After working my way up the ladder in the television sports world—hosting and reporting at some of the greatest events of the past two decades—it was time for a change. Even though the change wasn’t by my design, it was still very much needed.

As a successful two-sport athlete growing up in Arkansas, pursuing a career in this industry made perfect sense. By the time I made it to the network level covering golf exclusively, it finally felt as though I had credibility. Why do we as women struggle with our own validity significantly more than our male counterparts? Golf has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I won my first of four Arkansas Women’s State Championships at the age of 14—still the youngest in state history—and was a two-time AJGA First-Team All-American. But perhaps what I’m most proud of is being the first scholarship player in women’s golf at the University of Arkansas in the post-Title IX era.

My television career included stops in Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, and then Chicago working for the Big Ten Network. But my big break happened in 2014 when I landed what was supposed to be my dream job at Golf Channel. Little did I know how quickly that would all change. As I soon learned, the misogynistic, boys’ club culture—which had plagued the network from its early days—was still rampant throughout the company. Unfortunately, many of those in the executive offices and on the management team only perpetuated these deeply-rooted problems.

Soon after making my story public on January 1, 2021, as detailed in the Washington Post, upwards of 30 women reached out to me privately about their own encounters with mistreatment. Sadly, most of these women have been unable to speak out because of Non-Disclosure Agreements they signed after losing their jobs. Others are afraid that voicing their struggles will blackball them in the industry moving forward. Trust me, I understand. Either way, it’s both heartbreaking and infuriating.

My hope is that revealing these truths in my soon-to-be-released memoir, Troublemaker, unites women and brings about change; that the people running companies who repeatedly make unfair decisions toward women and minorities finally get exposed and are forced to change—or cast aside if unwilling to do so; that HR departments around the world become places that protect the employees, not their employers. It’s astonishing how many people lack faith in their own HR departments to improve their work lives.

I want Troublemaker to serve as a reminder to these persecutors that we aren’t going away. I want it to empower women who’ve been silenced out of fear of losing their jobs to speak up and to do it loudly. As Elie Wiesel so poignantly once said, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” May we all be (good) “troublemakers” together so that one-day books like this will no longer be necessary.

1:51 How did Tucker Booth get involved in the book?
6:26 Most challenging part of writing the book Troublemaker: A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming
14:13 What does misogynistic culture mean to you? And how do we solve this problematic social issue currently today?
23:15 Should visual minorities should be a head of HR departments in companies?
26:00 Will the book bring the word “cancel culture”?
29:50 What happens when people say Lisa is looking for clout status?
32:45 Has what has happened to Lisa discouraged her from working in media?
35:41 Lisa talks about the book being for-worded by Hilary Diane Rodham Clinton

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Troublemaker: A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, and the fight they Didn’t See Coming: https://www.amazon.com/Troublemaker-Memoir-Lisa-Cornwell/dp/1637272561/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZB4DDDT99CVW&keywords=troublemaker+by+lisa+cornwell&qid=1675286235&sprefix=troublemaker+by+lisa+cornwell,aps,203&sr=8-1
WEBSITE: https://lisacornwell.com/