The Women’s Sports Foundation announced that Donna A. Lopiano, Ph.D., has resigned her position as CEO of the organization. Dr. Lopiano, who has been with the Women’s Sports Foundation since 1992, will leave the organization this summer.

The Women’s Sports Foundation Board of Trustees has launched a nationwide search for a new CEO. In the interim, the leadership of the Women’s Sports Foundation will be shared by longtime Women’s Sports Foundation senior staff members Tuti Scott, Chief External Relations Officer, and Dr. Marjorie Snyder, Chief Program & Planning Officer.

“Donna Lopiano has made a strong and lasting impression on the Women’s Sports Foundation and her never-ending commitment to advance the lives of girls and women from all walks of life will forever be part of the organization’s history,” said Ilana Kloss, Chair of the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Board of Trustees. “It has been my honor to work with Donna on the issues and challenges facing women’s sports, and we all wish her continued success. Our future looks bright, and our challenge is now to identify and hire a new CEO who will continue in the tradition of the strong leadership that has been the hallmark of the organization and help us take the programs that Donna and Women’s Sports Foundation staff have put into place to the next level.”

Founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King, the Women’s Sports Foundation is a charitable educational organization dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity. The Women’s Sports Foundation, which is beginning its 34th year, has as a major goal the expansion and protection of Title IX rights for high school and college female student-athletes. It is one of the country’s most highly respected research institutions focusing on women and sports, and it counts among its supporters and friends some of the country’s best-known athletes. The Women’s Sports Foundation is devoted to using sports and physical activity in the prevention of childhood obesity, unintended pregnancy and other dangers to America’s young women.

“After spending 18 years starting the University of Texas-Austin women's athletic program and more than 15 years with the Women’s Sports Foundation, I know it takes at least 10 years to build greatness,” said Dr. Lopiano. “I want my next challenge to be the product of everything I have learned. Like Eva Auchincloss and Deborah Slaner Larkin, my predecessors as leaders of the Women’s Sports Foundation, I feel enormously fortunate to have been a part of building an organization of which all of our members, funders, program participants and trustees can be proud of. I am incredibly appreciative of the opportunity I’ve had to work with such great people and help shape a movement to have our culture fully embrace an active girl as the ‘norm.’ I will leave with confidence that the transition plan I’ve helped develop with Billie Jean and the Board will ensure that the organization and its programs are elevated to the next level.”

Prior to joining the Women’s Sports Foundation, Dr. Lopiano served at the University of Texas-Austin for 18 years where she initiated and built the women’s athletic program. During her tenure at the Women’s Sports Foundation, she:

  • Built an internationally respected education, research and public policy organization,
  • Oversaw the development of model education programs and award-winning curricula distributed nationwide,
  • Secured funds that enabled the Women’s Sports Foundation to award more than $14 million in cash grants and free education curricula that affected the lives of one million girls and women, and
  • Expanded the Women’s Sports Foundation endowment to $4 million.

Billie Jean King, Founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation, added, “Donna has been a driving force and a tireless supporter of gender equity issues as she led the Women’s Sports Foundation through some of its most formative years. As she moves on in her career and in her life, she has established an outstanding legacy that will pave the way for women and girls all across the country who dared to dream of a bright future in women’s sports. Donna made a difference in many people’s lives – some who she knew and countless others who only benefited from her work. Our organization has grown because of Donna’s efforts, and we wish her continued success.”

The Women’s Sports Foundation has as its major goals:

  • Increasing access and participation in sports and physical activity amongst all girls 8 to18 years old,
  • Increasing the number of girl-serving organizations that make sports and physical activity a critical component of their offerings and messages to girls,
  • Educating parents and other caring adults about the importance of insisting on and investing in girls’ physical activity participation,
  • Persuading policymakers and administrators to remove sports access barriers for all girls and women,
  • Increasing racial, ethnic and disabled diversity in sports and physical activity and sports leadership for girls and women, and
  • Increasing the number of individual and institutional funders who invest in sports and physical activity as a positive health and developmental intervention for all girls.

Among the many upcoming initiatives for the Women’s Sports Foundation are:

  • Sports Center, housed at the National Sports Museum in downtown Manhattan,
  • The Boston launch of the Women’s Sports Foundation’s signature GoGirlGo! Program designed to engage a community in teaching sedentary girls the emotional and health benefits of physical activity (Boston will join Atlanta, Chicago and San Antonio as GoGirlGo! communities), and
  • The release of several signature research projects, including a research project on Sports and Fitness in the Lives of American Families (Fall 2007), the second in a three-part series on Title IX and the factors that have contributed to its success and that threaten its future (January 2008), and a report on the status of women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Summer 2008).