Former Vice President of Global Community Affairs at the Coca-Cola Company, City Council president and member of the Duke Board of Trustee, Lisa Borders is now the president WNBA. She has been taking to social media, giving interviews and creating partnerships to make the 20^th anniversary of the franchise its most successful yet. With her political and business experience, Borders knows how to get things done. Borders gave an interview with The Chronicle recently and discussed her plans for the WNBA.

Borders says that as far as the WNBA has come already, it’s still just the “tip of the iceberg.” “This is our 20th year, so we want to celebrate what’s been done. That’s huge. Two decades in existence and the incremental progress is not to be understated. But when you think of a 20-year-old… lived for a long time, done some terrific things, had some terrific experiences but the best part of life is probably in front of... I would submit to you that that’s exactly where we are with the WNBA,” she says.

Borders also said that her main reason for taking on this job is to simply support women. She says that there is “no place in the world where women are on equal footing as men,” giving the exception of Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making his cabinet half women and half men. She reminded us that, “By supporting women…you actually help everybody. When you support women, women always reinvest.… It’s a great investment when you invest in women because you lift all boats.”

A focus on basketball is also a reason why Borders chose this job, of course. As a lifelong lover of the sport, she was instrumental in bringing the Dream to Atlanta when she was a City Council member. She said knowing that Atlanta is a hub of the Civil Rights Movement made it even clearer that the city should have its own women’s sports team.

She says her years at Duke taught her to persevere. She also shared an insightful quote from her mother: “Failure is not fatal. It’s feedback.” This is the same sentiment that we hear over and over from athletes in the league. Sue Bird, in fact, gave the same message in a school assembly recently. We need more women like Borders running our organizations to help future youth see what they can truly do and make a difference.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia