Hill, Pioneer in Women's Athletics, to Speak at Leadership Summit

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Mary Alice Hill

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Mary Alice Hill, the first director of women’s athletics on the college level, will be this year’s keynote speaker for the Women’s Leadership Summit. 

The conference will be April 11-12 at the Fayetteville Town Center and the Chancellor Hotel in Fayetteville. It is sponsored by the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas and the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau. Registration is $100 for professionals and $50 for students and can be done online.

Hill will also give a free, public talk at 6 p.m. April 10 in Room 311 of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building on the University of Arkansas campus. Hill became director of women’s athletics for Colorado State University in 1972, the year Congress passed the Title IX law that required gender equity in educational programs that receive federal funding.

She will discuss her experience with the landmark Title IX case, including a sex-discrimination case she filed and won against Colorado State. She was fired from the Colorado State position and went on to become associate athletic director and then director of athletics for both men and women at San Diego State University.

Hill’s presentation during the conference is titled “From Field to Hilltop: Shattering the Glass Ceiling for Women in Athletics.” Hill, who was an international track and field competitor, served as president of the Western Athletic Conference and was elected to the NCAA Council.

Blake Woolsey, a local expert on business development and marketing, will also be one of the summit’s featured speakers. Woolsey is senior vice president of the Center for Training, Business and Leadership Excellence at Mitchell Communications Group in Fayetteville.

The College of Education and Health Professions and the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau have co-sponsored the professional conference for two years. The purpose of the conference is to inspire women working in the fields of recreation, sport, hospitality and tourism in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Texas and to help them learn leadership skills from women leaders.

“Recreation and sport are part of the College of Education and Health Professions and are careers in which women have difficulty making it to the top,” said Merry Moiseichik, professor of recreation and conference chair.

While more than 50 percent of college graduates and middle management are women, they hold fewer than 10 percent of top leadership positions in sport, recreation, tourism and hospitality, she said, and hold fewer than 25 percent of the top leadership positions in parks and recreation.

“Each of the women invited to speak has broken through the glass ceiling,” Moiseichik said. “Several reasons have been posed in research for the lack of women in leadership positions. They include balance of family and work, socialization and linguistic style, stereotyping in our society, lack of strong women role models, and their exclusion from the informal networks and communications. Change is a social process. Women have to learn how to step up and be seen as leaders.”

Speakers will focus on the latest trends to enhance the success of women in the industry through peer-to-peer networking, mentoring and giving back to the community in meaningful ways.

Woolsey’s presentation is titled “Vowing to Wear My Red Patent Leather Heels: Be Influential, Charismatic, Uniquely Valuable.” Prior to working at Mitchell Communications Group, Woolsey co-owned with Elise Mitchell a training company called Executive Communications Consultants. She is a Certified Master Facilitator through the International Institute for Facilitators.

Woolsey also worked in fund-raising at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, helping to secure a gift of $50 million from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, which was at the time the largest gift ever given to an American business school.

Other speakers at the conference:

• Jane Adams, executive director of the California Park and Recreation Society, “Start With Why.” The California society is the largest state association in the nation. California leads in programs that have helped reposition parks and recreation departments to convince community leaders that recreation and parks are essential services. Adams developed and expanded many of the ideas promoted by the California association.
• Jan Geden, co-director of the National Recreation and Park Association Leadership Schools, former director of training for the Chicago Park District and retired parks and recreation director for Boulder, Colo.; “Women and Leadership – We’ve Come a Long Way Baby – Or Have We?” Geden will also give a separate talk that is free and open to the public at 8:30 a.m. April 12 in Room 311 of the HPER Building. The topic will also be women and leadership.
• Cristy Morrison, executive director of the Stillwater, Okla., Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, “Personal Public Relations is a 24/7 Job.” Morrison is charged with the responsibility of expanding the local economy through increased visitor spending by attracting conventions and meetings, increased tourism and the promotion of special events. She has chaired and been a member of Oklahoma’s leadership programs.