Women Leaders in Sports Podcast

In today's podcast, Patti Phillips shares a great conversation with the Senior Director of Athletics at Auburn University at Montgomery, Jessie Rosa. Jessie's childhood dream was to be the athletics director at AUM and today, she is not only living that dream - but also inspiring the next generation to follow their own dreams. Like many, her journey to the chair did not come without hearing a few...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips shares a great conversation with the Director of Athletics at Knox College, Daniella Irle.  Her highly decorated 20-year head coaching career in Division I Swimming and Diving, paired with a masterful 15-year administrative career, has made Daniella a force in this industry and beyond. She is no stranger to defying the odds and when we say resilience changes lives,...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips shares the highly anticipated conversation with the commissioner of the WNBA, Cathy Engelbert. Cathy is an innovative and people-first leader who has made an immediate impact on the WNBA in her first 18-months as Commissioner. Cathy is no stranger to leading through crisis and navigating challenges -as she spent 33 years at Deloitte, including 4 years as CEO. During...

Welcome to the 100TH EPISODE of the Women Leaders Podcast!  Since 2017, powerhouse women from all corners of the collegiate athletics industry and beyond have shared their career and leadership journey with us on the Women Leaders Podcast. With over 122,000 all-time downloads in just four years and an average of 4,000 downloads per month, these conversations have provided timely and impactful insi...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Valerie Cleary, director of athletics at Portland State University Val has somewhat of an underdog story that reminds young women that a career in sports is possible! A small, farm town girl from Northern California who never aspired to be an athletic director - Val used her undergrad experiences as a tour guide, orientation leader and sorority sister t...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by CEO and Founder of Brave Enterprises, a great friend of Women Leaders and former convention keynote, Crista Samaras Crista is a coach, entrepreneur, and power-packed, energetic pep talk master who has coached thousands of people to feel great about themselves and to accomplish things they never thought possible, And while her energy is infectious and no...

In this podcast, Patti Philips is joined by Director of Athletics at Montana State University-Billings, Krista Montague. The first female athletic director at MSU-Billings AND at a NCAA institution in the state of Montana, Krista has spent her entire career in athletics supporting and pouring her heart into the community that helped to shape her. We talk about how the journey from staff, to interi...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics at Saint Francis Brooklyn College, Irma Garcia. With a breadth of knowledge in many areas across this industry, her heart for using them all to better the lives of others is what makes Irma a true Woman Leader! Starting as the Head Women's Basketball Coach and now the Athletic Director, she has used eve...

Hello, and welcome to the Women Leaders podcast! I'm Patti Phillips, CEO of Women Leaders in College Sports. Today, I am excited to be joined by current Women Leaders Board member and the Executive Director of the Centennial Conference, Portia Hoeg. Portia has a broad experience in the world of collegiate athletics, that includes an all-star student-athlete experience, an internship at the WBCA, a...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by the Director of Athletics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Courtney Lovely Evans. Courtney has ascended to the AD chair quickly, although this was not necessarily her goal in college. It was actually the opportunity to work for two female leaders at Georgia State that opened her eyes to collegiate administration. In our conversation Courtney talks abo...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by a true trailblazer, Dr. Candice Storey Lee, the Vice Chancellor for Athletics & University Affairs and Athletics Director at Vanderbilt University. Candice's' appointment is historic as Vanderbilt's first female athletic director AND the first African American woman to lead an athletics program in the SEC. We talk and how she has handled that, AND the C...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton University. Mollie's journey to the AD chair is a unique one, having never worked in college athletics prior to accepting the role at Princeton. We hear this a lot on the men's side, but not as much with women. Mollie did start her career at a boarding school where she held many j...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Michelle Morgan, Senior Director of Athletics and Recreation at John Carroll University. Michelle's mission in life is to "make a mark on the world with a skate on one foot and a black pump on the other" and there is no doubt this mission is evidenced in her reality. Michelle grew up as an ice hockey student-athlete and used her love of the sport to pro...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Jenn Strawley, Deputy Director of Athletics, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Woman Administrator at the University of Miami. Jenn started her career as an NCAA intern back when it was located in KANSAS CITY, which is where our paths first crossed, and then spent 3 years in administration at Columbia before returning to the NCAA. It is Jenn's passion...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Nevin Caple, Principal Consultant and Founder of Return of Inclusion. As a student-athlete at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Nevin's experience helped her explore pieces of herself she had yet to discover. She used this background in sport to start not one, but THREE, companies and become a national thought leader on diversity, inclusion and belonging...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Terry Gawlik, Director of Athletics at the University of Idaho. Terry has had an impressive career as both a coach and administrator, including being the FIRST female to sit in the AD chair at the University of Idaho. Her 13 years of coaching 4 sports and literally doing it all, greatly influenced her time as an administrator at Wisconsin, where she spe...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Terri Steeb Gronau, NCAA Vice President of Division II, and Interim Executive Vice President over Inclusion and Leadership Development. Terri has quite a journey, having been at the NCAA for 20 years, starting as an intern in 2000 and elevating quickly during her tenure. In our conversation, Terri talks about her leadership style and how and why she mad...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Mori Taheripour, entrepreneur, author and educator on negotiation. Mori has been teaching Negotiation at Wharton Business School for over 15 years. Her new book, "How to Harness the Power of Connection to Negotiate Fearlessly" is unlike any other book on negotiation. In the book, Mori talks about assuming abundance, claiming your power, and that empathy...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Dr. Kristene Kelly, Executive Associate Athletic Director for Varsity Sports, SWA, and Deputy Title IX Coordinator at Dartmouth College. Kristene has a fascinating story. She came to the US from the Virgin Islands at age 16, and that's just one small piece of her incredible, untraditional journey to the AD chair and beyond. Kristene was a Dll athletic d...

In this podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Deb Steward, Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Yes, Deb is the athletic director at TWO colleges at the same time! In February of 2020, Deb was named director of athletics for both Hobart and William Smith Colleges. This was a monumental and historic decision as the colleges had previ...

On the most recent episode of the Women Leaders Podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Renee Baumgartner, Santa Clara University Director of Athletics. At just 22 years old, Renee was named the head women's golf coach at the University of Oregon, where she built the program from the ground up to a national championship team in just 6 years. Renee knew in her first year coaching that she someday want...

On the most recent episode of the Women Leaders Podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Chrissi Rawak, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Services at University of Delaware. Chrissi has such an interesting journey – she started as an assistant swimming coach, and spent time as both the Personnel and Business resources director at Northwestern, and as the Talent Management and Dev. O...

On the most recent episode of the Women Leaders Podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author of 5 books, and former sports agent Molly Fletcher. We love all of Molly's books, but we spent time talking about the Energy Clock, and"A Winner's Guide to Negotiating, Molly mastered the art of negotiating as a sports agent and says negotiations are about communication,...

On the most recent episode of the Women Leaders Podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Julie Ruppert, the Northeast 10 Conference Commissioner and former Women Leaders Board Member. After spending over 15 years at the Division l level, Julie chose Division ll, where in 2008 she became the FIRST female Commissioner in Dll. She's had many wins there, including leading the conference through a hugely s...

On the most recent episode of the Women Leaders Podcast, Patti Phillips is joined by Kathy Beauregard, director of athletics at Western Michigan University. This podcast was recorded on March 17th in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, and in our unique conversation, Kathy talks to us about the effects of COVID-19 both on her campus and across the industry. She shares her coping skills, and tips to...