Thursday, March 27, 2014

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. Women's Vice Chair Erin O’Connell succeeds Peter Cipollone as the association’s president, while 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.

Currently the Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator at Seattle Pacific University, 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."

O'Connell will also serve as a panelist at the Women in Sports Career Seminar, hosted by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in Seattle on May 17. For more information on the Seminar, including a feature story on O'Connell and instructions on how to sign up, visit the "related links" section of this article.

Click here for a complete list of USRowing's Board of Directors and contact information.

ABOUT USROWING
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, [email protected].