Etienne Thomas, director of compliance at San Jose State University, knows that she someday wants to be an athletics director. The path she'll take to reach that goal remains to be seen, but with the help of the NACWAA/
HERS program, Thomas is sure she'll get there.

"My goal has always been to be an athletics director, but (NACWAA/HERS) helped me to hone in on, one, why it was I wanted to be an athletics director, and two, on being responsible for a program and understanding that I could accomplish the goal," she said. "I never could have imagined what kind of impact it would have had and what kind of experiences and information I would have walked away with."

Thomas is one of the more than 350 women working in intercollegiate athletics who have been inspired, invigorated and revitalized by the NACWAA/HERS program -- an institute for administrative advancement administered by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) along with the Higher Education Resource Services program.

The week-long residential program, which this year is being held in North Carolina (June 3-8) and Denver (June 19-25), is celebrating its 10th anniversary and continues to offer women coaches and administrators the necessary guidance, training and skills they'll need to advance in their chosen careers.

"I think it's just fabulous, and I give credit to the thinkers at the beginning, but I also give credit to (those) who took it to the next step and really ensured it would happen," said Marilyn McNeil, director of athletics at Monmouth University and former NACWAA president. "I think we found out that this is a place for a lot of different people to be and we can get a lot out of it.

"It's a fabulous story."

How it all began

Planning for an educational program for female administrators began in 1994, said Jane Betts, who at the time was serving as NACWAA's first executive director while on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I spent a lot of time that year talking to women about what new initiatives NACWAA might undertake," she said. "We needed to find a way to help women break the glass ceiling and move to the top levels of collegiate athletics administration."

Betts said she and others decided that the HERS program, which had been successfully preparing women to move to the top in higher education administration for many years, was the best program to model the NACWAA program after. She contacted HERS Director Cynthia Secor, who agreed to form a partnership with NACWAA.

"HERS had been around for many years and has a wonderful educational reputation among senior administrators at colleges and universities, so for NACWAA to partner with them was significant," said Bridget Belgiovine, a past NACWAA president and board member and current NCAA director of Division III.

With assistance from Jeanne Rowlands, the retired athletics director for women at Northeastern University, they began planning the first NACWAA/HERS program. Betts said the initial planning took more than a year.

"I thought it was a good idea. I had no idea if it would work, but it was worth a try," said McNeil, who was president of NACWAA at the time.

"NACWAA was really reaching out finally," she said. "They started the volleyball tournament and then they started NACWAA/HERS. Before that I think our great success had been in our newsletter and our fall forum. We hadn't done much beyond that and there was a mentality out there that we might not have the clout to pull these things off.

"I think NACWAA was struggling with who it was and what it could do, and Jane really made us think about what we could do to ensure the future for young women. This was really a step out -- but I don't know if anybody believed it would really happen or be as successful as it has been."

Betts said the class recruiting strategy was taken from the HERS program and focused on getting the attention and support of presidents so that the tuition for attendees would be absorbed by their institutions.

Tuition paid for the actual operating expenses for the first year, Betts said. However, NACWAA worked to raise additional funds, including $25,000 for each of the first three years from the NCAA.

The first class

There were 32 women in the first NACWAA/HERS class, which took place on the campus of Bryn Mawr College in conjunction with the month-long HERS institute.

Betsy Bruce and Geri Knortz both worked at Hamilton College at the time, and they were in that first group to go through the program. Looking back, both say it was a boon to their careers.

"It was probably the best week I ever spent," said Bruce, who at the time was a lacrosse coach and now serves as the director of the Oberlin College Recreation Center. "It helped me really think about some issues -- where did I stand on things, where was I going to put my neck out, where was I not going to -- but it also gave me the confidence to say, 'Betsy, you can move from a coaching job to all sorts of things.' "

Knortz, who at the time was an assistant athletics director, senior woman administrator and coach, and who now serves as the director of athletics at St. Michael's College, said the NACWAA/HERS program was instrumental in helping her move up the ladder in athletics administration.

"I credit the program as the most important thing to my being able to move from my position at that time," she said. "It was a tremendous help, not just in terms of providing information, but also for skill development, introspective work, peer review and the ability to interact with colleagues during that entire week."

Julie Davis, director of athletics at the University of Maine, Farmington, also was a member of that first class.

"I thought that it was very useful -- the perfect complement to the graduate and professional experience I had," said Davis, who at the time was an assistant director of athletics at Carleton College.

Davis also said that she has stayed in touch with people she met at NACWAA/HERS, especially Knortz, which also has helped her career.

"We share ideas all the time," she said. "Even though she's in Division II and I'm in Division III, things come up on your campus and it's good to have a peer who's not in your conference or on your campus to say, 'Hey, I've got this situation, have you ever come across that or how might you handle that?' Someone you know enough about to trust their opinion."

The program

The NACWAA/HERS program features curriculum that prepares participants to work with the issues currently facing intercollegiate athletics administrators, such as policy implementation, professional development, leadership skills and financial planning. And the faculty is among the leaders in the field of intercollegiate athletics. The dean of the faculty is Charlotte West, former longtime administrator at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and the assistant dean is Celia Slater, special projects coordinator for NACWAA.

Specific sessions include skills-building in fund-raising, networking, negotiation, ethical issues, marketing/promotions and cost containment.

"I was impressed because they had all the big names," said Oberlin's Bruce. "Just to see some of those names that you knew from before, not only hearing those people lecture, but sitting down and talking with them was a wonderful experience. They were our foremothers, and that was a really wonderful part of the experience."

Jennifer Alley, current NACWAA executive director, said it's also the class participants themselves that make the experience so worthwhile. Every effort is made, she said, to ensure the classes are a mix of people in all stages of their careers and from schools at each division. This, she said, can help with networking during and after the program.

"I call on classmates and members of the faculty often," said Tina Hill, director of athletics at Cornell College who attended in 1998 when she was the associate athletics director at California Lutheran University. "I think the personal contacts are what have helped me the most professionally. It's great to know that I can pick up the phone or send an e-mail to a colleague and ask for help."

Alley said there is a limit of 40 women in each class, and currently the program attracts more applicants than it can accommodate. Those women on the waiting list will have first priority in attending the following year's program.

"I think for the most part it's the classes themselves that recruit to the program, because they're always telling other people, 'Oh my, you have got to do this. It's going to be the most unbelievable professional-development experience you've ever had.' "

That's exactly what San Jose State's Thomas told her best friend, who will be attending this year's program.

"I think I hounded her terribly until she did it," Thomas said. "She's been an academic advisor for as long as I've been in the business -- she's who got me involved, and I feel she needs that next step. So, she's going to NACWAA/HERS and I think it will be fabulous for her, and then she'll recommend it to someone else."

Other past attendees, too, say they have recommended the program to those they know in the field.

"I have tried hard to encourage other women in the profession to attend," said Hill. "I'm now up to two and counting."

Belgiovine noted that Division III established "SWA enhancement grants" to support Division III women to attend the institutes on an annual basis. Over the past two years, those grants have helped nearly 80 women attend. The grants are for up to a full scholarship, $2,250 plus travel of $750, for a total of $3,000.

"We tend to award grants to support as many women as we can based on what their institution will support," Belgiovine said. "The opportunity for Division III women to participate and advance is very rewarding to me."

Currently, the NCAA as a whole awards $275,000 per academic year for the NACWAA/HERS institute.

Anniversary celebration

Alley said to celebrate the program's 10th anniversary, a special dinner and reception has been planned for NACWAA's fall forum this October in New York City. All graduates and NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics members are invited to celebrate the milestone.

The forum also marks the 25th anniversary of NACWAA, Alley said.

"I don't think there's a better success story out there right now," said McNeil. "We're getting done what we need to get done and everybody I've sent comes back as a better administrator."

Belgiovine, who will be a graduation speaker this month at the Denver site, said NACWAA/HERS continues to change the lives of women in intercollegiate athletics administration.

"I have witnessed and spoken to many participants who've indicated their lives were changed and enriched forever with their week-long intensive educational and networking experience," she said. "The institute empowers the attendees to do more than they thought they could, better understand all the political and social issues within sports and to have the confidence to advance knowing they have the skills necessary to be successful."