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CORTLAND, N.Y. (April 5, 2004) – Dr. Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, will deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Cortland Sport Management Awards Ceremony on the campus of the State University of New York at Cortland on Thursday, April 22. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 6 p.m. in Brown Auditorium in the Old Main Building. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The awards ceremony is organized each year by the college’s sport management program to spotlight student excellence in both academics and service learning activities. The following awards will be presented: Outstanding Sophomore, Outstanding Junior, Outstanding Senior, the Bogard Scholarship, the Excelsior Award, the Sport Law Award, the Information Technology in Sport Award, the Wingate Scholarship and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.
A native of Stamford, C.T., Lopiano, 55, is the leading national authority on the creation and protection of opportunity for girls and women in sport. According to The Sporting News, she is listed as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in Sports.” She has been at the helm of the Women’s Sports Foundation since 1992. From 1975-1992 she was the women’s athletic director at the University of Texas. As an athlete, Lopiano participated in 26 national championships in four sports. A member of the National Softball Hall of Fame, she was an All-American at four different positions in softball. Lopiano earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in physical education from the University of Southern California. The East Meadow, N.Y. headquartered Women’s Sports Foundation is an educational nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by tennis legend Billie Jean King so that girls following in her footsteps would not have to face the barriers she faced playing sports. The Cortland Sport Management Program thoroughly supports, teaches and instills in its students the values of equal opportunity, diversity and social justice. Cortland’s innovative sport management program currently has over 300 students enrolled in its undergraduate degree program. Students are provided with both the formal educational foundation and the additional key experiential learning opportunities necessary to gain access to a career in the extremely competitive sport industry. The only four-year sport management degree program in the SUNY system, it is housed in the exercise science and sport studies department in the college's school of professional studies. SUNY Cortland is located in Cortland, N.Y., a Central New York town located at the eastern gateway to New York State’s Finger Lakes Region. This event is supported by the SUNY Cortland Campus Artist and Lecture Series. |
