Women in Sports Career Panel
Join a panel of Notre Dame alumni on Zoom to learn about the work they do in the sports tech, youth sports, and sports communication worlds, how they got there, and what advice they have for students interested in working alongside them in the sports industry and nonprofit sector.
Register for the Zoom Panel here
Moderator:
Maria Wainscott ’24 is the Student Sideline Producer for Notre Dame Football on NBC. She also produces BIG 10 football games when Notre Dame Football is on the road. Maria is a Senior studying American Studies and Pre-Law with a minor in Sport, Media, and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. She is a Cincinnati, OH native and has been deeply involved in the entertainment industry from a young age. She was a recording artist for many years before she launched into her sports reporting career at the University of Notre Dame. She ran Notre Dame Television, wrote for The Observer and The Scholastic, broadcasted for WVFI sports radio, and is currently the Fighting Irish Media In-Game Stadium Host for Notre Dame Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Volleyball, and Hockey.
Panelists:
Betsy M. Ross
Betsy M. Ross is an Emmy® award-winning sports reporter as well as founder and president of Game Day Communications, based in Cincinnati. Ross was one of the first women to break into national sports news, working as an anchor at ESPN for five years after a seven-year stint at NBC News Channel and Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, WLWT‐TV, where she covered the 1996 Presidential Election and Inauguration and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and Olympic trials. She continues to be involved in sports broadcasting for ESPN, Fox Sports, and other national and regional outlets, and authored the book Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in Men’s Sports in 2010. She is also part of Junglevision’s crew during Cincinnati Bengals’ home games and handles the public address announcing for University of Cincinnati women’s basketball, soccer, and lacrosse. This spring she will be sharing her expertise with students by instructing a new SMAC and Journalism course called Game Day Media.
Marilou McFarlane
Marilou McFarlane is the CEO and founder of Women in Sports Tech (WiST), the non-profit organization offering strategies and programs for businesses in the $42B sports tech industry to diversify talent pipelines and create more inclusive cultures. WiST has provided over 100 summer internships to college, grad, and Ph.D. students through their flagship WiST Fellowship program, and built a community of over 100,000 executives and students in the sports tech industry. WiST works with corporate partners, including Nike, GameChanger, the NBA, IBM Sports, Stats Perform, Comcast NBCU, Hoka, Catapult, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). A former University of North Carolina Division 1 cross-country athlete and marathon runner, she is the proud mother of two daughters who were UNC soccer team captains and played professionally in the NWSL and in Europe.
Amy Cooper Collier ’95
Amy Cooper Collier ’95 is the Founder and Executive Director of Girls on the Run Michiana, part of a national non-profit organization that designs programming to strengthen third- to eighth-grade girls’ social, emotional, physical, and behavioral skills so they can successfully navigate life experiences. Meeting in small teams, trained volunteer coaches inspire team members with and without disabilities to gain confidence and other important life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons and physical activity. Amy is a former gymnast, high ropes course facilitator, and feminist family therapist, and grew Girls on the Run Michiana from 12 girls its first year in 2011 to over 1200 girls in the spring of 2020. Girls on the Run offers a variety of internships and volunteer opportunities.
Kristin Sheehan ’90, ’93 (M.A.)
Kristin Sheehan ’90, ’93 (M.A.) has served as the Program Director of the Play Like a Champion Today Educational Series since its inception in 2006. She leads all partner relations, coordinates all educational programs, and spearheads the development of new curricula. The program’s mission is to elevate the culture of youth sport to be character-focused and wholly developmental in nature as well as accessible to all children, regardless of their family’s income or their athletic ability. Since its inception, the program has trained 150,000 coaches and sport parents all across the country. Kristin has co-authored numerous articles and the recent book Play Like a Champion: Following the Vatican’s Lead to Elevate the Culture of American Sport. As an undergraduate Kristin was a varsity athlete on the Notre Dame cheerleading team, earning a B.A. in Theology with a minor in Gender Studies as well as an MA in Psychology.