Catherine M. Engelbert

"And the growth we're seeing as a league, I'm really pleased with, and I always like to talk about the work the players are doing. I call it player led and league facilitated in the social justice space. So the Social Justice Council in 2023, this is a player led council will concentrate their efforts on women's health, maternal health, a focus on advocacy in the black, brown, and LGBTQ plus communities. So, always proud of what our players do."

"And we're so proud of the diversity we're achieving in our coach and assistant coach. Nine out of twelve of our head coaches are now women and 77% of our assistant coaches are women. Of that, 70% are women of color or people of color. So really just an amazing transformation of that part of the league, the diversity and that pipeline to feed into becoming the next head coaches, whether it's in the WNBA, which I hope, or even the college game where they struggle a little more with women coaches more broadly, given our numbers."

"Every company I talk to, they all have a diversity, equity, and inclusion platform. They're all trying to bring in more diverse customers or consumers and what better place to partner with. The WNBA is one of the most diverse leagues in professional sports and 80% women of color."

"Yeah, I think as you've seen, again, using their social platforms, the WNBA players have really been advocating for the right answer here. So, I mean, it's certainly something, whether it's voting rights or other legislation, as far as advocating, they are there and as I said, health, equity, civic engagement and voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and then on the mental health side, very important. So I think all of those are an important part of the Social Justice Council's work. And again, as I said, it is player led, league facilitated. So we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to help our players."

"And so not that you can't be successful without it, but we have this moment to drive a diverse, inclusive platform that is broader than just basketball. It can address societal issues too. And why isn't the W the leading voice on some of these, especially women's societal issues? And I think player to player, they all are very socially conscious, but we need to bring that up at a league level to get the recognition nationally. So this isn't going to be it's a transformation. And that's one of the reasons I was hired."