NANCY HOGSHEAD-MAKAR
CEO, CHAMPION WOMEN, JACKSONVILLE
Hogshead-Makar is a three-time Olympic gold medalist who is a member of 12 Halls of Fame, including the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame. An attorney, she heads a non-profit, Champion Women, that provides legal advocacy for girls and women in sports. Focus areas include equal play, such as traditional Title IX compliance in athletic departments, sexual harassment, abuse and assault, as well as employment, pregnancy and LGBT discrimination in sports.
| EDUCATION | Duke University (AB), Georgetown University (JD) |
| PROFESSIONAL EVOLUTION | I started Champion Women in 2014 on a rather dispiriting professional setback; another women’s sport organization asked me to sign a contract that would have prohibited me from talking about sexual abuse in sports. |
| CIVIC CONTRIBUTION | A federal statute that requires the Olympic movement to protect athletes from physical, emotional and sexual abuse in 2018. The statute protects more than 16 million athletes. |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | I do not compete in sports. I’m so competitive I can’t be in a race “just for fun.” |
“I assumed my legal practice would focus on gender equality in athletics forever. But about 2002, Title IX athletics moved into campus sexual violence.”