Power Play – Women Trailblazers of Houston Sports

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Suzie Thomas

Suzie Thomas joined the Houston Texans and The McNair Group in March 2000. She oversees the legal, human resources and business administration functions for both groups and holds positions with various other entities in The McNair Group.

Thomas previously served as general counsel and vice president of human resources of Corporate Brand Foods America, Inc., a meat processing business that was subsequently purchased by Tyson Foods. Prior to CBFA, Thomas spent 16 years at Weatherford International, Inc., an international energy service and manufacturing company, the last 12 years as senior vice president and general counsel. She started her legal career as an associate attorney at Baker Botts L.L.P. in Houston.

Thomas earned her law degree from the University of Houston’s Bates College of Law and her undergraduate degree in Spanish from the University of Texas. Thomas is a member of the State Bar of Texas, where she served as Chair of the Corporate Counsel Section from 1994-95. She received the 2004 University of Houston Law Center’s Corporate Sector Award and the 2005 Houston Business Journal Award for Best General Counsel with a staff of two to ten. She has served as a director and Executive Committee member of Child Advocates, Inc. since 2001.

Lisa Malosky

Lisa Malosky has been a trailblazing journalist for more than two decades. She was the first female sports anchor at KPRC TV2 in Houston, the first female co-host of the original American Gladiators show and a member of the first, all female network broadcast team for NBC’s coverage of the inaugural WNBA season.

Lisa grew up in Duluth, Minnesota and is a graduate of St. Olaf College (BA English) where she played and captained the women’s basketball team.

Currently , Lisa is CEO of Lisa Malosky Productions, LLC where she works with her three time National Emmy award winning cameraman/husband Don Friedell creating videos for corporate, commercial, and nonprofit clients. (www.lisamaloskyproductions.com.)

Lisa and Don have been married 22 years and are the proud parents of two sons, 16 year old Dylan, Strake Jesuit High School, and 14 year old Luke, Briarwood.

Susan Christian

Susan Christian has been a part of Houston city government for nearly 30 years – sitting at the center of Houston City Hall’s evolution through five mayors: Kathy Whitmire, Bob Lanier, Lee Brown, Bill White, Anise Parker and now Sylvester Turner. She started out in the mid-’80s in the Parks and Recreation Department, and within a few years had caught the attention of then-mayor Bob Lanier, who was looking to use civic events to bring positive national attention to the city. Since then, she’s developed the mayor’s civic celebration program into a year-round blockbuster, with 3.6 million people attending over 1,000 annual events. If you’ve ever enjoyed the Fourth of July Freedom Over Texas celebration, Thanksgiving Day parade, or the Children’s Festival, then you’ve got Christian to thank. “I believe events are a core service for any city,” she says. “They bring the city together, they improve the city, but they also serve as a catalyst for empowering neighborhoods to do very positive things. When you have positive interaction through events, negativity goes away very quickly.”

Melissa Henderson

Melissa Henderson is in her fourth season in the National Women’s Soccer League and her third year with the Dash, after joining the team via trade from FC Kansas City in July of 2014. She has played in 51 career games with 44 starts. Last year, she started all 20 games for the Dash. She briefly considered retirement after last season, but rejoined the Dash just prior to training camp. A knee injury suffered early in camp has kept her on the sidelines thus far, but she is on track to return to the field in the coming weeks.

A native of Garland, Texas, Melissa was the first junior to be named Gatorade National Women’s Soccer High School Player of the Year when she won the award in 2007. She played for Dash head coach Randy Waldrum at Notre Dame, where she was a two-time All-American and helped lead Notre Dame to the national championship in 2010. She went on to be the second overall pick of the 2012 Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) draft, but never played in the league.

Melissa is also a natural in front of the camera and has done several television appearances. While she continues her rehab for this season, she also hosts a regular interview show on the Dash website called “Dash and Tell with Mel” in which she interviews her teammates and showcases their personalities off the field. A new episode of the show airs prior to each Dash home game.