Women Leading NIRSA: Experiences and insights

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On February 22, 1950, Dr. William Wasson gathered 20 intramural directors from 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities together for what ended up being the inaugural meeting of the National Intramural Association (NIA). The NIA eventually evolved into the association you know today as NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation. Among those twenty directors were three women: Annette H. Akins of Dillard University, Dimples Lee of Texas State University, and Jaunita G. Pierce of Texas State University (Texas State University is now Texas Southern University). Female leaders have been a part of NIRSA from its very beginning, even if the Association did bar women from membership from 1959 through 1971.

In 1987, Mary Daniels of The Ohio State University was elected as the first female president of the Association and, in 1998, Juliette Moore of the University of Arizona was elected as the first female African American to serve as NIRSA President. Since Mary Daniels there have been twelve more female NIRSA Presidents including 2019–2020 NIRSA President Leah Hall Dorothy, Executive Director of Recreational Sports at Oregon State University. The 2019–2020 leadership year marks the first time in the Association’s history that NIRSA, the NIRSA Foundation, and the NIRSA Services Corporation all boast female leaders in the role of president. Janice DeMonsi, Director of Recreation at Santa Clara University, is the NIRSA Foundation President while Stephanie McAlpine, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Texas at Arlington, serves as the NIRSA Services Corporation President. Additionally, Pam Watts remains NIRSA’s Executive Director, a position she has held since 2012.

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