this is
Our Team
MEET THE TEAM
Our team is our family. Our concept is simple—from purpose to Impact. Our principle of working together is the foundation of how EMA operates to make a positive impact in the life of each Student-Athlete. Together, we share the same vision: to help change the culture of sports in the Bay Area… and beyond.
Each member of Empower ME Academy has a creative and critical role that ensures that we are all able to succeed together. All views are valued and respected which stimulates growth from top to bottom. The principle of working together with our families and communities establishes how we operate and further the growth of the business.
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Bennett Steifman
ENERGY-GIVER
Bennett Steifman, a native of San Francisco, California, is the epitome of connection between sports and identity. He co-hosts Stormcast, the EMA podcast, and believes that through that medium, he will be able to showcase the crucial implications of the lessons taught through sports, specifically EMA. Bennett currently attends The Branson School in Marin County, California, and has played basketball for three years.
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Grace Dougan
CFO
Grace Dougan, a Marin County native, is an entrepreneur. She has years of experience in start-up, micro and small businesses which she applies to helping companies streamline their operations and grow their businesses. Grace has always been detail oriented, hard working, logistical, and extremely efficient. She is passionate in helping EMA’s operations run smoothly and be as effective for the student athletes as possible. She loves food and cheese. Grace is married and has 2 energetic girls and one beautiful cat.
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Rain Sheh
ENERGY-GIVER
Rain Sheh, born and raised in San Francisco, believes in the power and transformative development through sports. Rain attended the Urban School of San Francisco, where she started on varsity all 4 years, leading her team to a NCS Championship her sophomore year and 3 BCL-West Championships throughout her career. She attends and plays at the University of San Francisco, majoring in Kinesiology and minoring in Child/Youth Studies. Since 2016, Rain has volunteered for a few youth after-school programs and assistant coaching, where her passion to work with kids started. As a current student-athlete, she is incredibly hungry to learn more about the game and inspiring kids on their leadership journey.
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Magdalena Macias
ENERGY-GIVER
Magdalena(Mags) is currently studying Biology at the University of San Francisco. She played basketball for six years and was empowered to unlock her leadership journey while being pushed out of her comfort zone. Mags loves mentoring kids and seeing them immerse themselves in a community of growth and elevating energy. She is grateful for being a part of a family that cultivates an environment that is all about the student-leaders. EMA’s mission embodies the servant leadership, purpose, and transformative impact of basketball on and off the court.
“There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.” - Paul Kalanithi
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ANDREW RODRIGUEZ
ENERGY-GIVER
Andrew Rodriguez is passionate about sports and believes it can be used to develop a strong foundation for the success of our youth. A transplant from Chicago, Illinois, Andrew graduated from DePaul University with a BA in Communications and Journalism. Coach Andrew has been around the game of basketball most of his life due to his father having played in college. He attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and played in the highly competitive Chicago Public League, which has produced current NBA players such as Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker. One of Coach Andrew’s greatest accomplishments as a basketball player was winning the CPL championship his sophomore year. Despite having worked at numerous basketball camps and clinics back in Chicago, Andrew recently began his coaching career as an assistant coach for the 5th and 6th grade level at the Cathedral School for Boys.
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” - Thomas Edison
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Christina Leung
Photographer
Christina was introduced to photography at an early age by her Dad. It really became a special part of her life after she realized she loved photographing her oldest son playing sports. In 2016, she got the opportunity to photograph collegiate baseball and was then approached by the University of San Francisco Athletics Department to photograph all their sports. As the Staff Photographer since 2017, she really enjoys telling the personal stories of the student athletes and being able to capture their special moments in time engaging in the sports they love. Christina also started with EMA in 2017 and is very passionate about telling the visual story of EMA through photographs. She is a married mother of 2 sons and 3 dogs and enjoys photographing sports, kids, dogs and food.
“the best way to make an impact is through your passion, through doing something that you really love” -Steve Kerr
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JEROME GUMBS
CEO/Founder
Today, many organizations pay lip service to provide a genuinely transformational sports experience by only wanting to develop the next Stephen Curry or Candace Parker. Coach Gumbs and his team focus on the opposite; they’re helping young humans evolve from the inside out by assisting them to self-actualize their true leadership potential. The team strives to continue delivering on this promise of offering a life-changing experience to the young humans of San Francisco and hopes to spread this type of programming far and wide. Baked into it is mentorship, coaching with heart, and developing better basketball players and better people. Coach Gumbs uses his life’s journey, the coaches and experiences, his son, Jaydon, who all have shaped him to start and blanket EMA’s everywhere. He also agrees with his friend, the former director of Berkley YMCA; EMA needs to be the future of youth sports.
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.- Maya Angelou
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Coach Vittorio
Marketing Squad / Energy-giver
Vittorio Antunes, known in our family as 'Coach V,' has been a part of EMA since 2018. The EMA culture engulfed a driven and young individual with love for the game. It's now become a passion and goal to ignite EMA's social presence into the stratosphere. He graduated with a Bachelors's in Advertising from the University of San Francisco, which led him to assist the team with social media and marketing, alongside his coaching duties. Now based in Florida, he's receiving his Masters in Sports Admin at the University of Miami. His aspirations remain within EMA as he is preparing to bring us to the east coast, and from there, all over then the world.
