Our 2025 Basketball Athletes & Their Causes

The 2025 AU Pro Basketball season features causes supporting Community Development, Health & Mental Wellness, Health: Support, Research, & Awareness, Intellectual Disability & Inclusion, Religious Organizations, and Youth Development.

Community Development

Alissa Pili

• Alaska Native Heritage Center: The Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) is a living cultural center located in Anchorage, Alaska that promotes active observance of Alaska Native culture and traditions. As the only statewide cultural and education center dedicated to celebrating all cultures and heritages, ANHC serves as a statewide resource for Alaska Natives from birth until Elder.

Dyaisha Fair

• Baby2Baby: Baby2Baby provides children living in poverty across the country with diapers, clothing, and all the basic necessities that every child deserves.

Desi-Rae Young

• Bridge of Light: Bridge of Light is an Atlanta-based, non-profit organization empowering people who are unhoused or living in poverty. By providing hygiene and laundry services, they seek to encourage self-sufficiency and inspire self-advocacy.

Kenisha Bell

• Project H.O.O.D.: Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny) was born out of a deep commitment to transform lives and uplift communities in the heart of Chicago. Our journey began with the unwavering vision of our founder, Pastor Corey Brooks, who believed in the power of education, mentorship, and community development to break the cycle of poverty and create a brighter future.

Alysha Clark

• Mt. Juliet Help Center: The Mt. Juliet Help Center is dedicated to providing temporary and emergency food, utility, and clothing assistance to families in western Wilson County. Our purpose is to help bridge the gap when families are unable to provide basic necessities. We offer compassionate support and maintain the dignity of our clients while partnering with local churches and other community organizations.

Health & Mental Wellness

Jaylyn Sherrod

• Modern Day Fitness: The MDF Nation Foundation is dedicated to empowering student-athletes through a comprehensive approach that focuses on three key pillars: Education, Nutrition, and Wellness. Their mission is to foster the development of well-rounded athletes who thrive academically, physically, and mentally, ensuring their success both on and off the field.

Charisma Osborne

• Team IMPACT: Team IMPACT tackles the emotional trauma and social isolation experienced by children facing serious and chronic illnesses by matching them with a college athletic team. Through our two-year therapeutic program that complements their medical treatments, children develop relationships and skills that help them complete the full circle of healing.

Odyssey Sims

• The Hidden Opponent: The Hidden Opponent is an accredited nonprofit and advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness for student-athlete mental health. Through advocacy, education, and support, our goal is to end mental health stigma in sports culture.

Suriya McGuire
Shey Peddy
Crystal Bradford

• The Virago Project: A nonprofit organization that raises awareness about the mental health challenges female athletes face in sports and life.

Health: Support, Research, and Awareness

Evina Westbrook

• Abigail Zittoun Family Foundation: Our charity’s mission is to provide financial and emotional support to families with critically ill children and scholarships to high school graduates who embody the attributes of joy, happiness and impact.

Elizabeth Williams

• American Cancer Society: The American Cancer Society’s mission is to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer.

Lexie Brown

• Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Greater LA: Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer-fueled organization dedicated to finding cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and improving the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases.

Rebecca Harris
Sydney Colson

• Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation: Through research, technology and collaboration, GJCF makes medical breakthroughs for those with NeuroMyelitis Optica and its Spectrum Disorders. They are focused on the next great breakthrough: cures.

Kiara Leslie

• Kay Yow Cancer Fund: The Kay Yow Cancer Fund is committed to being a part of the fight against ALL cancers affecting women through funding scientific research, providing access to quality healthcare for underserved women, and uniting people for a common cause.

Isabelle Harrison

• Lupus Foundation of America: LFA works to improve the quality of life for all people affected by lupus through programs of research, education, support, and advocacy.

Dorie Harrison

• Scars Uncovered: Scars Uncovered gives comfort and support to burn survivors and their families by providing resources that ease the burdens that often come with the tragedy of a burn injury.

Intellectual Disability & Inclusion

Taylor Mikesell

• Beyond Ability Matters: Beyond Ability Matters raises funds to help children and young adults with autism and other neurological disabilities. Through Beyond Ability Matters, they not only provide the opportunity to bring the world to those with special needs but in turn, they bring the world to them and enrich their lives beyond what was thought imaginable.

Theresa Plaisance

• Special Olympics South Carolina: Special Olympics South Carolina provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, and share gifts, and skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community.

Maddy Siegrist

• Special Olympics USA National Team: Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. More than 100 individuals representing 42 Special Olympics US Programs will come together to make up the Special Olympics delegation at Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025.

Religious Organizations

Christyn Williams
Maya Caldwell

• Athletes in Action: Athletes in Action is a global community to help coaches and athletes grow physically, mentally, and spiritually both on and off the field.

Jude Schimmel

• St. Andrews Mission Church

Youth Development

Bria Hartley

• Bronx Lacrosse: Bronx Lacrosse is a year-round academic and sports-based youth development program with a mission to improve educational opportunities and life outcomes for underserved middle school and high school students in the Bronx.

Angel Jackson

• Chapter 510: Chapter 510 is a made-in-Oakland youth writing, bookmaking & publishing center. Their teaching artists and volunteers work side by side with educators to provide a safe space and supportive community so Black, brown, and queer youth ages 8-19 can bravely write.

McKenzie Forbes

• CMB Neighbor Program: CMB Neighbor Program is committed to building and organizing self-determined communities.

G’mrice Davis

• Girl Rising: Girl Rising is a non-profit working in 12 countries to advance girls right to a quality education. In partnership with more than 130 location partners we develop educational resources and train educators to help adolescent girls develop the life skills to pursue their highest aspirations; and engage caregivers, families and community members to help break the barriers that hold girls back.

Lydia Rivers

• Kinston Teens: Kinston Teens is a youth-led nonprofit organization with a mission of empowering young people through service, leadership and civic engagement. Their organization, founded in 2014, operates at the intersections of youth empowerment and community development providing those who have been most marginalized and disenfranchised from leadership a chance to shape and influence the future of their neighborhoods.

Jordan Horston
Kia Nurse

• Play Like a Girl: Play Like a Girl is on a mission to level the playing field for girls by leveraging the skills gained from sport to help propel young women into competitive, male-dominated careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Taj Cole

• S3 Academy: S3 is an independent private school committed to providing a higher quality education and we provide programs that benefit youth in structured organized sports, good nutrition and physical fitness.

Kierstan Bell

• The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation: The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation creates pathways for underserved youth to help them achieve their full potential. The Foundation works to instill hope and bring about change in communities, collectively shaping a brighter future for our children.

Asia Taylor

• The Waveffect Academy: The Waveffect Academy connects one person to the other by the transformation of our minds and our hearts to better the next individual and to pass it on.

Tyasha Harris

• Ty Harris Foundation: Ty Harris Foundation empowers young athletes through a comprehensive basketball program that emphasizes athletic excellence, mental health, nutrition, wellness, and higher education. Developing well-rounded individuals prepared for success both on and off the court.

Sequoia Holmes

• Vegas Elite Basketball Club: The Vegas Elite Basketball Club is the premier youth basketball program for the development of boys and girls in Southern Nevada. The primary purpose of The Club is to provide a platform for the youth of Las Vegas to achieve excellence in the sport of basketball.