WASHINGTON – Georgetown's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has announced the formation of the Women's Allegiance, a volunteer group organized to advocate for, to support, and to sustain the Department's priorities for its women's athletics programs.  Francis X. Rienzo Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee Reed formally convened the Allegiance with its first meeting on Thursday, February 10 in conjunction with the 2022 celebration year of Georgetown Women in Sports.

The Allegiance will provide a forum for women and men with a noted interest in Georgetown Athletics, through their time, talent and resources, to meaningfully improve the lives of female student-athletes at Georgetown by leveraging their support for women in sports.  A principal objective of this high-level group of Allegiance partners will be to significantly increase philanthropic support of women's programs.

Allegiance partners will build a framework to benefit student-athletes in specific areas, including - fundraising for women's programs and priorities that touch female student-athletes, engaging the community by educating and inspiring others to join these efforts and mentoring and networking for current student-athletes through the resources and influence of current partners.

"As we celebrate Georgetown Women in Sports, and especially as we kick off Women's History Month, we want to educate our community about this significant need and to encourage others to support these incredible programs for our female student-athletes," said Reed.  "Our goal is to achieve positive change for them through philanthropic contributions - academically, athletically and in the community."

"The Women's Allegiance was formed to provide awareness of the difference in philanthropic support between men's and women's programs," said Scarlett Schneider Ph.D. the senior director of development for athletics.  "Our partners want to make a difference in the experience of female student-athletes on the Hilltop by seeking help in closing this gap."

This group of philanthropically-minded advocates represent a diverse range of women and men student-athlete alumni at Georgetown, non-athlete alumni, and student-athlete parents.  The inaugural members of the group include:

Mary Taylor Behrens (C'83, P'16, P'18, P'22), Co-Chair
Ed (C'66, P'94, P'98, P'98) and Irene (P'94, P'98, P'98) Shaw, Co-Chairs
Joline Staeheli Andrzejewski (C'95, P'25)
Joe Erlinger (B'95)
Lisa Burke Fallon (C'93)
Drew Fine (B'84)
Michael Karam (F'72, L'76, L'81, P'07)
Marianne McLaughlin MacDonald (C'87, P'19, P'20)
Ed Machir (B'74, P'99, P'01, P'05)
Maria Pope (C'87, P'18)
Christine Todd (C'88, P'17)
Kim Longstreth Vogel (N'87, P'22, P'24)
Nikkollette Williams (P'24, P'25)

To learn more about the Georgetown Athletics Women's Allegiance, please contact Schneider at scarlett.schneider@georgetown.edu or Director of Athletics Engagement Sarah Salzmann at sarah.salzmann@georgetown.edu.