STARKVILLE, Miss. – Four-time Olympic medalist in swimming, Title IX advocate and current senior director of Advocacy for the Women’s Sports Foundation Nancy Hogshead-Makar will serve as the keynote speaker for the 2011 NFCA Convention at Bally’s in Las Vegas on Nov. 30, the Association announced on Tuesday.

Hogshead-Makar is one of the foremost champions of gender equity in education, including sports participation, sexual harassment, employment, pregnancy, and legal enforcement under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.  Her book, co-authored with Andrew Zimbalist, “Equal Play, Title IX and Social Change,” has received acclaim since its release by Temple University Press. She was the lead author of “Pregnant and Parenting Student-Athletes; Resources and Model Policies,” published by the NCAA. In 2009, she brought a successful legal challenge against the Florida High School Athletic Association whose cuts to competitive seasons discriminated against female athletes. In the settlement, the competitive seasons were restored for all high school athletes throughout Florida.

Hogshead-Makar has a 25-year history with the Women’s Sports Foundation as a volunteer, starting as a college intern, becoming the third president from 1992-1994, it’s legal advisor from 2003-2010 and serving currently as its senior director of advocacy.  

Hogshead-Makar has testified in Congress numerous times on the topic of gender equity in athletics, written numerous scholarly and lay articles, and has been a frequent guest on national news programs on the topic, including “60 Minutes” on CBS, Fox News, CNN, ESPN, NPR and network morning news programming. She serves as an expert witness in Title IX cases and has written amicus briefs representing athletic organizations in precedent-setting litigation. Since 2003, she has been the co-chair of American Bar Association Committee on the Rights of Women. She was elected to the editorial board of the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport in 2009. In 2007, Sports Illustrated named her as one of the most influential people in the 35-year history of Title IX.

Hogshead-Makar has received significant awards recognizing her commitment to athletics, including: a receipt of an honorary doctorate from Springfield College, induction into the Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Fame and the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame, membership in the Hall of Fame for the National Association for Sports and Physical Education, and receipt of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators’ Honor Award. In 2011, she was presented with the National Organization for Women’s Courage Award. Hogshead-Makar is a tenured Professor of Law at the Florida Coastal School of Law, where she currently teaches sports law courses. She earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and is an honors graduate of Duke University.

Hogshead-Makar capped eight years as a world-class swimmer at the 1984 Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver medal. Through high school and college dual meets, she was undefeated.  Other major awards include the AAU Nathan Mallison Award, given to Florida’s outstanding amateur athlete, and the prestigious Kiphuth Award, given to the best all-around swimmer nationally. Makar-Hogshead has been inducted into 11 halls of fame for her swimming accomplishments, including the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2000, Sports Illustrated ranked her as Florida’s 13th greatest athlete overall of the 20th Century.

Hogshead-Makar will address the convention as part of the general session on Wednesday, November 30 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. For move information on this year’s convention, go to http://nfca.org/convention/.