When Harold Craw was named the Southern League Executive of the Year in 2017, he became the first and only African American executive to win the award. With a Minor League Baseball career spanning 17 years, his journey has included stops in Charleston, South Carolina; Davenport, Iowa; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Jacksonville, Florida - where he currently serves as general manager.

Most Minor League Baseball teams held their home openers in March and are well into their regular seasons. However, there is one whose home stadium was rendered inaccessible for the first month of the season due to the historic flooding in the Midwest - the Quad Cities River Bandits. Managing the crisis after being on the job for only a few months has been the River Bandits' general manager, Jacqueline Holm, one of the youngest female general managers in Minor League Baseball.

Austin Scher, the Daytona Tortugas' director of corporate partnerships, began his path to a life in Minor League Baseball, as he would say, before he was born. Raised in Durham, North Carolina, home of the Durham Bulls, Scher has many memories of birthday parties and summer outings at the ballpark, and his passion for Minor League Baseball has been steadfast since.

In 2016 the New Britain Rock Cats relocated to Hartford, Connecticut, to become the Hartford Yard Goats. Under the leadership of General Manager Mike Abramson, the team has quickly embraced the capital city as their new home, and Dunkin' Donuts Park is slowly becoming a gathering place for the entire community.

Though Minor League Baseball has dedicated considerable time and effort to its diversity and inclusion initiative, there is still work to be done on the front of equal gender representation in the industry. Still, the number of women employed by MiLB teams is growing, and Minor League Baseball recognizes the opportunity to empower those women in the way of career advancement.

Finding success in baseball requires passion and dedication, and Ashley Paxton has embodied those characteristics. The Las Vegas Aviators' director of marketing is entering her first full season in her new role after spending the last three years leading the team's social media and branding efforts. As the granddaughter of a former umpire in the Puerto Rican league, Paxton grew up around the game of baseball and working in the industry was always her aspiration.

Emily Jaenson has a career in baseball that has taken many twists and turns, but ultimately landed her in an enviable position. As the only woman holding a position as general manager at the Triple-A level, she is demonstrating to the highest standard that Minor League Baseball is pushing for change in its industry.

Sydney Glover began her career in Minor League Baseball with the Indianapolis Indians as an intern in the ticketing department. After less than a year in that role, she was promoted to Partnership Activation Coordinator where she collaborates with internal departments to bring life to the unique partnership deals within the community.

Roxanne Grundmeier's rise in Minor League Baseball is similar in many ways to that of the players she works to promote. It has required persistence, sacrifice, grit and a bit of luck. After graduating from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was a student-athlete, Grundmeier uprooted her life to move to Springdale, Arkansas, with the hopes of landing a job in Minor League Baseball.

Thyran Nowden is new to the game of baseball, but he's wasted no time making his presence felt. As the sole African-American employee for the Akron RubberDucks, Nowden has found ways to use his position as an account executive to connect with the black community, and he's been rewarded for his success.

Andrea Williams is used to being a catalyst for change at this point. In her first full-time role in Minor League Baseball, Williams was the first African-American woman to be named Director of Ticket Operations for the Quad Cities River Bandits. She is unapologetic in her pursuit of her goals and doesn't allow traditions or stereotypes to hold her back.

Vince Pierson has quickly made a name for himself in the sports industry and has helmed Minor League Baseball's diversity initiatives for four years. I sat down for a conversation with Pierson to better understand what motivates him, what it's like being a part of a growing number of black leaders in our field, and how he works to boost Minor League Baseball's diversity initiatives. Pierson plays a direct role in cementing MiLB as the cultural destination in sport and entertainment and ensuring that all communities are represented in the boardroom and the ballpark.