News

CAPE COD, Mass. - Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Commissioner Rudy Keeling announced today that Lauren Anderson of the University of Rhode Island has been selected as the recipient of the Katherine Ley Award.

Established in 1983, the award honors an Eastern woman athletics administrator who exemplifies the values and characteristics displayed by Katherine Ley. The award honors someone of demonstrated leadership ability, a proponent of women's issues and a role model for women coaches and administrators. Anderson will receive the award on Sunday, September 28, at the ECAC Convention Honors Dinner at the Albany Crowne Plaza. 

Anderson, the senior associate director of athletics at Rhode Island since 2003, announced her retirement on April 4, 2008, after a 41-year career in athletics, including 31 years at URI. Anderson, a strong proponent of women's issues and opportunities for women in athletics has been a role model for women coaches and administrators.

Her career path has mirrored the growth of women's athletics in New England. She began her career in athletics as a physical education teacher and coach at North Haven High School in North Haven, Conn., where she led the girls' track and field team to four state championships in her ten years. She also served as the girls' basketball coach and field hockey coach. She earned her "National Umpire" rating in field hockey and officiated collegiate and international matches between 1967-77. In 1975, she became North Haven High's athletic director, the first female in the state of Connecticut to serve in that capacity.

Following the introduction of women's intercollegiate sports at URI, Anderson joined the staff in 1977 as the school's first women's cross country/track and field coach. Her many coaching honors include the 1997 New England Division I Cross Country Coach of the Year, the 1989 New Agenda-Northeast Women's Hall of Fame inductee, the 1990 New England Division I Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year, and the 1991 URI Coach of the Year. She has served as founding member, vice president, and president of the New England Women's Intercollegiate Cross Country, Track & Field Association, as well as an executive board member and president of the Eastern Collegiate Women's Cross Country and Track & Field Coaches' Association.

After spending 15 years as a successful coach, Anderson made the transition into administration, succeeding her own mentor, 1987 Katherine Ley Award winner Eleanor Lemaire as associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator in 1992. In 2003, Anderson was promoted to senior associate director of athletics. In that role, she was responsible for the coordination and supervision of men's and women's cross country/track and field, men's soccer, rowing, softball, field hockey, and gymnastics, while also overseeing facilities, scheduling, sports medicine and academic advising.

Anderson has received numerous professional honors and accolades throughout her career. She was named the 2001 University of Rhode Island Association for Professional and Academic Women "Woman of the Year" and the 2005 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators Division I-AA Administrator of the Year. In addition, Anderson was inducted into the North Haven High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2002.

She has served as president of the Rhode Island Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (RIAIAW) from 1995-2005, and was honored with the 2008 RIAIAW Lifetime Achievement Award in May. Fittingly, it was announced that the award would be named after her for those who receive it in the future.

About the ECAC^®
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference in the country with 321 Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities.  The ECAC stretches from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois. Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization, sponsors more than 100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports and assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports.  The ECAC also administers eight affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues, and through the public relations arm of the conference, more than 2,500 student-athletes in 23 sports are recognized annually.  Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary conference for select members in the sports of men's and women's ice hockey and men's lacrosse.