Maria Taylor – Host & Analyst ESPN & SEC Network, America

Maria (@mariataylor) is a television analyst and host with SEC Network, covering college football, volleyball and basketball. She recently started a nonprofit organization called ‘The Winning Edge Leadership Academy’ with a goal to help foster and mentor the next generation of women and minority leaders in the sports industry.

Becoming a role model for young women of color has given her purpose away from her job on screen.

“I’ll be on the road and a young black girl will come up to me and say, ‘I promise you, I never thought I could do this job until I saw you doing it.’ That gives me some strength and power to go on to the next day until I see the next young kid or a dad that comes up to me and says the same thing.

I think that if I was just doing sports broadcasting, and it was all about the game, that would get old after a while.”