From Competitor to Leader: The Evolution of the Female Athlete to the Female Sports ExecutiveJoin this informative discussion with our group of accomplished panelists as they reveal how their lives evolved from athlete to sports executive. Listen in as each of these women tell us how they translated success on the playing field into successful careers off the field. In following paths as varied as their respective sports, we will see how those experiences brought them to similar successes in their lives.
Joan Bonvicini is one of the winningest coaches in women’s college basketball history, becoming just the 17th head coach to reach 700 career wins. In 12 years at Long Beach State University, she led them in back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances, 10 NCAA tournament appearances, nine Sweet Sixteen appearances, six Elite Eight appearances and was named the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year in 1981. She took over as head coach of the University of Arizona in 1991, and in her 17-year tenure won the 1996 Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship.Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose became the first woman in the University of Arizona’s history to serve as Director of Athletics for a combined men’s and women’s intercollegiate program. Throughout most of her 35-year career, she was the first woman in her capacity to have operational responsibilities over Division 1A/FBS football and men’s basketball programs. LaRose went on to serve three times as the Pac 10/12 conference Vice President and served 25 years as a member of the Pac 10/12 council, which governs all conference policies and sport regulations. She also served on the NCAA’s Management Council and as liaison to the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Board.Amanda Vandervort is a soccer coach, player, and sports business executive with a 20-year track record in soccer leadership. Vandervort worked for Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-tier men's professional league in the United States, for nearly a decade. As Vice President of Fan Engagement, she worked closely with league and club executives to grow and engage the fan bases in their local markets. She previously served as the MLS Vice President of Social Media and Customer Relationship Management.The panel is moderated by Caitlin Schmidt, the Arizona Daily Star's solutions reporter, covering people and groups working to solve social problems and make the community a better place. She regularly covers sports features and investigations and has written dozens of stories about gender-based violence within the University of Arizona athletic department. She serves on the boards of the Arizona Press Club and Association for Women in Sports Media and has had fellowships through the Solutions Journalism Network, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Poynter.Please also consider these other Tucson WISE events the week of Sept 8-11:
WISE Arizona
Email: info@WISEarizona.org