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Hamchetou Maiga-Ba - Chair / Chief Executive Officer:

As a former Olympian, Champion and Captain to many sports teams, Hamchetou is known for being a great leader, student and teammate. Hamchetou who has been privileged to study and play professionally in the US and internationally, finds Education to be of prime importance to her. As a Student Athlete, she completed an undergraduate degree in Information Technology. While playing professionally abroad and competing at the highest level, Hamchetou finished her MBA in Global Management. Giving back to the community is highly essential to Hamchetou. Through the Hamchetou Maiga-Ba Foundation and as the founding chair of Special Olympics in Mali, she hopes to cultivate inclusion of those with intellectual disabilities. She also hopes to help provide a platform for Malian youth by using basketball as a catalyst to focus on education. Hamchetou and her husband are the proud parents of two children. 

NOTRE EQUIPE

Myriah Annankra - Secretary General

Myriah Annankra is a graduate of Old Dominion University. She has many interests and accomplishments, but her passion is basketball. She has wide experience as a player and as a coach. She was a star throughout school, played in the Elite Eight in college, played professionally in Iceland and Sweden, and has been a coach since 2007 at Michael Jordan Flight School, instructing young players under the eye of the master himself. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but grew up in a variety of places, including Guatemala, Idaho and Espanola, a small town in northern New Mexico. Her youthful accomplishments were not confined to basketball. She loved all sports, she was a pitcher on her high school's boys' varsity baseball team, played volleyball and ran track. In high school she was often on the academic honor roll; in college she was singled out by her coaches for making the Dean's List.  Myriah is happily married and her proudest accomplishment has been becoming the mother of two boys, Landon and Andrew.

Felecia Allen- Director

Felecia Allen is a school counselor for Fairfax County Public Schools.  She has a love for education and basketball, and believes that both offer an opportunity for success.  She served as team manager at Old Dominion University which led to a decade long friendship and sisterhood with Hamchetou, Lu, and Myriah.  She believes that the Hamchetou Maiga-Ba Foundation will help the children of Mali achieve their educational, personal, and athletic goals while also preparing them to become global citizens of the world.

Aline Diop Nkunzumwami - Treasurer

Born in Rwanda from parents from the Lake Tanganyika bordering Burundi, Aline always has been an immigrant, a true citizen of the world. Having lived in the Comoros, Belgium and the Southern of France, Aline has found California as her new home.

With big ambitions and determination her curiosity pushed her to pursue higher education in science, starting with her degrees from French universities to graduating as biologist at a Californian University. Now after various experiences in biotechnology industry, she is the owner of a small business and a blogger. Aline is a dreamer among dreamers that believes investing in young boys and girls to thrive and excel will change the world.

That is why is she is proud to be a part of the Hamchetou Maiga Ba Foundation to provide young athletes opportunities to combine academic excellence and basketball training in basketball in Africa.

Today Aline, her husband and two children lives in Sacramento.

Aissata Boubacar Maiga, daughter of Boubacar Sekou Maiga and Aminata Fofana, both former athletes of soccer and basketball, grew up in a family that gives so much importance to sports and education. Aissata has been made her way to the Mali women’s basketball senior National Team at a young age of 17.

Allying sports and studies has been part of her everyday life.  She was a student at the Lycee Sportif Ben Omar Sy for 5 years in Mali since she was 13 years old. After obtaining her high school degree in Biological Sciences, she continued her studies to finish with an Associate in Liberal Arts from Gulf Coast State College.She had her Bachelor at Troy University in Human Services with a minor in Leadership Development which explains part of her dedication on being part of humanitarian aids and putting her leadership at the service of people in need. She believes in empowering the youth..

Aissata B Maiga - Director

Champion of France with Valenciennes (2005), Spanish Champion with Valencia (2004), Winner of the Ronchetti Cup with Aix-en-Provence and MVP of the French Championship (2003), Lucienne is one of the very rare French player to make a career in WNBA with Cleveland Rockers and then Houston Comets (2002 to 2004), selected on the French National Team many times, she has played at the highest level both in Europe and U.S.! A reference in French basketball, an exemplary and respected career! At 27 years old, after her title winning the French Championship, Lulu decides to stop the competition. She gets married. "Life goes on ... or begins ...! "She says. The French post player leaves the floors and ... settles down with her husband in the city of Limoges. Discreetly… married and mother of 3 HMB Foundation is about strength, courage, and hope for a better future. Let’s shape that future together

Lucienne Poiraud- Director

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