USA Baseball Announces Election of Two New Board Members

USA Baseball announced the election of four-time Women’s National Team alumna Veronica Alvarez and National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Director of Sports, Sanctioning and Student Services Elliot Hopkins to its Board of Directors. Their selections were finalized at the annual Board of Directors meeting at the MLB Winter Meetings in San Diego.

Alvarez and Hopkins replace long-time board members Jenny Dalton-Hill and Davis Whitfield, who collectively served 14 years on the USA Baseball Board of Directors. 

“Veronica and Elliot are long-time associates of the United States Baseball Federation and devoted supporters of our events, initiatives and national team programs,” said USA Baseball President Mike Gaski. “We are honored to welcome them to our Board of Directors and look forward to witnessing their influence on our organization as USA Baseball continues to develop and impact the amateur sports landscape in the United States.”

Alvarez is a four-time alumnus of the Women’s National Team (2008, 2010, 2012, 2015) and has most-recently served as the team’s manager in 2019. She managed the red, white and blue to an undefeated record and a gold medal at the COPABE Women’s Pan-American Championships in Mexico and was recently honored by USA Baseball by becoming the first woman to be named its Rod Dedeaux Coach of the Year. Alvarez has also continued to help grow the next generation of female baseball players as a coach at the Trailblazer Series from 2017-2019 and the Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series Showcase & Development Camp in both of the last two years. Additionally, she served as a coach with the Oakland Athletics at Major League Baseball Spring Training in 2019 and has previously coached at the USA Baseball Women's National Team Identification Series.

“I take a lot of pride in what it means to be a USA Baseball player,” said Alvarez. “I aim to represent the athletes to the best of my ability so that their experience with USA Baseball continues to be nothing but the best.”

Hopkins is currently the Director of Sports, Sanctioning and Student Services for the NFHS and this marks his second tenure on the organization’s Board of Directors. At the NFHS, his responsibilities include being the staff liaison to the NFHS Student Services Committee, serving as the NFHS Baseball and Wrestling Rules Editor, supervising the NFHS Resource Center and directing the NFHS Student Leadership Summit. Hopkins also serves on the USA Baseball Medical/Safety Advisory Committee and is a former executive of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Inc. and sales representative for multiple Fortune 500 countries.

“I am thrilled to serve the baseball community on USA Baseball’s Board of Directors. I feel that the voice of interscholastic baseball players is important in crafting the future of our national teams and representing our country,” said Hopkins.

Additionally, Mike Gaski and Jason Dobis were also reelected as officers on the USA Baseball Board of Directors during the annual meeting, serving as president and treasurer, respectively.

For more information on USA Baseball, visit USABaseball.com or follow @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About USA Baseball - USA Baseball is the national governing body for the sport of baseball in the United States and is a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The organization selects and trains the World Baseball Classic, Olympic, Premier12 and Pan Am teams (and all other USA Baseball Professional Teams); the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team; the USA Baseball 18U, 15U and 12U National Teams; and the USA Baseball Women's National Team, all of which participate in various international competitions each year. The organization is responsible for the continued proliferation and health of the sport, and leads a number of amateur initiatives including PLAYBALL and Pitch Smart. USA Baseball also presents the Golden Spikes Award annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country. For more information, please visit the organization's official websites: USABaseball.com, SportDev.org, PLAYBALL.org, PitchSmart.org, GoldenSpikesAward.com and USABaseballShop.com.