Imani McGee-Stafford Speaker Biography
Imani McGee-Stafford is a WNBA player, abuse survivor, mental health advocate, and poet. She is currently a center for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Accounting from The McCombs School of Business.
At Texas, she left her name in the record books becoming the first UT women’s basketball player to garner over 1000 points, 1000 rebounds and 200 blocks. While her 6’7” frame made her presence felt on the court, she left her biggest impact off the court when she chose to speak out about her struggles with mental health and overcoming her abusive childhood on SportsCenter in a segment called SC Featured: Her Voice.
In college, she stumbled across her life purpose: providing a voice to the silenced. She now takes every opportunity she can to live in her truth and hopefully provide light to those going through or who have been through the same struggles.
You Will Always Be a Better Human than Athlete
In this speech, Imani speaks to athletes, coaches, and parents about being an athlete but still maintaining a positive separate self-image. She shares the dangers of not reminding youth athletes that their identity is not wrapped up in their success as athletes. She speaks about the problems that face athletes in regards to mental health and how to create safe spaces for athletes to address their mental health.
Erasing the Stigma
In this speech, Imani talks about her struggles with mental health and growing up in an environment that wasn’t the most open to dealing with these types of problems. She encourages audiences to share their own stories and acknowledge how commonplace mental illness and sexual abuse are in their own lives.
Self Esteem & Confidence for Girls
Being a tall woman her entire life, like most young girls, Imani struggled with her self image and self-esteem. In this speech, she talks about how to derive self-made confidence and self-esteem as well as how parents and adults can help with this in young girls’ lives.
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