CPAR’s Officers and Board of Directors consist of executives from the sports and business industries, lawyers, coaches, athletes and sports enthusiasts. They all bring to the organization a willingness to volunteer their time and expertise, as well as a desire to support the activities and protect the rights of amateur and professional athletes, coaches, administrators, and others involved in athletic and sports activities who have limited ability to be their own advocates.

Jill Pilgrim, Founder and President – Attorney, business advisor, arbitrator, adjunct professor — Ms. Pilgrim is a former track and field athlete with longstanding involvement in Olympic and amateur sports, as an athlete, volunteer, administrator, arbitrator, sports attorney and advisor. She has headed the legal department at USA Track & Field, Inc. and at the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Ms. Pilgrim designed and implemented professional golf’s first player drug testing program for the LPGA. As an educator about the sports industry, Ms. Pilgrim has taught at sports-related class at New York University’sPreston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management,  the University of Miami School of Law, and the Columbia University School of Professional Studies & Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía Companion Masters in Sports Management & Masters in Sports Law Program.

Timothy Cecere, Board Member –– Business executive, human resources specialist, parent — Mr. Cecere is a former tennis player and has a son playing NCAA Division I tennis.  He began his professional career at the New York Times  as an analyst in the Corporate Advertising department, moving to a role in business operations at Newsweek Magazine. Mr. Cecere joined Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in 1989, and later became its Director in Corporate Humans Resources. Currently part of the team that formed GroupM, Worldwide – the World’s Largest Media Investment Management Company, he  focuses his attention on the development of talent, culture, training, and the strategic positioning of GroupM in the broader Marketing and Communications Community.  Mr. Ceecere is currently the GroupM Worldwide Managing Partner, Chief Talent Officer & Director of Human Resources.

Janis K. Doleschal, Board Member – Attorney, Sports Administrator, Professor of Sports Law & Finance, Volunteer Chaplain – Ms. Doleschal was the Commissioner of Sports and Athletics for the Milwaukee Public Schools from 1974 to 2002.  She collaborated with the National Sports Law Institute (NSLI) of the Marquette University School of Law to produce a “Risk Management Manual for High School Athletics”.  In 2002, Ms. Doleschal opened a business called “Start Playing Safe” which offered free risk management assessments to high schools within the State of Wisconsin.  She is a member of the Marquette Law School NSLI Board of Advisors, and has also served on numerous committees for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.  She was inducted into the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 for her work as an athletic administrator.  Ms. Doleschal has an LLM in International Sports Law from Anglia Polytechnic University Law School in Chelmsford, England and is a Certified Athletic Administrator through the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

Vania King, Board Member – Professional Athlete  –  Ms. King is a professional tennis player from Long Beach, California. She has achieved a career high # 50 singles and #3 doubles ranking on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.  In 2007, Ms. King won her maiden WTA singles title in Bangkok, Thailand. She also won the 2010 Wimbledon and US Open doubles titles with her partner Yaroslava Shvedova.  As a leader within women’s tennis, Ms. King was selected as a Player Representative on the Player Council, representing all players ranked 21 or higher.  She is currently on the WTBA Pension Committee.  Outside of tennis, Ms. King is an accomplished singer, having sung the National Anthem at the 2006 US Open Championships the night of Andre Agassi’s last match, at the Dodgers Stadium in 2008, and the Mets Stadium in 2014.

Pam Lester, Secretary and Board Member – Attorney, business advisor, parent – Ms. Lester is a former field hockey, squash and lacrosse athlete and coach with a longstanding involvement in sports law, as General Counsel and an agent at Advantage International (now Octagon/Interpublic Group), as Senior Vice President Business Affairs and General Counsel at Time Warner Sports, as first Chief Operating Officer of HBO Properties, and as President of Lester Sports and Entertainment, Inc. She has also had leadership roles and remains active in various sports and entertainment law associations.

Pamela Wheeler, Board Member — Attorney, business innovator, sports business leader, parent — Ms. Wheeler was the first woman appointed to lead a professional sports union, was the founding Director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) and negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement in women’s professional sports. As founding Director, Ms. Wheeler created the organizational infrastructure of the WNBPA and was responsible for improving the lives of professional women basketball players both on and off the court. Whether through collective bargaining, establishing programs for players or developing alternative income sources, she consistently implemented strategies that resulted in significant advances for WNBA players.  Prior to the WNBPA, Ms. Wheeler was the Director of Business Development for the Continental Basketball Association, where she finalized stalled negotiations with New Line Cinema to create a national branding platform based on merging sports and entertainment.  Prior to that, she served as General Counsel & Marketing Manager at Bob Woolf Associates, creating sports and entertainment marketing programs for institutional clients and negotiating marketing agreements for athletes.