Meet Carney Anne Nasser | Advocate for Athletes and Animals

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carney Anne Nasser and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carney Anne, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I launched Running With Tigers to provide athletes in developing countries with individualized athlete management services that will help provide them with the resources they need, the opportunities they deserve, and the help to navigate the significant language, legal, and logistical barriers that make it so challenging for athletes to make a living doing what they love.

I’m hardwired to look for creative ways to help people and animals – I am an activist at heart. I’ve been an endangered species protection lawyer for most of my legal career and am really proud of the work that I have done to bring down wildlife traffickers like the infamous “Tiger King” Joe Exotic, the contributions I have made to programming on networks like NatGeo (Trafficked), NBC (Today Show), Al Jazeera (The Bottom Line), and CBS (60 Minutes), and the award-winning documentary (The Conservation Game) I worked on for four years that triggered immediate industry changes for captive wildlife in the United States. But I grew up in a family of elite and professional athletes (mainly boxers and baseball players) and originally went to law school to pursue sports law. In 2023, I decided it was time to channel all of my experience towards helping people–specifically, athletes.

As a relatively serious distance runner, I am aware of the significant barriers to entry that elite athletes face in East Africa and other talent-rich developing regions of the world. Distance runners can only compete a handful of times per year, so the stakes are high and lack of access to a manager who can secure race invitations and guide an athlete through the convoluted Visa process can set a career back or end it before someone with a lot of talent has ever had a real chance. I’m channeling my professional experience and activist mentality to be an advocate and support system for athletes so they can gain access to the opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
 

What should our readers know about your business?
The mission of Running With Tigers is to help remove barriers to entry for athletes in developing regions of the world, to provide individualized pro-bono and “low-bono” athlete management services, and to be an *activist* (not just an agent) for athletes who need someone in their corner with the legal background, social justice personality, and never-quit mindset to help ignite their career and feel supported. I think of myself as an advocate – not a business person. I’m simply redirecting decades of legal experience and social justice activism to help talented people who aren’t born with the same privilege of access to resources that we are here in the United States. Running With Tigers is about social justice as much as it is about sports.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are runners, so our Miami weekend plans would involve a picturesque run through Miami Beach followed by a meal at Full Bloom, Planta, or Jaya at the Setai (I am vegan and these are some of my favorite places to eat), then early to bed to be up before the sun for a track session at Tropical Park! But I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and for a long weekend, I would definitely make sure I take visitors to Lake Tahoe – it’s one of my favorite places on earth and is breathtakingly beautiful, especially if you love outdoor sports like running, hiking, skiing, or mountain biking!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
During Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign, he said “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” That sentence has always stuck with me as a reminder that we cannot wait for someone else to step in and fix inequities or injustices – we have to be prepared to roll up our sleeves and find ways (big or small) to use the passion, life experience, and talent we each have to help improve the world we live in. Beyond that, my mom has always been the person whose support meant the most to me. She raised me as a single mom and I was her only child. She went above and beyond to support me in all the different ways I chose to explore the world, fail forward, and find my way to the professional and endeavors that are so meaningful to me. When she passed away from pancreatic cancer on Christmas Day 2020, I promised myself that I would live the rest of my life with gratitude for every single day and make every day count. So, even though she is no longer here, she is still very present with me as a constant reminder to spend my life doing what I love and help others wherever I am able.

Website: runningwithtigers.com

Instagram: @carneyanne; @running.with.tigers

Linkedin: Carney Anne Nasser

Facebook: Carney Anne Nasser

Image Credits
Main horizontal photo (running in the mountains) credit: Nate Kastner Photo of white tiger I rescued: Michael Webber