LA Life Magazine Fall 2020 • Issue 1 • Volume 1 The WNBA in 2020 • Places to explore in LA • Finding a New Normal
LALifeMag.com Copyright 2020
Publisher’s Note
Staff: Publisher- Teia Hill President- Halo Davenport VP of Sales & Operations- Elijah “EJ” Summerour Graphic Design- Anthony Stelo
A Whirlwind is first word that comes to mind as I reflect on the time that has passed from the first issue to this second one. We’ve quickly had to find a way to “adjust” and start to etch out our New Normal. As a print publication first, I took some time to strategize about how we move forward with the publication. Printing takes a lot of moving parts with a lot of face to face interaction. This would no longer be possible. After getting feedback from readers, advertisers and business associates, I made the decision to go digital only for the foreseeable future. The way that I see it, with so many of us either being in our homes for long periods of time, working from home, we are looking for ways to have an outlet, to do and see things differently in our world. I’m excited about this issue. I’m excited that our world is changing. We’re committed to highlighting positive stories, interesting interviews and perspectives and meeting new people, businesses,
small business owners and entrepreneurs in our communities. I hope you enjoy it!
Teia Hill Publisher ATL | LA | Miami Life Magazines
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CONTENTS [ What's Inside ] www.LALifeMag.com
Pg 2 Publisher's Note Pg 4 WNBA 2020 Season Pg 9 Dr. Patrice HarrisAmerican Medical Association Pg 11 Petersen Automotive Museum Pg 15 The LA Sparks President Danita Johnson
Pg 17 Chef Michael Reed
Pg 22 The Pasta Sisters
Pg 24 A Local "GetAway" Hotel Intercontinental Downtown LA
For Advertising Inquiries, Content, Subscription or Story Submission Publisher@LALifeMag.com | 770-940-0606
Pg 25 The Artist Future Leads the way
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Meet Danita Johnson, she’s The President and COO of The Los Angeles Sparks of The WNBA. I sat down briefly with Danita in between meetings to get her take on her role in the organization and what her plans are for the future. Here’s what she had to say: Tell me about your background and how it ultimately led you to becoming The President & Chief Operating Officer of The Los Angeles Sparks. My background is in sports and I've actually been very specific and intentional about my career objectives from the time I was in college until now. I really focused on how to develop in the sports world. I grew up playing sports and I knew what it did for me, the impact it had on my life. I wasn't a great athlete but growing up playing organized sports, it helped me to understand the purpose of the team and how to work together towards one common goal.. To win and be the best!
How have your accomplishments throughout your career prepared you for this role with The LA Sparks? I ask myself at every level throughout my journey... "How do I succeed? How do I remain humble but aggressive at the same time?” I think there's a combination of both that you need within the space of Sports and Athletics. I would give it my all. I think those are things that I really focused on from a growth and development phase.
How did your previous role with the LA Clippers in The NBA differ from your role as The President of the LA Angeles Sparks?
I started my career in men's basketball (NBA) and worked in men's basketball for years. Later, down the line I began working for my first women's basketball team. That wasn't my ultimate goal. However, it’s something about this piece of sports that gives me a different sense of purpose. One where I know that what I’m doing is significant for generations to come for young women, girls and boys that need to be enlightened in this capacity of accepting women in this “non-traditional” format. In men’s sports, there's no glass ceiling. For us as women, I feel like in our sports there's automatically an installation of a ceiling that is mentally placed into our minds from how we run our organizations the things that we can do to how our athletes are presented and treated. Things like the lack of access to certain areas to develop both on and off courts. To me, that really is a big difference.
The Los Angeles Sparks are very committed to giving back to the communitycan you elaborate on the goals for giving back, any recent and / or upcoming projects and events within and or for the community here in Los Angeles and beyond?
We've actually been recalibrating a little bit and built our four key platforms that we focus on when it comes to the community here in Los Angeles. We are women and girls first, we focus on health and wellness, as well as military and veterans and our first responders. In the sports world, we’re a small but mighty organization, but we want to and try to do big things! So we’ll focus on these four key areas. These areas we are aligning ourselves with so that we can really strike a chord in one of those key boxes, it's going to help us because it gives us a definite focus.
15 Photo Credit- LA Sparks