• Erin_O'Connell feature story

PRINCETON, N.J. — The USRowing board of directors elected three female officers including the organization's first female president at its March 22 meeting in Tampa, Fla. Seattle Pacific athletic director Erin O'Connell, the women's vice chair, succeeds Peter Cipollone as the association's president.
 
Midwest region representative Frances Mennone takes over as secretary and USOC-AAC representative Esther Lofgren continues to serve as the treasurer.
 
O'Connell is the first female president of the USRowing board of directors since the organization was formed in 1982 by the merger of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen, founded in 1872, and the National Women's Rowing Association, established in the early 1960s.
 
O'Connell joined the USRowing board of directors in December of 2010, serving as an at-large representative before taking over as women's vice chair in 2013.
 
"I am honored to assume the role of president of the USRowing board of directors," said O'Connell. "As a board, we are charged with executing the USRowing mission statement, to provide ongoing opportunities to achieve excellence in rowing in the United States. We'll continue to work with Glenn (Merry, USRowing CEO) to ensure the organization moves forward in a healthy capacity with an eye towards Rio, while concurrently looking to enrich domestic rowing opportunities."
 
Now in her 11th year on the Seattle Pacific senior administrative staff, O'Connell was named athletic director on March 17, 2009. She had served in that role on an interim basis since July 8, 2008 when she succeeded Tom Box.
 
O'Connell worked the previous five years as an assistant athletic director for compliance at SPU, also serving as the department's senior woman administrator.
 
In addition to overseeing SPU's athletic department, O'Connell has been active on numerous committees within the NCAA.
 
She served from 2004-09 on the NCAA Division II women's rowing championship committee, including three years as the chairperson.
 
Prior to working with the Falcons, O'Connell spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with the University of Washington women's rowing team. She coached the Huskies' varsity four crew to three consecutive Pacific-10 Conference championships between 1999-2001.
 
A native of San Francisco, Calif., O'Connell received her bachelor's degree in English from Washington in 1996. She completed her master's degree in sports administration at Seattle Pacific.
 
O'Connell had an outstanding competitive career from 1993-96 as a coxswain on the UW rowing team. She directed crews to three Pac-10 championships and collected a bronze medal at the NCAA Championships. As a senior, O'Connell was the team captain and a Pac-10 all-conference selection.
 
USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing has 75,000 individual members and 1,200 member organizations, offering rowing programs for all. USRowing's official suppliers include Concept 2, Croker Oars, JanSport, Nielsen Kellerman, Vespoli and WinTech. USRowing also receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners: ANXeBusiness Corp, Boathouse Sports, Connect-A-Dock, EMCVenues, JP Crickets, Ludus Tours and Rudy Project. The USRowing National Team program relies on strong partnerships to enable continued success. New opportunities exist to support the teams through the next quadrennial, culminating with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. America Rows, which supports diversity in rowing and the USRowing Para-Rowing programs, also benefits from corporate support.
 
Additional information may be found at www.usrowing.org | Twitter: @usrowing | YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/usrowingorg | Facebook: www.facebook.com/usrowing | Tumblr: http://usrowing.tumblr.com/

For more information, please contact: Allison Frederick, USRowing Communications Director, 609.751.0710, Allison@usrowing.org.