Meet the Team
Laura Gentile was instrumental in launching espnW, ESPN’s first dedicated business built to serve women who love sports.
Prior to researching and working to launch espnW, Gentile served as vice president, chief of staff at ESPN. In that role, Gentile worked directly with George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, on all aspects of the company’s business. She played an instrumental role in the development of “ESPN on ABC,” which brought the ESPN brand to the ABC television platform.
Before working in the office of the president, Gentile was senior director of brand management within ESPN’s consumer marketing department. In that role she was responsible for driving the marketing direction for properties including the NFL, SportsCenter and the NHL. Gentile joined ESPN in January 2003 as director, advertising and marketing. Her first assignment was the positioning and promotion of ESPN25, ESPN’s year-long 25th anniversary campaign that celebrated sports fans and created ESPN’s first online community of fans.
Gentile honed her marketing and advertising skills as a senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Her team led the development of IBM’s e-business infrastructure campaign that earned the 2002 GRAND EFFIE for advertising effectiveness, a first in Ogilvy & Mather’s history.
Gentile was a fellow of WICT’s Betsy Magness Leadership Institute Class XVII, and was named to Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 Class of 2012 and an SBJ Game-Changer. She was appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports, developed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In April 2013, Gentile received the Advertising Women of NY Changing the Game Paradigm Shift Award and WICT’s Signature Accolade for espnW’s Global Sports Mentoring Program. Gentile was recently named to the Women’s Sports Foundation Advisory Panel. In November 2014, she was one of 17 participants in the inaugural Women in Sports and Events (WISE) and Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth’s Executive Leadership Institute, a program created specifically for the advancement and retention of female executives in the sports industry.
A graduate of Duke University in 1994 with a double major in English and political science, she earned an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management in 1996. While an undergraduate, Gentile garnered All-America and All-ACC honors in field hockey and was a two-time team captain. She led Duke to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and was named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary field hockey team.
Prior to researching and working to launch espnW, Gentile served as vice president, chief of staff at ESPN. In that role, Gentile worked directly with George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, on all aspects of the company’s business. She played an instrumental role in the development of “ESPN on ABC,” which brought the ESPN brand to the ABC television platform.
Before working in the office of the president, Gentile was senior director of brand management within ESPN’s consumer marketing department. In that role she was responsible for driving the marketing direction for properties including the NFL, SportsCenter and the NHL. Gentile joined ESPN in January 2003 as director, advertising and marketing. Her first assignment was the positioning and promotion of ESPN25, ESPN’s year-long 25th anniversary campaign that celebrated sports fans and created ESPN’s first online community of fans.
Gentile honed her marketing and advertising skills as a senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Her team led the development of IBM’s e-business infrastructure campaign that earned the 2002 GRAND EFFIE for advertising effectiveness, a first in Ogilvy & Mather’s history.
Gentile was a fellow of WICT’s Betsy Magness Leadership Institute Class XVII, and was named to Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 Class of 2012 and an SBJ Game-Changer. She was appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports, developed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In April 2013, Gentile received the Advertising Women of NY Changing the Game Paradigm Shift Award and WICT’s Signature Accolade for espnW’s Global Sports Mentoring Program. Gentile was recently named to the Women’s Sports Foundation Advisory Panel. In November 2014, she was one of 17 participants in the inaugural Women in Sports and Events (WISE) and Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth’s Executive Leadership Institute, a program created specifically for the advancement and retention of female executives in the sports industry.
A graduate of Duke University in 1994 with a double major in English and political science, she earned an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management in 1996. While an undergraduate, Gentile garnered All-America and All-ACC honors in field hockey and was a two-time team captain. She led Duke to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and was named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary field hockey team.
Alison Overholt develops comprehensive content strategies for espnW through digital, mobile, social, print, video and events.
Overholt first joined ESPN in 2005 as general editor, sports business and lifestyle, for ESPN The Magazine. In 2007, she was elevated to senior editor, special projects, ESPN The Magazine, overseeing its enterprise and investigative team, as well as managing the publication’s Olympics and X Games coverage. In 2009, Overholt was part of ESPN’s early efforts to research and develop a sports media offering for women and was espnW’s founding editor. From 2011 - 2014, Overholt ran her own digital content strategy firm, crafting social media and digital publishing strategies, developing apps, and producing short films for clients including Hearst Publishing, The New York City Economic Development Corporation, NASDAQ, The Robin Hood Foundation, Trinity Wall Street and more. She returned to espnW in the spring of 2014.
Overholt began her career as a writer and editor at Fast Company magazine, and her writing has also appeared in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, MORE, Working Mother, Cosmopolitan, Inc., Sports Illustrated: Women and Fitness. She is an essayist in the book anthology, "Tales From Another Mother Runner," published in 2015. Overholt has also served as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management since 2012.
In 2015, Overholt was named a "Director Who Does It All" at the Cynopsis Media Top Women in Digital Awards, and honored among the 2015 class of "Game Changers" by The Sports Business Journal. She was twice named to the TJFR/News Bios 30 Under 30 Rising Stars list (2003 and 2004), and received the AAJA National Print Journalism Award (2005, Unlimited Subject Matter) for her Fast Company cover story/profile of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Overholt was the editor on ESPN stories that earned the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award (2007), and both magazine and internet category wins from the New York Press Club Awards for Journalism (2010). She was a member of the ASME National Magazine Award-winning team for General Excellence at ESPN The Magazine in 2006.
Born in New York State, Overholt spent her childhood in Hong Kong. She was a Far East All-Star basketball player in high school, and is now an avid runner, having finished the Honolulu Marathon in 2003 and the New York City Marathon in 2013, with several half marathons between and since. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, with an A.B. in government.
Overholt first joined ESPN in 2005 as general editor, sports business and lifestyle, for ESPN The Magazine. In 2007, she was elevated to senior editor, special projects, ESPN The Magazine, overseeing its enterprise and investigative team, as well as managing the publication’s Olympics and X Games coverage. In 2009, Overholt was part of ESPN’s early efforts to research and develop a sports media offering for women and was espnW’s founding editor. From 2011 - 2014, Overholt ran her own digital content strategy firm, crafting social media and digital publishing strategies, developing apps, and producing short films for clients including Hearst Publishing, The New York City Economic Development Corporation, NASDAQ, The Robin Hood Foundation, Trinity Wall Street and more. She returned to espnW in the spring of 2014.
Overholt began her career as a writer and editor at Fast Company magazine, and her writing has also appeared in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, MORE, Working Mother, Cosmopolitan, Inc., Sports Illustrated: Women and Fitness. She is an essayist in the book anthology, "Tales From Another Mother Runner," published in 2015. Overholt has also served as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management since 2012.
In 2015, Overholt was named a "Director Who Does It All" at the Cynopsis Media Top Women in Digital Awards, and honored among the 2015 class of "Game Changers" by The Sports Business Journal. She was twice named to the TJFR/News Bios 30 Under 30 Rising Stars list (2003 and 2004), and received the AAJA National Print Journalism Award (2005, Unlimited Subject Matter) for her Fast Company cover story/profile of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Overholt was the editor on ESPN stories that earned the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award (2007), and both magazine and internet category wins from the New York Press Club Awards for Journalism (2010). She was a member of the ASME National Magazine Award-winning team for General Excellence at ESPN The Magazine in 2006.
Born in New York State, Overholt spent her childhood in Hong Kong. She was a Far East All-Star basketball player in high school, and is now an avid runner, having finished the Honolulu Marathon in 2003 and the New York City Marathon in 2013, with several half marathons between and since. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, with an A.B. in government.
Adena Andrews is a sports writer/ social media manager for espnW.com. She has also worked for CBSSports.com, where she covered all the behind the scenes action of shows on CBS Sports Network and CBS. She was formerly one of four black female sports columnists in the nation as a columnist at EspnW.com, a website fully dedicated to serving female athletes and fans She worked at ESPN the Magazine and NBA.com for three seasons before joining espnW. Adena has also edited for Adidas, Nike Women and Nike Running. According to Black Enterprise.com , she is one of the most influential sports professionals of color to follow on Twitter (@adena_andrews) and Shape Magazine nominated her blog, adenaandrews.com, as one of the best for sports nuts. Her professional journalism memberships include the National Association of Black Journalists where she is the Vice President of Social Media for the Sports Task Force and the Associated Press Sports Editors where she is a fellow in the inaugural Diversity Fellowship program. She holds degrees from the University of Southern California (B.A. Print Journalism ’07) and Georgia State University (M.S. Sports Administration ’11) and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. A native of Long Island, N.Y., she currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.