Register for "Women Championing Growth in Rowing"

USRowing takes a look at the Women of our Sport, and how far we have come in Rowing since Title IX. More importantly, how do we move our rowing culture to a place where women in positions of power ARE the rule, not the exception? USRowing has assembled a panel of top women in our sport to analyze where we've come from, where we currently are, and most importantly where we're going and how to get there FASTER.

Join our panel as we celebrate the Women in our sport. Lori Dauphiny (Princeton), Sandy Armstrong (Marin RA), Ashley Pryor (Relentless Rowing), Kristen Dieffenbach Phd (US Center for Coaching Excellence), Bonnie Mueller (Schuylkill Navy Commodore, Leadership Developer), Amanda Kraus (USRowing CEO), and moderator, Brett Gorman (Director of Coaching Education).

All participants receive 10% off USRowing women's apparel on the JL Racing online shop! Discount code is included in confirmation upon registering.

CLICK HERE to register.

Sandy Armstrong

Sandy Armstrong has been with Marin Rowing as the Junior Women's Head Coach & Executive Director for the past 35 years.

In 2013 Armstrong was named "US Rowing Women of the Year." Armstrong spent three years as an assistant coach for the Junior Women's National Team, bringing home one bronze (2011) and one silver (2012) medal in the Jr. Women's 8+. Under her tenure, she has qualified for the Youth National Championships 16 out of the 17 year history of the Youth National Championships, bringing home 5 gold (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014), 4 silver and 3 bronze medals from this event. Her Junior Women's 8+ holds the Southwest Regional Championship record with 15 golds, 7 silver and 2 bronze. Prior to her tenure at Marin, she spent two years as the Varsity Women's coach at Tulane University. She spent her first four years coaching as Marin's novice/assistant coach from 1984 to 1988 following rowing for Redwood High School 1979-1982. Coach Armstrong sat on US Rowing Junior Women's Committee for 10 years and currently sits on the SW Regional Rowing Board of Stewards, a position she has held since 1994. She has won numerous medals as a Masters rower at State, Regional and National regattas.

Armstrong currently resides in San Anselmo.

Lori Dauphiny

Two-time National Coach of the Year Lori Dauphiny will enter her 24th year as the head coach of women's open crew for the 2021 season, and she has led the Tigers to an unprecedented era of success over her career. Under Dauphiny, Princeton has won two V8+ NCAA Championships and 10 Ivy League crowns, and the Tigers will enter the 2021 season having won 75 of its last 79 Ivy League dual races.

The 2020 season was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

The success has been incredible this decade. Since a magical 2011 season, when Princeton went undefeated and won its second NCAA V8+ championship, the Tigers have won seven of the last nine Ivy League championships. Over the last three years, Princeton has both shocked reigning No. 1 boat Brown to win the Ivy title (2016) and capped a perfect regular season with a Cooper River record-setting, wire-to-wire win for a second straight title (2017).

During the 2019 season, Princeton went 12-0 in the regular season and went on to take down the Ivy League title for the fourth consecutive year. The Tigers finished seventh overall at the NCAA Championships. The squad registered 94 points, nine points out sixth and 11 points out of fifth place. They surpassed their rank from last season and secured the program's 21st top-ten finish ever. In offseason, Dauphiny was named to CRCA Hall of Fame.

In 2018, Princeton went 12-1 in the regular season, including a perfect 7-0 in the Ivy League, and won a third straight Ivy League team title. The 1V returned to the NCAA grand final for the first time since 2013 and placed fifth overall, three spots higher than the boat's seed.

While there isn't much that Dauphiny hadn't already accomplished in her career, she did experience some history during the 2014 season. Princeton repeated as Ivy champion for the first time in her career — she would do so again from 2016-2018 — and the Tigers did so in thrilling fashion against a Brown crew which was also ranked No. 1 nationally at the time.

That followed a 2013 season, when Princeton won the Ivy League championship, placed second in the V8 final at the NCAAs and placed third in the NCAA team competition.

The 2011 NCAA title was Princeton's second in a six-year span. In 2006, she put together one of the greatest college crews in NCAA history with a squad that went undefeated and won the national championship by open water. Her crew in 2011 was equally dominant, going 13-0 in the regular season and then sweeping both postseason competitions.

Princeton's performance at the 2011 EAWRC Championships (the final year before the Ivy League Sprints) was as impressive as any in recent history. Not only did the open women win their 11th Eastern title, but Princeton swept the 2V, V4 and 3V competitions as well. While the varsity eight placed first at the NCAA Championships, the team also added a fourth-place finish; in 16 NCAA Championship appearances, Princeton has been among the top four six times.

Dauphiny has also placed several recent rowers in major international competitions, including a historic showing in the 2012 London Games, when five Princeton alumni competed. Three earned medals in the W8+, including two-time Olympic gold medalist Caroline Lind '06. Lind was also part of the U.S. gold medal-winning 8+ at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Both Andreanne Morin '06 and Lauren Wilkinson '11 earned silved medal with the Canadian 8+. Stone and Wilkinson returned to the 2016 Rio Games, and they were joined by Kate Bertko '06, another member of the historic 2006 NCAA championship team.

A multiple-time Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year, Dauphiny led the Tigers to a magical three-year run of 2004-06, when Princeton won an NCAA title and two Eastern championships and reached the grand final at the 2004 Royal Henley Regatta. Her squad advanced to the final of the Remenham Challenge, where it fell to the Thames Rowing Club and University of London. She returned to Henley in 2011 with her EAWRC/NCAA champion V8.

Dauphiny, who also worked with the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team, was named head coach of women's crew at the conclusion of the 1996 season after leading the novice program to five straight Eastern Sprints titles. She was named EAWRC Novice Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1994 and Varsity Coach of the Year in 1997, 2004, 2006 and 2011. She was also named Woman of the Year by USRowing in 2006, an award given in recognition of outstanding contributions to women's rowing. Prior to her arrival at Princeton, Dauphiny spent two years at Columbia coaching the women's novice crew.

A 1985 graduate of Washington, she enjoyed an outstanding collegiate career that included a second-place finish at the 1984 National Collegiate Rowing Championships. She also was a three-time winner at the Pac-10 Conference championships, the West Coast's equivalent of the Eastern Sprints. Dauphiny twice won gold medals for the U.S. at the Canadian Henley.

Dauphiny has spent summers since 1997 working with the U.S. national team and coached the pair and lightweight double at the 2004 Olympics.

Kristen Dieffenbach

Dr. Kristen Dieffenbach is an associate professor of Athletic Coaching Education, director of the Center for Applied Coaching and Sport Science at West Virginia University and president of the United States Center for Coaching Excellence. She is an Association of Applied Sport Psychology certified consultant, public relations and outreach head on the AASP e-board and president of the United States Center for Coaching Excellence. Dieffenbach is a professional coach with a category 1 (elite) USA Cycling license and Level II endurance specialization from USA Track and Field. She has coached for more than 20 years at the high school, collegiate, recreational and elite levels and works with coaching education at all levels of performance. Dieffenbach's teaching interests include coaching techniques, professional development and professionalism in coaching, ethics and moral development in coaching, coaching theory, training theory, long term athlete development, long term coaching development, coaching education, sport psychology for coaching and gender and sport.

Amanda Kraus

Amanda Kraus is the CEO of USRowing, the national governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. Prior to her work at USRowing, she was the founder and CEO of Row New York, a nonprofit organization that brings the sport of rowing, paired with rigorous academic support, to youth in NYC. She now serves on the organization's board of directors.

Amanda is an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Community Leadership Award from President Obama's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, USRowing's Anita DeFrantz Award for advancing diversity in rowing, USRowing's John J. Carlin Service Award, and an NYU Partnership Award for serving girls and women with disabilities. Under her tenure, Row New York was the 2014 winner of the New York Nonprofit Excellence Awards.

Amanda holds an MA in Education from Harvard and a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she was captain of the women's crew team, a member of the DII National Championship boat, and a member of the Commonwealth Honors College.

Bonnie Mueller

Current Commodore of the Schuylkill Navy (3rd women ever to hold the position). Former Korn Ferry employee.

Leadership Development and Talent Management leader with 20+ years' experience improving organizational effectiveness for global, multinational and domestic companies. Areas of focus include:

- Emotional Intelligence

- Executive Coaching

- Instructional Design

- Facilitation

- Top Team Effectiveness

- Competency Modeling

- Diversity and Inclusion

- Succession Planning

- Change Management

With my foundation as a Rewards & Compensation analyst, I bring to my OE and Talent Management work an expertise in work measurement, performance management, and success profiling.

Since then, I've spent my career designing, leading, and executing engagements in the talent effectiveness and leadership development space for over 200+ organizations. Special industry focus includes Life Sciences, Consumer, Financial Services/Insurance, and Industrials sectors. As a Senior Principal, my role across includes that of Subject Matter Expert and Design Lead, Engagement Leader (supervising teams of 8-10 colleagues), and Account Leader (responsible for all aspects of engagements from Needs Analysis to Solution Development and Delivery to Impact/ ROI Analysis).

I'm passionate about teaching others and making them stronger and have facilitated on-site and virtual sessions for approximately 1000 leaders/ year and coaching over 200 leaders from 2016-2019.

Through my support of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence partnership with Hay Group, I've served as the Certification Lead for the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (as well as Korn Ferry's Inventory of Leadership Styles and Organizational Climate assessments). Through this and my certification role for Korn Ferry's Assessment of Leadership Potential, Leadership Architect, and Learning Agility, I've directly supported Train the Trainer and Internal Enablement for over 800 human resources and talent professional in 70+ client organizations.

Outside work, I humbly serve as Vice President of the oldest amateur sporting organization (rowing's Schuylkill Navy) & the Regatta Director for the world's largest scholastic regatta. Through both of these roles, I manage a team of over 400 volunteers and have responsibility for the cultivation and activation of corporate sponsors. In 2019, I led the campaign alongside Philadelphia's Mayor to raise $4.5m to fund the US Army Corps of Engineers' dredging of the Schuylkill River.

I see the river and sport as a vehicle for transforming lives and am relentless about ensuring it does so for underrepresented communities and those who can benefit most from the experiences there.

Ashley Pryor

Level 2 coach Ashley Pryor is the CEO and Founder of Relentless Rowing Academy and owns a gym, Relentless Fit Factory. Hailing from Westerville, Ohio, she is an alumna of The Ohio State University, where she earned a Bachelor's of Science in Human Development and Family Science in 2013 and a Masters of Art in Higher Education and Student Affairs in 2015. Additionally, she has spent the last three seasons as the Director of Operations for women's rowing.

After playing basketball for Ohio State - Newark her freshmen year of college, Pryor transferred to the Main Campus and walked on to the women's rowing team. She was a part of the squad that won a Big Ten Championship in 2011 and went on to serve as Ohio State's Director of Social Change some years later. Her teammates gave her the nickname "AP", which has stuck to this day.

Since 2013, Pryor has traveled the country facilitating workshops on topics such as leadership, social change, holistic wellness and fitness. She published a documentary, "Why the Caged Bird Sings: Critical Race Theory Critique of Higher Education", in 2014 and co-authored an article, "Impact of College Athletics Involvement on African American Male Student-Athletes' Career Development" in 2015. March of 2018, she won the inaugural Integrity Leadership Award from NASPA and was selected for the prestigious Dr. Charles Whitcomb NCAA Leadership Institution Cohort for 2019-2021. In 2020, Pryor became the inaugural winner of the Steady State Network Change Maker Scholarship.

Currently, Pryor is excited as Relentless Rowing gears up for their first racing season with Central Ohio Rowing for youth and Greater Columbus Rowing Association for masters in Columbus, Ohio.

*Last week, USRowing sent out an invitation to this webinar, which is intended to celebrate the accomplishments of women in this sport. We used a subject heading that actually does the opposite. We apologize and we deeply regret the words we chose to use.