Samantha co-founded her law firm, Ekstrand & Ekstrand, in 2002 with her husband in Durham, North Carolina. She focuses on sports law, which includes working with college coaches on contract negotiations, investigations, crisis management, and separation agreements, advising various sports boards of directors, and drafting and lobbying for NCAA legislation.

She graduated from St. Paul’s School (NH) where she was a tri-varsity athlete, then went on to earn her B.A. in History and Government cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she played on the Women’s Lacrosse team, including a trip to the NCAA Final Four. Samantha received her J.D. from Duke Law School and a M.A. in History from Duke University.

While at Duke, Samantha served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Duke University Women’s Lacrosse Team for seven years, during which time she had the honor of coaching her youngest sister, who captained the team to a Final Fours berth and an ACC Championship. Samantha has coached several sports at all different levels: youth, rec, club, high school, and college. She and her husband have five children who have played close to every sport offered within driving distance; four will be in college next year and one in high school.

Ellie Maybury is a performance consultant with extensive experience working in women’s soccer. Ellie has gained insight and knowledge from nearly two decades of working across a variety of female soccer environments. Her most recent employment was with the U.S. Soccer Federation, where she served as Head of Sport Science for the Youth National Teams before transitioning into the role of Head of Performance for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Before U.S. Soccer, Ellie held various positions at Birmingham City Women’s Football Club, The Football Association, and Nike. Ellie has recently launched ‘Soccer Herformance’, a performance consulting company that provides high-performance and sport science services across the female soccer landscape. Her passion lies with developing female-specific health, wellness, and performance initiatives, and through consulting, she provides performance services to players, practitioners, teams, and organizations, as well as driving research and innovation for female athletes.

Laurens holds a UEFA “A” license as well as U.S. Soccer “A” and Talent Scout license and has more than 18 years of professional experience at the club, high school, university and international levels. A native of the Netherlands, she worked closely with the Dutch Women’s National Teams and was an assistant coach for the KNVB U-15 Girls’ National Team. Additionally, she coached U-14 through U-19 National Team players at the Centre for Elite Sports and Education in Amsterdam. She served as a KNVB Academy Coach Educator, teaching the licenses for candidates who coach players from the U-5 to the U-19 age groups. In addition, Laurens contributed to the growth and success at Dutch Total Soccer through player identification, player development and coach education. She has also been the head coach of ODP Region I teams and a member of the Super-Y League National Scouting Staff and is a Talent Scout course educator.

Shari Summers is the Chief Soccer Growth Officer for USSF. In her role she focuses on growing participation in soccer across the U.S. and fostering high-quality, safe, and fun environments for play and development.

Shari formerly served as the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Operations at WAVE Sports & Entertainment (WSE), a sports media company. She also worked in strategy consulting at Bain & Company.

Shari has extensive experience working on strategic and operational projects across a diverse set of industries, with specialties include strategic planning, operating model design and implementation, and go-to-market and growth strategy. Through her various roles, she has considerable experience working closely with cross-functional leaders and teams to develop and implement strategies across the organization.

Skye is the founder of Soccer Parenting and The Sideline Project, aimed at engaging parents to make youth sports better. Skye is a sought after speaker for parents, coaches, clubs and players. A former professional player, Skye was a collegiate and youth All-American goalkeeper, Defensive MVP of the NCAA Final Four (1993) and State Champion track athlete. Skye has coached extensively at the grassroots, youth, and collegiate levels. An MBA graduate of the University of Richmond, Skye has earned her USSF “B” License, the National Goalkeeper License and is a Coach Educator for U.S. Soccer and United Soccer Coaches.

Twitter @SoccerParenting
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http://www.SoccerParenting.com
[email protected]
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Jono Callaghan
Head of Partnerships (North America), Veo 

Mitch LaGro
US West Market Manager