Founder

Diane Maiese has been a trailblazer for Diversity and Inclusion in Diving for more than three decades. As the first, and as of yet, only Black female to win an NCAA Championship and be named a four-time, all-American, she came up in the sport in an environment that had a stark lack of diversity. Diane went on to be the first Black female NCAA coach at a Division I diving program. While at LaSalle, she was named Atlantic 10 Diving Coach of the Year five times and coached the school’s first NCAA qualifier. In 2021, Diane became the first Black female World Aquatics-certified judge from the U.S. Recently, Diane was selected as the female representative from the USA for the Pan Am Aquatics Executive Board.

Diane’s goal is to change the landscape of the sport she loves and is motivated by finding new ways to provide accessibility to diving for everyone.

Diane sits on DiveRVA’s board, she is the Chair of USA Diving’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.

Diane travels the U.S. to speak on how the history of the lack of accessibility in underserved communities to aquatic sports has impacted generations.

Director of Business Development

With over 13 years of experience in Marketing, Communications, and PR, Kelly built her career on helping brands and their teams reap the immense benefits of leveraging their stories to increase their presence, drive revenue, and boost credibility to create highly measurable results.

As the former Director of Marketing and Communications for USA Diving, her accomplishments included creating the commercial, marketing, PR, Communications, and Media Operations plan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and Trials. During the summer of 2020, Kelly also helped form USA Diving's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion council, where she still serves as a volunteer member.

Kelly currently owns Strategic Storybook LLC. which specializes in PR and Content Marketing for sports, entertainment and social justice organizations.

VP of Partnerships

John Deffee, our VP of Partnerships is a member of LamontCo’s Senior Executive Team, specifically focused on the LiveCon hospitality services subsidiary, providing global event planning and technology support and services to customers. John's expertise and experience enable customers and supplier partners to execute all types of meetings and events from small to very large city-wide, corporate to association, sports tournaments, and social/charity events.

John is an accomplished expert and recognized speaker in the world of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He serves on a number of advisory boards and regularly assists diversity organizations in ensuring their voices are heard, and their events are executed fairly.

John served on his most recent non-profit board, NAGAAA (North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance), now International Pride Softball, as Commissioner for Four years (Oct 2019 – Feb 2023), where he became the first Latino/Person of Color to hold that position in its 46 years of history.

MBA, MPH

Katura is a former Olympian, who competed in the women's 3 meter springboard event at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She is the first black woman to compete in diving at the Olympics, and she is also the first female to compete for Bermuda. The Bermuda Olympic Association has announced Katura Horton-Perinchief as chef de mission for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Katura began diving in competitions when she was seven years old, at events in Canada, and went to school in Toronto. At the age of fifteen, she was the Canadian National Champion, winning three gold medals across three different events. She went on to represent Bermuda at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 Pan American Games.

Katura graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in French, and later went to study at George Washington University, where she was named A-10 female diver of the year. While at GW, She achieved Masters degrees in public health (MPH) and business administration (MBA).

Katura believes that diversity in any sport is important because representation matters. Not only does diversity strengthen the global ties of the sport itself but it enhances the worldwide brand of that sport by showing that everyone belongs in it regardless of race, gender identification, country of origin, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status.

Diving Coach, South Carolina

Prior to South Carolina, Michael served two stints as a volunteer coach at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee. Additionally, he served as the head coach of the Tennessee Aquatics diving club since 2014, coaching athletes to the USA Junior National Team and to a combined nine USA National Titles. His efforts earned him the opportunity to coach the Junior Pan American Team, which featured divers winning two gold medals as well as a silver and bronze medal during the 2017 and 2019 games.

As an athlete, Wright was an SEC champion and All-America performer at the University of Tennessee (2009-11) and became the first African-American to ever win a title at the USA Diving Winter National Championships in 2010.

Prior to competing for Tennessee, Wright helped Indian River State College to back-to-back NJCAA Championships by sweeping the one- and three-meter events in 2007 and 2008. He was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2015.

Truly a gifted athlete, Wright has become well-known outside of the diving world as the “Speedo Ninja” on American Ninja Warrior, competing in five of the seasons. He advanced to the National Vegas Finals during season 10.

Michael believes that diversity in diving is important because it creates growth, progress and perspective. Diversity presents opportunity to collaborate with others you do not typically work with. It gives everyone an opportunity to view life from a new perspective.

Sam Beckman grew up as a diver and a soccer player, finding Diane Maiese as one of his first dive coaches. Sam ended up going to college to study business while continuing his soccer career at Bridgewater College. Following graduation, Sam completed an MSc master's degree in International Sports Management at Northumbria University of Newcastle England.

Upon completing his studies, Sam was brought on as the first employee of DiveRVA using the knowledge gained from his studies to propel the organization forward and build meaningful partnerships to achieve our organizational goals.