Our Leadership - Playing For Keeps

President, Playing for Keeps Foundation

Dr. Mimi Nartey

Dr. Mimi Nartey’s path to Playing for Keeps sits at the intersection of elite sport, environmental science, public health, education, and community leadership. A former collegiate, professional, and World Cup soccer player, environmental scientist, public health researcher, college professor, published author, coach, and nonprofit executive, she has spent her career exploring how the environments we create shape health, opportunity, and human potential.

As President of the Playing for Keeps Foundation, Mimi brings those experiences together to expand equitable access to safe, sustainable places to play. In 2026, she was named Community Impact Advocate of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal. She has also been recognized among Angeleno Magazine’s “Dynamic Women” and, alongside her husband, Kofi Nartey, featured by Modern Luxury among its “Power Players.”

Across her work in sport, science, education, philanthropy, and community development, Mimi is guided by a simple conviction: every child deserves a place to play.

Group of women soccer players, conference presentation, team photo, and business meeting.

Athlete

Mimi began representing Ghana internationally at just 15 years old and went on to play collegiate soccer at Columbia University and professionally for the Portland Rain. She later represented Ghana’s Black Queens at the highest levels of international competition, earning a silver medal at the 2002 African Women’s Championship and representing Ghana at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Having competed at the highest levels of the sport, Mimi brings a firsthand understanding of the standards athletes need from the spaces where they train and compete—particularly when it comes to safety, consistency, and performance.

Her relationship with sport did not end with her playing career. She has spent more than two decades coaching and developing young athletes and currently serves as Coach of the Wiseburn Da Vinci Girls Varsity Soccer program. She is also the mother of two competitive athletes: her daughter plays NCAA Division I soccer at UC Berkeley, and her son competes in MLS NEXT.

Those experiences—as an international, collegiate, and professional athlete, coach, and parent—have given Mimi a lifelong perspective on what access to sport can provide: health, confidence, belonging, mentorship, opportunity, and connection. They also inform her belief that every child should have access to a quality place to discover what their body and mind can do.

Scholar & Educator

Mimi’s academic career bridges environmental science, climate, public health, gender, and human development. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology and her master’s degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University (a program now housed within the Columbia Climate School) before completing her doctorate in public health, with an emphasis on community-based interventions.

She went on to serve as a college professor, including a teaching fellowship at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and adjunct faculty appointments at Loyola Marymount University and Occidental College. Her teaching has included environmental science, sustainability, public and global health, and women and sport.

A published author and interdisciplinary researcher, Mimi’s scholarship has addressed infectious disease, maternal and child health, women’s health and empowerment, climate and health, and the role of sport in health promotion. Her work includes peer-reviewed research on infectious disease, a contributed chapter to a textbook examining transnational feminist perspectives on women, and contributions to United Nations publications. She is also the author of the Race, Class & Parenting e-book series, available through Amazon, which explores the intersections of identity, socioeconomic status, parenting, and opportunity.

Her research and scholarship have also taken her beyond the classroom. Mimi has been invited to present her work at Yale University, the American Public Health Association, and Ghana’s Ministry of Health, among other academic and professional settings.

This interdisciplinary foundation shapes the way she approaches the built environment today: examining questions of sustainability, health, access, and equity together rather than treating them as competing priorities.

COMMUNITY LEADER & ADVOCATE

Mimi has spent years translating research and ideas into community impact, building partnerships across sport, education, philanthropy, business, and civic leadership. Her work has consistently focused on expanding opportunities for children and communities that have historically had fewer resources.

As a speaker and advocate, including from the TEDx stage, Mimi brings an interdisciplinary perspective to conversations about sport, sustainability, public health, equity, and the built environment. Her approach centers on evidence, transparency, and thoughtful consideration of tradeoffs while ensuring that the lived realities of communities are represented in decisions that affect them.

Her leadership and advocacy have received recognition across Los Angeles. In 2026, the Los Angeles Business Journal named her Community Impact Advocate of the Year. She has also been named among Angeleno Magazine’s “Dynamic Women” and, alongside her husband, Kofi Nartey, featured by Modern Luxury among its “Power Players.”

For Mimi, advocacy is ultimately about ensuring that research, policy, investment, and community experience come together in ways that create meaningful opportunity.

BUILDER

Mimi has spent years building organizations, programs, partnerships, and communities around young people, families, health, sport, and service.

Earlier in her career, Mimi served as the founding Program Manager for Gardens for Kids LA through the former City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. The initiative introduced school gardening in elementary schools across Los Angeles, giving children hands-on opportunities to engage with food, the environment, and healthier school communities. The experience was an early expression of a theme that has continued throughout her career: the environments we create for children can directly shape their health, learning, and opportunity.

She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Nartey Sports Foundation, which works globally to help underserved young people reach their potential through sport. She is also a founding Executive Board member and two-term President of the West Los Angeles Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, and a founding advisory board member of Swan Within, a nonprofit serving vulnerable girls through ballet, mentorship, and personal development.

Her commitment to building strong institutions extends into education. Mimi has served on the boards of St. Bernard School and Playa Vista Elementary School, including leadership focused on parent engagement and strengthening the connection between families and school communities.

As Founding President of the Playing for Keeps Foundation, Mimi brings these experiences together to build coalitions and expand equitable access to safe, sustainable places to play. Her vision extends beyond constructing individual fields to creating lasting community assets through infrastructure, programming, education, partnerships, advocacy, and stewardship.

Across these roles, her approach is consistent: bring people together, build sustainable structures around shared goals, and translate ideas into tangible opportunities for children and communities.

“Every child deserves a place to play” – Dr. Mimi Nartey

Executive Director, Playing for Keeps Association & Playing for Keeps Foundation

Suzanne Shelton

Suzanne serves as the Executive Director of both the Playing for Keeps Association and the Playing for Keeps Foundation, leveraging her decades of experience in sustainability to support and promote policies that ensure kids have access to safe, sustainable playing surfaces, and communities have ample places for kids to engage in play, learn the valuable lessons of sport and stay healthy.

She has spent the bulk of her career focused on creating a sustainable future – and creating positive outcomes for businesses, non-profits and communities as a result. Suzanne built the country’s leading marketing communications agency entirely focused in sustainability, counseling C-level executives at Fortune 1000 organizations on how to best define and leverage their sustainability approaches to drive business results. After selling her firm to ERM, a global sustainability consultancy, she continues to advise clients as a Senior Partner at ERM.

Prior to her work with Playing for Keeps, Suzanne has served on the boards of BioLogiQ, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) as well as on the executive advisory board of Cyclyx. She is a member of the Exceptional Women Alliance and Extraordinary Women on Boards.

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Grounded in Evidence

Communities Deserve the Full Picture

The choices communities make about play spaces involve real tradeoffs. Playing for Keeps is committed to helping decision-makers evaluate those choices through evidence, transparency, and a comprehensive understanding of health, environmental, economic, and access considerations.

No playing surface exists without environmental, health, performance, and economic considerations. We believe communities deserve transparent information about those tradeoffs—including water use, maintenance, heat, materials, durability, cost, and hours of available play—so they can make informed decisions based on their specific needs.

Foundation Board of directors

Joe Fields
President

Joe Fields is currently the CEO of TenCate Grass Americas. Since taking the position in October 2016, he has successfully led the company by increasing sales from $80 million to over $1.4 billion, driven largely by twenty acquisitions. The company’s …

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Joe Fields is currently the CEO of TenCate Grass Americas. Since taking the position in October 2016, he has successfully led the company by increasing sales from $80 million to over $1.4 billion, driven largely by twenty acquisitions. The company’s EBITDA improved over the same period from $4 Million to over $150 Million.

Mr. Fields started his business career in Brand Management at Procter and Gamble and worked in Operations management at PepsiCo. Other positions include: President of Speedo, the global swimwear brand headquartered in London, UK; former Senior Vice President of adidas, where he had responsibility for the North American business unit, headquartered in Portland, OR; and CEO of Fieldturf, headquartered in Montreal, Canada and Paris, France. Mr. Fields has conducted business in over 40 countries and has managed subsidiary companies in Europe and the Far East.

He is also a board member of the non-profit group Onward Ops Foundation which supports military service members making the transition back to civilian life after they’ve completed active duty.
Mr. Fields earned a BS degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds a MA degree in International Affairs from the University of Oklahoma. Mr. Fields served five years in the United States Army as an airborne, combat engineer officer and construction project manager achieving the rank of Captain.
A.C. Green
Board Member

A.C. Green is a former professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Iron Man”, he holds an NBA record for most consecutive regular-season games played with 1,192. Green played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas …

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A.C. Green is a former professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Iron Man”, he holds an NBA record for most consecutive regular-season games played with 1,192. Green played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. He found most success with the Lakers, with whom he won three championships in 1987, 1988, and 2000 and was named an NBA All-Star in 1990. Green was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, attending Benson Polytechnic High School and Oregon State University. He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Marty Lyons
Board Member

Marty Lyons is a former professional football player who was a defensive tackle and defensive end for 12 seasons in the NFL during the 1970s and 1980s. Lyons played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, earning consensus …

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Marty Lyons is a former professional football player who was a defensive tackle and defensive end for 12 seasons in the NFL during the 1970s and 1980s. Lyons played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, earning consensus All-American honors. Selected in the first round of the 1979 NFL draft, he played his entire professional career for the NFL’s New York Jets. He was a member of the Jets’ famed “New York Sack Exchange,” the team’s dominant front four in 1981 and 1982 that also featured Mark Gastineau, Abdul Salaam and Joe Klecko. Following his playing career, he spent 22 years as a radio analyst for the Jets from 2002 to 2023.
Jody Factor
Board Member

Jody Factor founded Midwest Sport and Turf Systems (MWSTS) in 2013 becoming the leading provider and construction of synthetic turf systems for schools, universities, municipalities and other customers throughout the Midwest.
Hunter Early
Board Member

Hunter Early, President of TenCate Turf Recycling Solutions (TTRS), spearheads the company’s strategic efforts to pioneer true recycling for aged artificial turf within the industry. Prior to becoming President of TTRS, Hunter was the Director …

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Hunter Early, President of TenCate Turf Recycling Solutions (TTRS), spearheads the company’s strategic efforts to pioneer true recycling for aged artificial turf within the industry.

Prior to becoming President of TTRS, Hunter was the Director of Corporate Development and M&A at TenCate, where he has successfully navigated complex financial landscapes and executed transformative acquisitions. Prior to TenCate, he held various roles in corporate development and M&A at private equity backed companies and finance/accounting firms.

Hunter earned a BA in Accounting from Kennesaw State University and a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Virginia. He is a Certified Public Accountant and brings extensive experience in strategic planning, financial modeling, and forecasting to his role with TTRS, supporting the company’s commitment to sustainability and industry leadership.
Charles Dawson
Board Member

Charles Dawson founded GeoSurfaces in 2001 and GeoSport Lighting Systems in 2015 and joined the TenCate group in 2021. He currently is the president and CEO of the Sports division of TenCate Grass USA.

Association Board of Directors

Joe Fields
President
Jody Factor
Board Member
Hunter Early
Board Member

In the Media

See the latest news, resources, & updates from Playing For Keeps.

More Than a Game: Celebrating Girls, Leadership, and the Power of Play in Los Angeles
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Where Children Play Matters: Dr. Mimi Nartey on Stay A While
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A Play Zone on Market Street
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Dr. Mimi Nartey Honored for Community Impact
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