Mary McVeigh

Mary joined Soccer Without Borders from the college coaching and professional ranks, earning her Master's degree in Sociology from Lehigh University while serving as an Assistant Coach. As a collegiate player, Mary led the Dartmouth Big Green to two Sweet Sixteen appearances and national rankings during all four years of her tenure, earning NCAA Division I All-America and Scholar All-America honors in 2002. Upon graduation from Dartmouth, McVeigh headed to the professional field as the 7th overall draft pick for the Philadelphia Charge of the WUSA, joining IBV of the Icelandic Premier league after the WUSA league folded. Under her leadership, Soccer Without Borders has grown by every measure, establishing original infrastructure to create and manage growth and quality. Mary has built programs from the ground up, launching and leading the Granada, Nicaragua program that won the Nike Foundation’s Girl Effect Challenge in 2011, a girl-centered program that has changed the landscape of girls’ soccer in Nicaragua. In 2016, Mary was one of 15 former professional female athletes selected for the Women Athletes' Business Network mentoring program hosted by Ernst & Young and the International Women's Forum. Previously, she was honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's Jerry Yeagley Award for Personal Service for her work with SWB, and has served in a number of advisory roles, including the Dartmouth Women's Soccer Advisory Board, the US Soccer Foundation's Symposium committee, the Streetfootballworld Gender Working Group, the International Safeguarding Children in Sport Learning Set, and the Women Deliver Girl Power in Play Advisory Committee. She has presented at national conferences including the U.S. Soccer Foundation's Urban Soccer Symposium, the NSCAA Convention, Women Deliver's Girl Power in Play, and Hofstra University's Soccer As the Beautiful Game.