Time Out: Quick Q&A With Sports Tech Leaders - Jaclyn Mahoney

About Jaclyn: Jaclyn Mahoney is an executive leader at Sports Reference, an industry leader in data democratization serving hundreds-of-millions of users annually through sites like Baseball-Reference.com and Pro-Football-Reference.com. Sports Reference has grown 4x since Jaclyn joined the company. As the company grew, Jaclyn led efforts to build organizational structure, implement a compensation strategy, and support a positive employee experience.

More recently, Jaclyn has taken the lead on developing systems for ongoing research to inform product decisions. Prior to working in people and product operations for a sports tech company, Jaclyn worked as a researcher at the Library of Congress. She was motivated to make a career change by the goal of closing the gender data gap in sports. She remains motivated by Sports Reference's purpose — to democratize data, so users enjoy, understand, and share the sports they love — and is proud of how much Sports Reference has expanded its coverage of women's basketball and soccer on Basketball-Reference.com and FBref.com.

1. What is your favorite thing about working with WiST?

As an employer, mentor, and speaker working with the WiST Fellowship program, I can't overstate how impressed I am by the emerging leaders with whom I've worked and networked. My favorite thing about working with WiST how excited I am about the future of the sports industry, knowing that these women are going to be part of it.

2. If you could be a professional athlete in any sport, what would it be?

Volleyball — I look forward to watching the growth of women's volleyball in the next few years, and I would love to be a part of it!

3. Which talent would you most like to have? 

Cooking with vegetables — I have a great garden, and I would love to have the know-how to make fun meals with the vegetables I grow.

4. What is your favorite live sports memory?

When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, what would become the clinching game was suspended due to weather. When the game restarted, instead of watching the final innings at my apartment in Northwest Philly, I hopped on a train to head to the stadium so I could be there to celebrate if they won. Experiencing the joy of exiting the train station as people streamed in screaming, "we won!" is my favorite live sports memory.

5. What do you consider your greatest achievement? 

Outside of my work in sports tech, I volunteer with a youth civic engagement nonprofit. For 8 years, I built and led a middle school Model United Nations program that serves 200 students a year. My greatest achievement was effectively executing a succession plan when it came time to step away from leading the program. I feel very proud that the program is still serving students, even though I am not longer at the helm.

6. What is your most treasured possession?

I keep a journal with letters to my 1-year-old daughter. I can't wait to give it to her when she's older.

7. Where would you like to live?

I love living in Baltimore, but if I lived anywhere else, I would live in the Finger Lakes region of NY.

8. If you could wear only one jersey for the rest of your life, what jersey would you wear? 

My mom played professional basketball in Germany (after the WBL, before the ABL and WNBA), and I would love to wear that jersey for the rest of my life. As it is, I have a college jersey of hers. Go Temple Owls!

9. What are your go-to game/match foods and beverages, in-stadium and at home? 

I love to go to baseball games, and Baltimore is my home. My go-to in-stadium food is Chesapeake Fries (waffle fries topped with crab dip).