Originally from the Twin Cities, Molly Gallatin, VP of Communications for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, shares her remarkable career journey, which began with an internship at the Minnesota Twins. She talks about how she was able to carve out a niche for herself, leading to significant roles at the LPGA and PGA, where she not only developed as a leader but also navigated the challenges of being a woman in male-dominated sports. Now back home, Molly is channeling her extensive experience and passion into the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. Read the full interview where she discusses the unique challenges of organizing such a massive event with a small team, the importance of volunteer support, and her vision for making these Games the best yet.
Can you talk a bit about your career path, what made you interested in communications and what did your path look like to get where you are?
I’m from the Twin Cities originally so it’s nice to finally be back home. I spent 10 years outside the market in Florida and Texas, but I started my professional career in the sports industry here in town with the Minnesota Twins. I interned for a couple years and paid my dues, and then started in the communications department. It was 2004 and that was a good time to start because it allowed me to write my own destiny from a career perspective. Photographs were still taken on film back then and they were just transitioning to digital, so I was able to carve out a niche for myself, which I think that’s so important for people, especially in the sports industry. I also volunteered a ton at things like Minnesota Timberwolves games at night to try and get to know people.
I started the Twins creative services and photography department so I've just naturally always been interested in the creative side of communications, and that's how I have been involved in marketing. I spent 10 or 11 years at the Twins, which was an awesome ride, but I needed to broaden my horizons so I targeted golf as a way to see the world and get to learn about new audiences. I started at the LPGA, which was a hell of an opportunity and so fun. I was a little nervous going from men's professional sports to women's, but it allowed me to have freedom to create and become who I wanted to be. Sometimes I think in these male dominated sports as a woman you tend to be put into a box.
The commissioner was Mike Juan, who now runs the USGA, and he gave me a whole lot of confidence as a leader and a professional and that led to great opportunities. I left the LPGA to join the PGA after seeing some great results, making lifelong friendships and traveling to way too many countries, and way too many tournaments! That confidence boost led to my development as a professional, and I was quickly promoted to an executive level position there, which was great. It was an incredible opportunity to manage a team and I oversaw Brand, Marketing and Communications for them for five years before COVID hit.
At that point I was tapped to oversee our inclusion and culture efforts to try to get people on board for the PGA’s headquarters move from West Palm Beach to Frisco, Texas. It was a new kind of role for me and I went from focusing on the external side of things to really a more internal focus among our staff members, and then our 30,000 PGA professionals. It was a great experience but Texas wasn't the best fit for my LGBTQ family.
We were excited to move back to Minnesota and the Special Olympics USA Games was something that popped up relatively quickly to us coming back here. It's a great opportunity to be on the team that puts these Games on, and it really feels like a startup type of atmosphere here, where it's all hands on deck and just get things done. So, yeah, my title is VP of Communications, but I really work on a whole lot of different projects and really do everything!
What attracted you to the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games? Did you seek out the role?
It happened so quickly. When I moved back here I put the word out that I would love to stay in sports if possible in some way but not with a team and ideally a different kind of role. Very quickly my name came up, I got an email and then an interview two days later, another interview the next day, and then the offer came the next day, and I wish more people did that. That'd be so refreshing!
What attracted you to the role?
It felt a lot like my experience at the LPGA, which I really, really cherished. It felt like the role wasn’t limiting and that was really exciting. The mentality of a nonprofit startup where we have to fundraise and fight for every single dollar that we get, is just like the LPGA and that felt really good. I was drawn to sports in the first place, to be a part of a team. I grew up playing sports all the time and loved being a part of something.
The LPGA was really when I felt like I was making a difference and it's the same way with the Special Olympics USA Games. The Special Olympics is the number four most trusted brand out there, and it is just an incredible opportunity to leverage that brand for good. That opens so many doors for us, and I just saw so much opportunity, which as a communicator and a marketer is so exciting.
Tell us more about the structure of your team?
So our Marketing and Communications team right now is three people. Our Chief Marketing Officer is rolling up her sleeves and doing everything too. She's writing copy, and she's in negotiation meetings. We also have someone who runs the website and the newsletter and a couple other areas.
Our task list is very, very large so you can be as busy as you want to be, that's for sure. It has been a big adjustment for me and also very refreshing. At the PGA, I oversaw our social media department, and I had 12 people working under me. Now I am the one who does everything - I photo edit, I video edit, I write the copy and create the content calendar. It’s a team of one! It has been a nice way to get back to the day-to-day because you lose that as you ascend up the corporate ladder.
Since joining the team at the 2026 Special Olympics, have there been any standout events/projects that you are particularly proud of?
Part of what we work on now is we try to find ambassadors because we don't have a paid media budget because we are in fundraising mode. We reach out to celebrity ambassadors to help spread the good word and that's been a really fun opportunity to get creative, for us. Down the road, I think it's gonna be something that we can hang our hat on - the ambassador program that we built. Hopefully it will be something that a lot of people model their own programs after and if we do it right, it's gonna be something that's pretty game changing, from a sports and a nonprofit perspective.
Given the size of the team and how large the event is and the impact that it has on the Twin Cities alone is massive, how will you get it done with so few staff?
We are going to rely on probably around 15,000 volunteers to run this thing. We're gonna have over a 100,000 people on-site at this thing over the course of six days. We need to recruit and train 15,000 volunteers and we’re building the org charts now, even though we only have a smaller staff, we're probably around 25 or 30 staff in all. We will need to get very skilled volunteers, certainly, who are working for free and doing very important jobs.
We also have a community of athletes who have intellectual disabilities that we need to protect and we need to ensure they have incredible opportunities to compete and be safe, and have fun at these games. We want them to leave and say these were 100% the best games we've ever been a part of.
When you look at our leadership table it’s an incredibly skilled group, and that's purposeful. Our senior leadership team and our CEO knew that we have an uphill battle here from a fundraising perspective, especially in this corporate climate and she put very, very senior people together and who most likely took pay cuts but they want to make these games a huge success. With that determination and their efforts I have no doubt this will be far and away the best USA Games ever.
What’s at the forefront for you and your team prepping for the Games?
We built out a marketing and communications plan very, very early - about three and a half years out. I've been with the team since December, so the plan was done prior to me joining, which was incredible.
The 2024 focus is brand awareness from a partner perspective and audience perspective, and also a general awareness that the Games will be in Minnesota. A lot of our communication strategy is we just want people to know the Games are coming because It's a busy market from a sports perspective and we need to to get a lot of eyeballs on us. We’re also starting to plan for our year to go already, which will be June 2025. That's going to be a huge opportunity for us.
One of the most visible and important things for the Special Olympics Games is the Law Enforcement Torch Run. They raise so much money for the Special Olympics year after year, and they'll do the same for us. They will run the torch over a huge, huge footprint within the United States and so from a communication standpoint is a big piece for us . We'll be doing a a whole tour all over the East and West Coast. June 2026 is just gonna be wild for us. I've done a lot of big events for sure, but the lead up to these games is like nothing I've seen.
What are the key pillars of your leadership style that guide you as you work with your team?
I want everyone on my team to feel like they fully and clearly understand their personal goals and our department goals, and how important they are to achieving those. I want people to feel very much a part of the team, so team building is so important to me. I always loved leaders who gave feedback, didn't sugarcoat it and would tell you where you need to improve. That's the leader that I want to be to people too.
When you're starting off in your career, you have the opportunity to observe a whole lot and figure out what you like and don't like and learn what kind of leader you want to be. I worked in baseball in the early to mid 2000’s, and there weren't a lot of people that look like me who were in leadership positions in baseball, but I always gravitated to the ones that were there and I would watch them and observe how they interacted. When I got to the LPGA the majority of the C Suite and executive table were women, and that was a huge confidence boost for me.
From a communications and leadership perspective, I think starting with clarity is very important. I also know how important it is to share information that you can because the more you silo information, the worse people feel about what they're doing and what we're doing as a whole.
And when will you start to grow your teams ahead of the event?
Based on our budget it will probably be Q1 of 2025. We've just added a lot of director level positions, but I think that's where we're gonna start to fill in some of those manager below level types of positions so they'll be on our team for about a year and a half, if not a little bit longer.
And then from a volunteer perspective, probably Q2 is when we're gonna start our active volunteer campaign initiatives, which will be intense.
How can WISE help the efforts of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games?
For now it's spreading the word, and brand awareness. The best opportunities for corporate sponsors or just people getting involved is always networking. So, talk about it, mention it and if you find yourself in a great situation where there's a corporate partner who might even have some dollars to spend, we would love to be connected in some way. There's a lot of companies out there who want to find a great inclusive organization and the Special Olympics is certainly a name that's recognizable, but sometimes people don't think of us. We want to be a good partner for all these corporations who work with us, so spread the word, network and bring some brand awareness!