How Diamondback’s General Counsel makes sure women receive equal recognition.
“Though you haven’t seen her tote a bat and ball, Nona M. Lee has been a big part of many Valley sports teams. Combining her love of sports with her profession as a litigator, she has worked for almost all of the Arizona sports teams, including the Phoenix Suns, the Phoenix Mercury, the Arizona Rattlers and, currently, the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Source)”
On Saturday Evening June 10, 2017, Nona M. Lee, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Arizona Diamondbacks will receive the 2017 Positively Powerful Woman Award for Global Leadership, a recognition reserved for women who are making a particularly remarkable and distinct international impact. Sports, law, business and women’s rights join forces through her commitment.
How does she activate women’s rights?
She is a successful negotiator and team member. Nona was a key part of the team that assisted in the negotiations with FOX Sports Arizona on a 20-year extension that began in 2016 and is the largest financial transaction in franchise history. - She has powerful role models. When asked, Nona said she was most inspired to be the positively powerful woman that she is by Billie Jean King. Nona served on the board of Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation in New York, dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity.
- She continues as a leader in sports and law. Nona also serves on the board of the Sports Lawyers Association, a non-profit, international professional organization whose common goal is the understanding, advancement and ethical practice of sports law; and on the Pepperdine Athletic Board.
- And she is active in the community. She is the founder of the Phoenix Women’s Sports Association, an Arizona non-profit organization that helps girls and women find their power through sports; the board of Florence Crittenton, a local non-profit designed to help at-risk girls overcome issues of abuse, neglect, teen pregnancy, teen parenting and behavioral and/or mental problems; the Board of the Phoenix Regional Sports Commission, the mission of which is to “enrich our community through sports.
Nona goes beyond the call of duty to make sure that women receive equal recognition in the area of sports and community development. She has proven her commitment to women in sports and has been instrumental in ensuring organizations that support women and girls are at economic development table.
The Positively Powerful nominators aren’t the only ones who have recognized Nona. She is a past recipient of the YWCA of Maricopa County’s Sports Leader Award, was recognized by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the Women in Business honorees and was also an Athena Award honoree. She has received the Joyce Holsey Award of Excellence from the Black Women Lawyer’s Association and has been recognized as one of the Arizona Foothills Magazine’s “Women Who Move the Valley.” The public is invited to celebrate Nona’s global leadership as well as all of the 2017 Positively Powerful Woman Award recipients: Lisa Loo, the first woman of color to be President of the Arizona Bar Association – Social Justice Leadership, VP of Legal Affairs and Deputy General Counsel at Arizona State University; Janet West, Consulting with Invictus International Holding, formerly VP of Marketing and Sales at Cox Communications – Marketing Leadership; Jackie Wszalek, owner of Splash Printing and Marketing, Founder WOWOB – Entrepreneurial Leadership; and Rhonda Peters James, Senior Program Manager, Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy External Partnerships Group, Intel Corporation – STEAM Leadership.
The June 10 Awards Gala will be held at the Desert Botanical Garden (1201 N. Galvin Parkway in Phoenix) beginning with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by the 2017 awards presentations and special recognition of all previous years’ honorees. Register Now
The 2017 10th Anniversary celebration also includes the Global Women World Café to be held on June 9, 9:30 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., at the Fresh Start Women’s Foundation, 1130 E. McDowell Rd., Phoenix. The Global Women World Café is a structured conversational process that facilitates and encourages discussions in small groups and then links groups’ ideas within a larger group to access the collective knowledge and wisdom of participants in the room.
Dr. Joel P. Martin
The Positively Powerful Awards and Programs are hosted by Founder and Executive Producer, Dr. Joel P. Martin, President of Triad West, Inc. which provides corporations with specialist support in executive coaching, leadership development, diversity, inclusion and cultural competency.
2017 Positively Powerful Woman Awards Sponsors
