Northeast Conference Commissioner Brenda Weare died Saturday, more than three years after she was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects soft tissue. Weare was 51.

Named Northeast Conference commissioner in August 2006, Weare worked to provide the conference’s student-athletes with fulfilling experiences and enhanced opportunities. To that end, Weare’s efforts led to an automatic bid to the Division I Football Championship for the conference (beginning next year) and the addition of Bryant as the conference’s 12th full-time member.

Weare also implemented a league-wide sportsmanship policy and launched a variety of new-media initiatives. Under her leadership, the conference added bowling and men’s lacrosse and partnered with major media entities to raise the Northeast Conference’s public profile.

“Brenda Weare was an outstanding leader possessing the passion, integrity and knowledge that empowered all who worked with her in the Northeast Conference," St. Francis Athletics Director Bob Krimmel told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Brenda was a champion for student-athletes and raised the Northeast Conference and each institution to a new level of excellence. Her spirit will forever be part of the Northeast Conference.”

Weare, a Denver native, was diagnosed with cancer in May 2006, just as she was moving from her job as a senior associate commissioner at Conference USA to lead the Northeast Conference. She told the New York Post in 2007 that her work helped her keep going.

Weare had more than 20 years of experience in intercollegiate athletics. In addition to her work at the Northeast Conference and Conference USA, Weare worked for a time at the Midwest Conference and at the NCAA national office. While she was an NCAA staff member, she helped draft the legislation for the Division I certification process. She started her career at Mundelein College.

She played volleyball at Wisconsin, earning her degree in 1980, and she received her master’s degree from Iowa in 1984.

Her service to the NCAA included being a member of the year-old Division I Leadership Council. She also served on the Management Council, Championships/Competition Cabinet, Volleyball and Volleyball Rules Committees, Interpretations Committee, the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification and the NCAA Council that was in place before the NCAA federated its governance structure in 1997.

Last fall, the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators honored Weare with its first NACWAA Award of Distinction. The group also created the Brenda Weare Leadership Scholarship in recognition of her accomplishments. She was also recognized by the All-American Football Foundation and USA Volleyball for her contributions to those sports.