Up Close: NJCAA Convention Speaker Lisa Borders

Lisa Borders: NJCAA Convention Speaker, Podcast Host, Lifelong Learner

Through risk taking, career chasing, and challenging the status-quo, Lisa Borders has taken the road less traveled in her upbringing and beyond. Like Borders, many NJCAA student-athletes face roadblocks and adversity along the way, but discover success and lessons through experiences. Borders accepted new challenges in grade school, refused to lose sight of obtaining acceptance into Duke University, and used her journey as inspiration to set the premise for future employers and students around the world.

Junior college can also be described as the "road less traveled" for some, but when recruitment does not go as planned, or financial hardships strike, there are abundant opportunities available for those with desire. Borders fought preconceived notions and doubt, but it is how she and NJCAA student-athletes tackled challenges that make each uphill battle worth the climb.

On the surface and on paper, Borders is an Independent Trustee at Six Circles Trust (JPMorgan), a Trustee & Chair of Centennial Strategic Task Force at Duke University, Chair of the Borders Commission at United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), podcast host, and a mentor. Her new podcast, Enlightened, is a platform to connect with people from all walks of life, sharing stories of overwhelming adversity, transmuting the shadow, and experiencing moments of illumination. On air and below the surface, Borders is fully entrenched in her past, present, and future, giving back civically to her community and those that contributed to her impact in the professional workforce and her upbringing. 

Rooted in Atlanta, Georgia, the cradle of the civil rights movement, Borders excelled in the classroom and spent much of her normal week at church where her grandfather was the well-respected pastor for more than 50 years. One block from Borders' home church is Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was baptized as a child and pastored as an adult. In grade school, Borders was oftentimes an outsider, helping to integrate The Westminster Schools, a private school, when she was 12 to be further challenged academically. One of just a handful of African American students, Borders found comfort in the discomfort with her close-knit family and mother surrounding her. Borders' mother taught her to set and deliver strong academic goals, earn a diploma, and carry forward in the midst of uncontrollable surroundings. The rest would soon fall into place.

"Growing up during that time really shaped who I am today and I didn't understand the impact of the interaction with every person," Borders recalled. "My grandfather used to say 'every voice has value' and so today just to bring it forward, when I lead in any organization, I want to hear from everybody, I'm trying to build consensus from the bottom up, top down, sides in and there's no such thing as one voice carries the greatest weight."

As Borders rose above the challenges of fitting in and being underestimated, a brawny mindset and powerful support system stitched a competitive leader in the workforce. Borders ran unsuccessfully for Mayor in Atlanta after serving as president of the City Council and vice mayor of Atlanta, President of the Grady Health Foundation and Vice President of Global Community Affairs at The Coco-Cola Company. She ultimately became the fourth president of the Women's National Basketball League (WNBA), among many other accomplishments. 

Much like before, Borders felt like an outsider at The Coco-Cola Company; having not interned or worked for the company during or after college like most employees. However, she set out to impact the larger group, the globe, and make her family proud. Without direct ties to the hierarchy and leadership of the company at that time, Borders did, have family employee ties dating back 90 years. "My maternal grandfather worked at Coke for 30 years from 1929 to 1959 as a chauffeur for one of the first presidents of the company and my grandmother worked 15 years as a maid, so 45 years at Coca-Cola," said Borders. "So them working there allowed my mother and her sister to be first generation college graduates and for me to come from the outside and try to break into this family that was already established was difficult, but I was intent on doing it." 

Working for The Coco-Cola Company allowed Borders to give back to a place that provided her family opportunity and to make a lasting impression. Like the workforce, the NJCAA is a community of differing experiences, backgrounds, and ideas, with each experience contributing to a bigger picture idea for those willing to take the risk. "When you prioritize your goal and deliver the results, everything else takes care of itself," Borders added. "When extra time is put in at practice, in workouts, and in the classroom, anything can be achieved."

Trusting in the timing of one's life and staying at the goal can prove worthwhile. Borders left a steady, traditional corporate role to become President of the WNBA, a righteous position she notes as the most rewarding. "When I took on that role, my job was to turn the league around because it was not doing well," she said. "The attendance was flatlining, there were no new partners, there was a strained relationship between the league and players. I was brought in to turn the business around." Borders stepped into a new environment, dove in headfirst, and it turned out to be two of the best years of her career and life. A pair of years or even a year at a new job or school can prove to be life-changing and rich in possibility. One may never know their potential unless they confront trials and correct errors. Likewise, student-athletes at two-year institutions reveal new potential time and time again.

"Failure is not fatal, it is feedback," Borders says. "That's what I tell young people and particularly women in and out of the workforce, depending on what has pulled them away or pushed them back. They say, oh I failed because I didn't reach whatever level. My perspective is everything happens in life the way it's supposed to." Borders lost the race for Mayor after serving in elective office for seven years, but she characterized the campaign as '…her race to lose'. Borders was not always accepted and was not always presented with a clear path, but with steady perseverance and unwavering faith, everything turned out in due course.

In college and in life, success in the classroom or in competition is determined by the individual, primarily driven by how they spend their time and expend their efforts. Without failure, lessons are often hard to see and appreciate. In the face of failure, one can learn so much more about themselves - the eventuality of falling down, but more importantly, the resilience of getting back up.

For more, visit: Lisa Borders