Michele Roberts

Michele Roberts is the first woman to ever head a professional sports union in the United States. Roberts was selected as the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association in 2014. She has risen to her lofty position despite growing up in a South Bronx housing project. Roberts is a highly regarded trial attorney for the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom. She grew acclaim as an attorney by serving as a public defender in Washington D.C. for eight years and eventually became chief of the trial division. Roberts has also worked for Akin Gump. In addition to her various roles today, she also is an adjunct professor at Harvard Law School and an American College Trial Lawyers fellow. Roberts did her undergraduate work at Wesleyan University and got her J.D. at the University of California.