Lauren Sills

Head of Operations @National Basketball Association (NBA)

New York, NY, US

Selected as the #2 Employee to launch and scale the League’s first-ever charitable foundation, managing a $300M, ten-year commitment to advance economic empowerment and career opportunities for youth ages 14–24.• Manage a $30M annual budget, overseeing all administrative and operational functions while setting organizational goals to drive cost efficiency, and scalability. Further, directly responsible for managing communications and deliverables for the NBA Foundation Board of Directors quarterly meetings.• Lead the NBA Foundation’s grantmaking portfolio, deploying $140M in funding to more than 250 nonprofit organizations across the U.S. and Canada, with a focus on transformative, high-impact investments.• Manage and mentor a high-performing team of four full-time staff members, providing strategic direction, professional development, and fostering a culture of excellence.• Developed and implemented comprehensive internal and external communication strategies, including the successful launch of all NBA Foundation social media channels and brand marketing initiatives, significantly increasing national visibility.• Designed and launched the NBA HBCU Fellowship, a flagship ten-week internship program placing over 300 HBCU students with NBA teams and League offices, achieving a 22% conversion rate to full-time employment.• Created the NBA All-Star Pitch Competition– and delivered an annual competition and accelerator program awarding $480K+ to emerging local entrepreneurs, amplifying the Foundation’s impact in All-Star host cities (Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, and San Francisco).• Secured $1.2M+ in funding from corporate partners including Google, Kia, PepsiCo, and LegalZoom, creating revenue and partnerships to expand the Foundation’s resources and reach.• Serve as the primary relationship executive to all 30 NBA teams, delivering actionable data insights and programmatic ideas to NBA Team Presidents and Foundation leaders.

Spelman College

Bachelor's Degree, Political Science

Loyola Marymount University

Master of Education (M.Ed.), Urban Education