Sarah Mensah: A True Success Story

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June 19, 2012, 10:34 am

Sarah Mensah has been running the day-to-day operations of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2007 - both in the role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. She is one of the highest-ranking women in professional sports despite the challenge of being a single parent of an autistic child. Chad invited her on the show Tuesday to talk about the similarities of their two children and the success she has had with the Blazers.

Mensah first started working for the Blazers in 1993 and 18 years later has become one of the most influential members of the Blazers staff and the Portland area. She talked with Chad in great detail about what it takes in order to succeed in a role dealing with sports operations. She said that it’s not really a secret, if someone is going to succeed in that sort of field, they need to work hard, be focused and driven, and they probably need to take on tasks that no one else wants to do in order to get noticed.

Mensah also talked about the challenges she faced in being a single mother of an autistic child in a world predominantly run by men. She claimed that she owes a lot of her success to the wonderful Portland community. Although she has not had a husband or boyfriend to help in the upbringing, she has been blessed to have great friends, neighbors, parents, teachers coaches, etc… in her life to help raise her son, Davis. Although she was a single parent, the Portland community made her feel as if she was never raising her son alone.

Although Davis suffers from Autism, Mensah claims her son is a great artist. She asserts that because his condition was detected so early, Davis has been able to live about as normal of a life as she could have ever hoped for. Take a listen as Mensah talks about the challenges she’s faced and the thankfulness she has because her son’s condition was detected so early.

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Tags: Portland Trail Blazers, Chad Doing, Sarah Mensah