Supporting women’s sports and preparing the next generation of women leaders in the sport industry have been at the core of priorities for the Falk College of Sport since well before the official launch of the reimagined college on July 1, 2025.
As we celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day this year on February 4, 2026, below are some of ways the Falk College of Sport is championing that cause and moving sport forward.
Partnerships, Clubs, and Organizations
Women Leaders in Sport (WLS)
Falk College announced its partnership with the nationally renowned group Women Leaders in Sports in the summer of 2024. WLS is a 45-year-old organization dedicated to enhancing women’s influence and transforming leadership in sports. Through the partnership, students have access to WLS’s national network of professionals working in the sport industry, providing mentorship and professional development opportunities.
Since establishing the partnership, Falk College has sent a contingent of students, faculty, and staff to WLS’s National Convention, an annual event bringing together hundreds of professionals from the sport industry for three days of expert panels, discussions, networking and more. It’s an experience spoken highly of by Falk College students who have taken part, as seen in the below video.
Women in Sports and Events (WISE)
The Women in Sports and Events club (WISE) was created to bring together women passionate about working in the sport industry. The club, which is open to all students, provides women with an interest in sports a sense of community, promotes networking opportunities, and develops confidence and professional skills to help navigate a male-dominated industry.
The club’s highlight each spring semester is an immersion and networking trip to a city with a rich sports culture. The trip is funded by Jake and Suzanne Doft, who are in their fifth year of sponsoring the trip in honor of their daughter, sport management graduate Dara Doft ’22. In 2025, 11 members traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where they attended panels, networking events, and meetings with teams and sports organizations. The itinerary included the Atlanta Dream, the Atlanta Hawks, a visit to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, an Atlanta Braves game, FanDuel, United Talent Agency, Overtime Sports, and the Atlanta Sports Council.
11 Falk College of Sport students on their annual WISE immersion trip made a stop at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of Atlanta United FC.
In October 2025, club members visited Highmark Stadium and met with members of the marketing, ticket sales, sponsorship, and analytics teams. Syracuse alumni Kevin Kearns and Kyle Georger both spoke and there was a special visit from Syracuse alum and Falk College of Sport Advisory Board member Mike Tirico, who shared inspiring advice on success.
Members of the WISE club traveled to Buffalo for a day at Highmark Stadium last October, where Mike Tirico, who was there for that week’s Sunday Night Football game, spoke with them.
WISE members took part in a morning run with Syracuse alumna and trailblazing runner Kathrine Switzer during a visit to campus with her organization, 261 Fearless
WISE members were invited to an early morning 261 Running Club session with Syracuse alumna, Katherine Switzer, the first woman to officially register for and complete the Boston Marathon in 1967. Katherine is the founder of 261 Fearless, a non-profit that empowers women globally through running.
Sport Analytics Women Club (SAW)
The mission of the club, founded in 2020, is to collaborate and serve as positive advocates for women in sport analytics by connecting with each other and with professionals in the industry. Members complete group research projects, engage in professional development, host guest speakers, and strengthen their skills using relevant computer programs such as R, SQL, Python, and Tableau.
Sport Management Club
The Sport Management Club was founded in 2005, providing dozens of students with invaluable experiential learning opportunities to expand their professional, academic, and social skillsets each year.
The club’s signature event, the Charity Sports Auction, takes place every year in the backcourt area of the JMA Wireless Dome during a Syracuse Men’s Basketball game. Proceeds from the auction, which is entirely student-run, benefit a local charity organization chosen by the students each year. To date, the annual event has raised a total of $849,000 for local charities. Since the club’s founding, female students have frequently served as chairs or co-chairs of the auction, or held other leadership positions within the club, gaining hands-on experience that translates beyond the classroom.
(photo left): The co-chairs for the 2024 Charity Sports Auction were Livia McQuade ’25 (left), Adelaide Gilley ’25 (center), and Tynan Weathers ’25 (left).
(photo right): The co-chairs for the 2025 Charity Sports Auction were Emily Gilbert ’27 and James Stickel ’26.
Shaw Center Nutrition Initiative
The university-wide Shaw Center Nutrition Initiative brings together students from various schools, colleges, and majors to teach students in the Syracuse City School District important lessons about nutrition, food science, food preparation, and cultures around the world.
The initiative features three distinct programs: Books & Cooks, Cooking on the Hillside, and Food Busters. A team of seven Nutrition Initiative leadership interns create the lesson plans for each classroom visit, purchase and prepare food, and arrange travel. During the fall semester, all seven leadership interns were female students: Zoya Ansari ’26 (nutrition science major), Trinity Delgado ’27 (exercise science in Falk College), Sophie Denham ’27 (neuroscience and psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences), Lily Judelsohn ’28 (nutrition), Natalie Kloman ’27 (nutrition); Mae Neuman ’27 (nutrition); and Tracey Rodriguez ’27 (nutrition science).
The fall Nutrition Initiative leadership interns included, from left to right, Tracey Rodriguez, Sophie Denham, Trinity Delgado, Lily Judelsohn, Mae Neuman, and Zoya Ansari.
Research and Writings
Falk College is the first standalone college on a top-tier research campus that specifically focuses on sport through a holistic academic lens. Many of the college’s faculty members have published impactful research and peer-reviewed journal articles in a wide range of areas of study.
Lindsey Darvin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Sport Management Lindsey Darvin’s research centers on gender equity, inclusion, policy, and ethical practice across traditional sport and gaming spaces. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, policy reports, and white papers on topics including women’s leadership and hiring practices in sport; gender bias in coaching and performance evaluation; inequities in name, image, and likeness (NIL) systems; hostile and exclusionary cultures in gaming and esports; and sport and health policy issues affecting women and gender-diverse athletes.
Professor Darvin also has an ongoing research effort that focuses on the tracking of menstrual cycles in youth and high school sports, exploring how the collection, storage, and use of menstrual data can create privacy risks and inequities for girl athletes, and highlights gaps in existing protections under laws such as FERPA and HIPAA.
Professor Darvin remains highly engaged in public scholarship, contributing regular columns for Forbes, often focused on women’s sports, gender equity, leadership, and industry trends.
Jessica Garay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Jessica Garay’s research centers on the short- and long-term effects of adolescent and adult health behaviors, with a focus on dietary patterns and physical activity.
Professor Garay has two active areas of funded research: the effect of stress on health behaviors during pregnancy; and the relationship between dietary intake, body composition, and exercise performance among female athletes, being conducted with Falk College Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Margaret Voss.
Mary Graham, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Sport Management Mary Graham’s research focuses on human resource management in supply chains, gender-related employment disparities, and workforce diversity.
Professor Graham has published papers examining NFL teams and cheerleader exploitation; women executives of NFL teams and job misconduct by high-profile employees; workplace diversity responsibility and women’s representation in management; the effects of gender composition of top management on economic fallout, and more.
Jeeyoon Jamie Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sport Management Jeeyoon Jamie Kim’s research centers on the impact of sporting events on local communities and event consumers with special emphasis on mega sporting events, sport event consumer well-being, destination branding, negotiation of motivations and constraints, and quantitative research methods.
Professor Kim is currently researching, alongside colleague Lindsey Darvin, barriers to women and girls participating in the esports industry.
Alexia Lopes, Ph.D.
Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Sport Management Alexia Lopes’s research focuses on athlete migration and women in sport management. She has presented her research in major conferences in the United States and internationally.
Professor Lopes has been published for research analyzing women professional athletes and their personal brands on social media; women involvement in motorsports in the U.S. and the challenges they face; the U.S. Women’s Soccer team’s fight for equal pay and its broader impacts, and more.
Gina Pauline
Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management Gina Pauline’s expertise is in the areas of event management, pedagogy, and women in sport. With an extensive list of publications, her research has been published nationally and internationally.
Professor Pauline co-founded the only collegiate chapter of Women in Sport and Events (WISE) at Syracuse University and serves as an advocate for supporting women pursuing careers in sport management.
Kerianne Rubenstein, Ph.D.
In additional to serving as faculty adviser for the Sport Analytics Women Club, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sport Analytics Kerianne Rubenstein’s research focuses on a variety of topics in sport economics, including NCAA regulations and sanctions, the development of women’s professional sports, and incentivizing player performance and health in the NFL.
Professor Rubenstein has published multiple papers. One paper analyzed pop music star Taylor Swift’s impact on viewership for the Kansas City Chiefs, the team for whom her fiancé, tight end Travis Kelce, plays. Another study, conducted with second-year sport analytics student Karly Gershon, examined how crowd noise and size influence technical and flagrant fouls in the WNBA.
Professor Rubenstein is currently conducting research with senior sport analytics student Piper Moskow studying the WNBA sister team affiliation with the NBA; with second-year sport analytics student Rachel Harris about Ohio’s “Modell Law” and its impact on the value of professional sports teams in the state; and with senior sport analytics student Jessica Fackler about the WNBA’s Prioritization Rule and its impact on players choosing to play abroad.