United We Row Summit USRowing presents the inaugural United We Row Summit. This free and interactive two-day virtual conference is designed to bring rowing leadership and coaches together to network, share ideas, and learn tangible skills on making their boathouses more inclusive. Topics include fostering a positive culture, fundraising, understanding bias, and coaching athletes who are neurodiverse. There is a seat in the boat for everyone – and we hope you take a seat with us at the Summit. Please use the following links to register:
The Positive Coaching Alliance joins the Summit for this 90 minute session. Creating a positive, character-building youth or high school sports experience requires organizational leaders committed to creating and maintaining a Development Zone™ for developing “Better Athletes, Better People.” This workshop helps your leadership team do exactly that. One key outcome of the workshop is a written action plan for your leadership team, created with the guidance of the PCA Trainer (workshop facilitator), specific to your organization and the population it serves. Throughout the workshop, and reflected in this action plan, is an emphasis on PCA’s “Single-Goal” Leader model, in which shaping the culture of your organization is the primary task of your leadership team.
Keoki Fraser is the Principal for Aikahi Elementary School in a town called Kailua, in the island of O’ahu in Hawaii. He grew up in a small town called Waimanalo and went to public school named Kailua High School where he competed in football, baseball and track. He then earned... Read More →
Pam Herath, a leadership and educational consultant has spent the past 30 years in a variety of roles that have led her to this current work. She spent 22 years as a high school Athletic Director, Coach and Dean of Students in Washington, DC.In 2012, she joined Strive: How You Lead... Read More →
Join an intimate conversation with rowing icons Arshay Cooper and Justin Best while Amanda Kraus moderates. These two accomplished athletes understand what success in rowing truly means. One is a Benjamin Franklin Award-winning author, the protagonist of the critically acclaimed film A Most Beautiful Thing, a Golden Oar recipient for his contributions to the sport, a motivational speaker, and an activist. The other is a rower and Gold Medalist in the Paris 2024 Olympic Men's 4-. Both deeply passionate about rowing, they come together today to discuss what the sport needs to do to attract more participants, sustain its growth, and evolve into a thriving 21st-century discipline.
ARSHAY COOPER is a Rower, Benjamin Franklin award-winning author, A Golden Oar recipient for his contributions to the sport of rowing, motivational speaker, and activist, particularly around issues of accessibility for low-income families.Arshay grew up on the West Side of Chicago... Read More →
Our shared love of rowing is what unites us. The beauty, the effort, the rhythm, the team. The reliance on your teammates in the boat – no matter who they are. Rowing can bring people together in ways few other things – even few other sports – can. In this session, hear the stories and experiences of panelists who are some of the strongest leaders in our sport and come from communities that are underrepresented in American rowing. Learn what “inclusion” meant to them, why they kept coming back to their seat in the boat, and learn tangible practices to keep members from all backgrounds in your boathouse.
Luciana Ruiz is the Head Coach and founder of Evanston Township High School Rowing - a scholastic program out of Evanston, IL created to enhance diversity, equity, and access to competitive high school rowing. Growing up in Arkansas, Ruiz was not exposed to rowing until her time at... Read More →
I'm a coxswain for TeamUSA who has been in the sport for over ten years now. I started at Cincinnati Junior Rowing club in 2014 where I coxed for 4 years before attending the University of Washington for 5 years. My favorite part of this sport by far is the community it creates and... Read More →
Marqus Brown is the head coach of WacoRowing Center. He moved to Waco last summerfor the sole purpose of getting more peoplerowing on the Brazos.He started his rowing journey during thesummer of 2008 at a free two-week camp inPhiladelphia. His high school did not have arowing team... Read More →
Former UK Olympic Rower, Founder and CEO Neurodiverse Sport CIC, Neurodiverse Sport
Caragh's journey in rowing brought both the happiest and darkest moments of her life. She discovered the sport through an outreach project, and her neurodivergent traits became the key to her early success at the junior and under-23 levels. However, when she joined the national team... Read More →
This session continues the conversation around Inclusive Coaching with the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport by offering participants an opportunity to talk through questions and applications of the strategies discussed in the 11/14 session. Participants can bring specific scenarios or examples that they would like to work through with the CHJS team.
