Lesle Gallimore was named General Manager of Seattle Reign FC on May 31, 2023, overseeing all areas of the club’s first team operations. In her first season with the Reign, the club advanced to the 2023 NWSL Championship. 

Prior to this role, Gallimore worked with several active Reign players, both internationally and collegiately. During her time with the Huskies, Gallimore recruited defender Shae Holmes and third-year midfielder Olivia Van der Jagt. Gallimore has also worked with defender Lauren Barnes during her coaching tenure with the U.S. U-23 WYNT. 

Gallimore joins the club after serving as commissioner of the Girls Academy (GA) since June 2020, when the development program was first formed. Under Gallimore’s leadership, GA became the leading youth development platform for female soccer players throughout the United States. In the first three years of existence, GA developed over 13,000 female athletes in 91 clubs, making an immediate impact towards the growth of the sport in the U.S. Additionally, within the first two years of the GA league’s official launch, over 600 players committed to continue their soccer journey at the collegiate level. 

Rooted in the Pacific Northwest, Gallimore spent 26 seasons with the University of Washington women’s soccer team as the second head coach in program history. From 1994-2019, the former Husky coach made 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, broke numerous records and twice earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards (2000 and 2019), becoming one of only five Pac-12 coaches ever to do so. 

Following her coaching career at Washington, Gallimore was inducted into the Washington Youth Soccer Hall of Fame in 2019 in recognition for over 20 years of excellence coaching players on and off the field, joining Seattle Reign Academy Executive Director, Amy Griffin, in this honor. 

As an inspirational leader, Gallimore was named the first-ever recipient of the Carla Overbeck Leadership Award by U.S. Soccer in March 2023. The honor is given to an individual who demonstrates a unique ability to lead and guide others and who contributes to the success of an initiative that benefits those outside their own organization and places emphasis on collaboration within and among leadership. 

A lifelong steward of the game, Gallimore is a coaching mentor as part of U.S. Soccer’s SheChampions Mentorship Program. The program seeks to inspire the next generation of female players and coaches through critical representation in the sport. Many notable coaches have participated in this program, including Head Coach Laura Harvey. 

Gallimore also spent a year as the President of the United Soccer Coaches organization in 2018. This organization was created with the mission of inspiring coaches and igniting their passion for the game, passing it on to players and others in the soccer community. Continuing her mentorship, she has also been in involved in the Empowering Women and Girls through the Sports Diplomacy Program through the U.S. State Department, traveling to Morocco, Ethiopia and Israel all in efforts to support and empower women and girls. 

In 2016, Gallimore was the first community leader to be honored in the Reign’s Legends Campaign. The longtime Reign supporter also broadcasted some of the Reign’s matches when the team played at Memorial Stadium.