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Harvard’s Patricia Henry Named ECAC Katherine Ley Award Winner
Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications
CAPE COD, Mass. –- Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Commissioner Rudy Keeling announced on Aug. 12 that Patricia Henry of Harvard had been selected as the recipient of the 2010 Katherine Ley Award.
Established in 1983, the award honors an ECAC woman athletics administrator who exemplifies the values and characteristics displayed by Katherine Ley. It recognizes someone of demonstrated leadership ability, a proponent of women's issues and a role model for women coaches and administrators. She will receive her award on Tuesday, September 28, at the ECAC Honors Banquet presented by Jostens. The luncheon will be held at The Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis, Massachusetts during the 2010 ECAC Fall Convention and Trade Show.
Henry has been a member of Harvard's senior administration in the department of athletics since 1980, and currently serves as the department's senior associate director of athletics. She oversees the programming of the largest Division I varsity athletics program in the nation, and is responsible for the development and well-being of nearly 1,200 student-athletes and 41 varsity teams.
Henry has served on the NCAA men's and women's swimming committee and is a former member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference executive council. Her work in collegiate athletics led to her being named as one of eight 2007 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) Administrators of the Year.
A strong proponent of women’s athletics, Henry is the founder of the Harvard Radcliffe Foundation for Women's Athletics, which has greatly enhanced and broadened the programming and financial support for women's athletics programs at the university since the foundation's inception in 1981.
Henry was a catalyst behind the successful effort to bring the 2006 NCAA Women's Final Four to Boston. She served as president of the local organizing committee for that event, which generated $25 million in revenue to the Boston economy.
Henry also has worked with amateur athletics in a number of different capacities on the national and international levels. She has served on the United States Olympic Women's Rowing Committee and as secretary of the United States Olympic Committee Education Council and was co-coordinator of the 1984 Olympic soccer matches that were played in Harvard Stadium. She has been a delegate to the Taiwan Olympic Academy and was a lecturer and representative of the USOC at the Korean Olympic Academy.
Henry has served on a number of visiting committees and advisory boards at other institutions. She currently is a trustee emeritus at her alma mater, Gettysburg College, and received its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.
Before coming to Harvard, Henry had spent ten years as a teacher and swimming coach at North Penn High School in Lansdale, Pa. As a coach, she won eight league championships, one state title and saw four individuals and 11 relay teams achieve All-America status.
Henry is a 1971 graduate of Gettysburg, where she was a standout in field hockey and basketball and was chosen as the school's outstanding female athlete as a senior. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education and was inducted into Gettysburg's athletics hall of fame in 1987.
Henry earned a master’s degree in health and physical education from Westchester State College in 1975.
