware, WeWork, SONY, Location Based Technologies, American Idol/ABC, USA Volleyball and many local, national and global NGO's.

Her research interests include women’s empowerment, leveling the playing field for underestimated entrepreneurs, and the intersection of sport and community development.

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Dr Sarah Hiller

Partner, Advisor

Sarah Hillyer is an international sports consultant with more than twenty years of experience. She works to promote peace, empowerment, and diplomacy for girls, women, refugees, and persons with disabilities around the world.

Hillyer has worked in more than fifteen countries on four continents, with the majority of her efforts spent developing sports programs with Muslim women in the Middle East. The 2009 Eva Mag’s Woman of the Year and the 2011 Generations for Peace Post-Doctoral Fellow, Hillyer is recognized as one of the leading practitioners in the field of sport for development and peace.

At the Center for Sport Peace and Society, Hillyer writes grants, crafts curriculum, and develops applied research projects that promote peace and inclusivity for all through sport. She also serves as the lead coordinator on the US Department of State’s Global Sports Mentoring Program initiative, which has hosted more than 400 youth athletes, women’s empowerment and disability rights advocates from more than seventy countries on sports-based exchanges.

Hillyer received her PhD from the University of Tennessee in sport sociology and also a master’s degree in sport psychology from Murray State University. Hillyer completed her undergraduate work in sport management at Liberty University, where she also played basketball.

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Dr Nancy Major

Advisor

An accomplished physician and professor, Nancy Major, MD, holds more than 25 years of experience and is a leader in the field of radiology with specialty training in orthopedic-related imaging and arthritis. She is a well-respected educator and author of numerous scientific publications

She is a member of numerous radiology and orthopedic societies. She serves on the advisory board of The V Foundation for cancer research, Roundup River Ranch, a SeriousFun Network Camp, Global Sports Mentorship Program, the Kerry Murphy Kealy Center for Health Innovation, the Stuart Scott Foundation and ESPNW.

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Dr Jill Brooks

Advisor

Dr. Brooks has authored numerous articles and book chapters in the areas of neurogenic speech and language disorders, executive dysfunction, and concussion in sports. She has a particular interest in prevention of concussion in sports and sex and gender issues and concussion. Dr. Brooks’ primary research and clinical practice relates to education and surveillance of concussion in sports at both the high school and college levels.

Dr. Brooks’ research in the area of concussion in female student-athletes has been featured in ESPN magazine, on ESPN “Outside the Lines” and Good Morning America as well as locally on multiple TV and radio shows. She has presented at many professional meetings and most recently presented “The Female Athlete and Concussion” at the University of Minnesota Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Dr. Brooks was named one of the “Top Women Who Will Change the Way Sports are Played” by ESPN Magazine in August of 2012. Dr. Brooks has served as a consultant in the area of concussion at the high school, college and professional sports levels.

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