Sara Gaiero is the coordinating producer for the WNBA and NBA in ESPN’s Event Production division. She is responsible for strategic oversight and management of ESPN’s coverage of both leagues.

Gaiero is charged with establishing production objectives, concept design, execution of creative content, talent/personnel assignments, and managing relationships with both leagues. She has been in a management role on the NBA side since 2014 and she began leading ESPN’s WNBA production in 2020, guiding the team through the challenges of COVID and the WNBA’s return to the court in the ‘Wubble’.

During Gaiero’s oversight of the WNBA, ESPN and ABC have produced more women’s professional basketball games than ever before, while also enhancing overall coverage of the league with expanded studio shows and live presentations of signature events, including WNBA Finals and Playoffs, WNBA All-Star Weekend, and the WNBA Draft.

From 2016-19, Gaiero managed ESPN’s NBA Summer League programming. She established production objectives while directing content and coverage for the 14-day, 82-game event which has experienced significant growth in viewership.

Throughout her 22-year ESPN career, Gaiero has worked in multiple production roles across a variety of live sporting events, including the NBA Finals, WNBA Finals, Monday Night Football, college football, college basketball, Women’s Final Four, Men’s and Women’s FIFA World Cups, X Games, Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, the NFL Draft, the Little League World Series, and Wimbledon.

Gaiero served as an assistant director on the ESPN production team that was honored in 2012 by the Alliance for Women in Media with a Gracie Award for Outstanding Sports Program for coverage of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup (USA vs. Brazil). She served as chairperson of ESPN Production’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee – a group focused on retention and promotion of women into high-level, decision-making roles – for more than five years, and she has been an integral part of the ESPN Next program since its inception.

Gaiero is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. While in college, she was a four-year letterwinner on the field hockey team and was inspired to pursue a career in sports television.

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