Donna A. Lopiano, PhD, is president of Sports Management Resources, a consulting firm that draws on the knowledge of experienced former athletic directors to assist scholastic and collegiate athletic departments in solving challenges in growth and development. She served for 18 years as the director of women’s athletics at the University of Texas at Austin and is a past president of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. During her tenure at the University of Texas, she built what many believe to be the premier women’s athletic program in the country, twice earning the award for top program in the nation.
Lopiano was the chief executive officer of the Women’s Sports Foundation from 1992 to 2007 and was named one of the 10 most powerful women in sports by Fox Sports. The Institute for International Sport also named Lopiano one of the 100 most influential sport educators in America. She has been recognized for her leadership as an athletic administrator and for advocating for gender equity in sports by the International Olympic Committee, National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
She has been a coach of collegiate men’s and women’s volleyball and women’s basketball and softball and has coached the Italian national women’s softball team. As an athlete, she participated in 26 national championships in four sports and was a nine-time All-American in four positions in softball, a sport in which she played on six national championship teams. She is a member of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, National Softball Hall of Fame, Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, and Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, among others.
Connee Zotos, PhD, retired from her position as associate dean of academic and faculty affairs and clinical associate professor of sports management in the School of Professional Studies at New York University. She is currently a senior associate for the consulting firm Sports Management Resources.
Zotos has over 38 years of experience in scholastic and collegiate athletics as a basketball and field hockey coach, Division II and Division III athletic director, and professor. Zotos served as the director of athletics at Drew University and William Smith College and director of women’s athletics at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. She has published numerous articles in refereed and nonrefereed journals and is a noted speaker and author on tiered funding models in collegiate athletics, coaches’ employment and compensation packages, coach evaluation systems, and gender equity in sport.
Zotos has served on the NCAA Division III Management Council, is a past president of the Collegiate Athletic Administrators of New Jersey, and was a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators.
She received a Division III Administrator of the Year award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators. She was recognized for her enduring contributions to collegiate athletics with the Garden State Award from Collegiate Athletic Administrators of New Jersey. In 2021, Zotos received a Nike Lifetime Achievement Award from Women Leaders in College Sports. As a faculty member, she received a Teaching Excellence Award from the School of Professional Studies at New York University. Zotos is a member of the Glassboro State College–Rowan University Sports Hall of Fame and the Drew University Athletic Hall of Fame. She resides in Leland, North Carolina.
