Inside the NBA: Creating Teams Where People Belong


  • Venue: Online
  • Date: April 2, 2026
  • Time: 9:00 - 10:00 AM PT / 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
  • Price: Free

What does it take to foster belonging and community impact in one of the most competitive, high-pressure industries in the world: professional sports?

In this conversation, we brought together:

  • Dr. Kara Allen, architect of the NBA’s first Chief People, Impact and Belonging Officer role and former executive leader with the San Antonio Spurs

  • Dr. Hooria Jazaieri, award-winning professor and researcher, lead author of the case study Leading Social Impact from the NBA C-Suite

  • Kia Afcari, Director of Greater Good Workplaces at the Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley

Drawing from Dr. Allen’s experience with the San Antonio Spurs, we explored her journey designing and leading the first Chief People, Impact and Belonging function in all of professional sports. She shared how, in the wake of the Uvalde Elementary School shooting and other societal pressures, she and her team helped the Spurs prioritize community and societal impact as an equal and interrelated goal alongside building a championship-caliber team and ensuring financial strength. 

We also highlighted Dr. Allen’s values-based leadership philosophy, grounded in compassion, belonging, authenticity, and her belief that business success is inextricably linked to societal well-being.

In this conversation, we learned:

  • How leaders build trust and psychological safety without sacrificing performance

  • Why people thrive when they feel a genuine sense of belonging at work

  • How sustained excellence depends on a strong organizational culture that holds under internal and external pressure

  • What organizations in any sector can learn about the link between financial success and community impact

This conversation goes far beyond the court. It offers practical, science-backed insights for leaders, managers, and culture-builders working to create communities where people can thrive—even in moments of conflict and change.

Watch the recording:

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  • Dr. Kara Allen

    Kara C. Allen is a nationally respected executive, strategist and coach who became the first Chief Impact Officer in professional sports and has spent her career proving that purpose, belonging and social impact are drivers of revenue, brand growth and organizational performance. 

    As Chief People, Impact & Belonging Officer at Spurs Sports & Entertainment and Executive Director of Spurs Give, Kara led a portfolio that supported Human Resources, Global Partnerships, Philanthropy, Player Engagement, Strategy, Data & Innovation, Youth Sports, Social Impact, Crisis Response & Sustainability. She pioneered an "impact-first" sponsorship model that attracted new revenue streams, developed public-private partnerships including naming rights deals, raised over $10M to launch the first Impact Center, and introduced metrics to measure Belonging as a performance indicator. Under her leadership, the Spurs earned an ESPY Award as Humanitarian Team of the Year.

  • Dr. Hooria Jazaieri

    Hooria Jazaieri, PhD is an assistant professor of management at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. She teaches the MBA core course, “Business and the Common Good”, and the MS in Sports Business core course, “Sports Leadership.” 

    Originally from Lawrence, Kansas (Go Jayhawks!), Hooria received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, her master’s degree from Santa Clara University, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. 

    In addition to being an award-winning professor, Hooria is also an accomplished researcher. She studies emotions in the workplace, intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation, and individual reputation. Her research spans settings ranging from minor league baseball and hospital ICUs to the NBA. Her work has been published in leading academic journals in the fields of management and psychology, and she is regularly featured in popular press outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, among others. Outside of work, Hooria serves on the board of two non-profits, is a science advisor at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and is a licensed psychotherapist in California. She volunteers with the American Red Cross as a Disaster Mental Health Responder.

    Hooria grew up playing sports through high school (basketball, softball, and tennis) and these days can be found on the pickleball court, driving range, and yoga mat. You can learn more about Hooria here. 

  • Kia Afcari

    Kia Afcari is the Director of Greater Good Workplaces at GGSC. He has over 20 years of experience helping leaders, teams, and organizations with collaborative change and has served as a consultant to a wide variety of organizations, including tech, biotech, and fintech companies, healthcare organizations, universities, NGOs, UN agencies, and nonprofits. Kia grounds his work in the science of prosociality and uses creative methods like “instant dance parties” and Boal-informed theater techniques to achieve results.  He is a certified executive coach, an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, Zenger Folkman 360 Extraordinary Leader Facilitator, and Core Strengths Facilitator.

    Kia’s TEDx talk on How We Can Reshape Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Together has over 77,000 views, and for his work supporting major culture change efforts at scale, Kia was awarded the Chief Learning Officer Magazine’s Silver Award for Innovation for his accomplishments in helping to shift the organizational culture of UC Berkeley’s 8,000 staff.