Anne Doepner knows what it’s like to be the only woman in the room. For the first 13 years of her career working for the Minnesota Vikings, that was her day-to-day.
“I found myself in an underrepresented space as a woman working in a very heavily male-dominated corner of an already male-dominated business,” she said.
Doepner didn’t let this get to her. Rather, she became the change she wished to see at the organization, becoming the first director of inclusion and employee investment for an NFL team in September 2019.
Now she’s taking her work to the next level as she hopes to inspire the next generation of women in sports as a speaker at USA Basketball’s Women in the Game conference, which is being held March 31 alongside the NCAA Final Four in Minneapolis. Joining with Mental Performance Consultant and Sport Psychology Resident Dr. Ashley Zapata, Minnesota Lynx/USA Basketball Women’s National Team head coach Cheryl Reeve, broadcast personality Ari Chambers and University of Minnesota’s Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, Doepner will speak to young women who hope to break into the sports industry.