Ashleigh Huffman

Ashleigh Huffman is the Chief of Sports Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, working with stakeholders on foreign policy priorities such as disability rights, gender equity, and climate change while also advising on international sport policy. Prior to the State Department, Huffman was the global director of gender equality at the nonprofit Athletes for Hope and a professor at the University of Tennessee, where she founded the Center for Sport, Peace, and Society. In that role, she launched the award-winning Global Sports Mentoring Program, connecting international women's sports leaders with women executives in the United States to tackle pressing socio-political issues. Huffman has worked with athletes and coaches from more than 120 countries on business development and social change. She frequently leads workshops and keynotes on gender equity, sports diplomacy, global sports strategy, and athlete activism and was the former captain of her college basketball team.