Mercy Less
Publisher - DerbyLife.com
One of the original 9 founders and owners of Baltimore's Charm City Roller Girls in 2005, Mercy Less served on their Board of Directors, was the league's original Chair of Insurance, Legal, Bout Production, Marketing/PR, and was the first representative of the league to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. She played for Charm City’s Mobtown Mods, as well as their first all-star team, the Mobtown Maulers. Mercy also skated for Duke City Derby of Albuquerque, New Mexico before retiring from skating in 2009 after multiple injuries to both knees.
As a WFTDA representative, Mercy served as WFTDA Chair of Marketing/PR for 2 years, and was responsible for the historic return of roller derby bouts to television in 2007, the inking of a roller derby video game deal, and some high profile coverage of roller derby in the press at a time when the world at large was just beginning to notice the sport. Additionally, she served on the WFTDA Board of Directors for 18 months, 1 year of which was as the organization's Treasurer.
Mercy headed up RollerCon Media and led workshops in 2007 and 2008. In a hotel room in Austin, she watched the birth of DNN happen during the Texas Shootout. In 2008 Mercy Less made an honest man of Derby News Network by marrying Hurt Reynolds. She went on to help them with business development, sponsorship, marketing, event production management, and occasional writing and reporting.
Under the alias Kristin Seale, Mercy was a professional in film and television for over a decade, working as a producer and shooter for national and international news networks, independent film, and documentary film and television in Washington, D.C. and worldwide. Her favorite gigs included shooting for the Speed Channel and NBC Sports, and producing live segments for every news network on the globe from the White House during the beginning of the Iraq War. ‘Kristin Seale’ is a student of public health at University of New Mexico, and interns in the state legislature lobbying for women’s health policy and developing PR and social media campaigns for public health issues.
The newest DNN partner as of January 2011, Mercy is DNN’s COO and also consults roller derby leagues as well as non-profit and for-profit small businesses with Lorna Boom and Hurt Reynolds through Have Derby Will Travel. Mercy resides in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, with a view of her favorite mountains, her favorite derby fan and husband, girlchildren and a small pack of coyote. Mercy Less wouldn’t help pick the DNN Power Rankings even if you put a gun to her head.
