Changemakers Panel | Women Coaches Symposium

This panel of changemakers consists of women who all have taken creative action to transform sport in their own communities. Hear different perspectives and be inspired by these women coaches who have made significant impacts in unique ways.

Kari Krakow, Founder, WISTCA Women4Women

Kari Krakow as been coaching track and cross country at Portage High School since 2006. During her time as a cross country coach, Portage has had three teams qualify for the state meet as well as 14 individual state qualifiers. On the track she has coached several individual state qualifiers including a three time high jump state qualifier. In 2008 Kari became an active member of the Wisconsin Track Coaches Association Committee serving various roles including high jump chair, secretary, executive committee member and most notable women4women founder and chair. At the 2015 state coaches clinic discussions started happening about the need to get more women coaching. A year later in 2016, WISTCA's women4women was born. Designed as both a network for female coaches in Wisconsin as well as a committee to empower all female coaches, WISTCA's women4women was the first of its kind for high school coaches in Wisconsin. Now a regular event, our women4women conference in February has attracted over 200 coaches annually to unofficially kicks off both the clinic and the track season in Wisconsin.

Muna Mohamed, CEO and Founder of Kalsoni

Recognizing that the activewear and sports industry needed more inclusive, culturally sensitive, and modest options for women of all ages and CEO and Founder, Muna Mohamed set out to address this issue. Muna’s success derives from her passion for sports, experience navigating this space as Black Muslim woman, athlete, and her work in community as youth basketball coach, and advocacy for Muslim girls in sports. The springboard for this business was a community-based research project, titled, “Impact of Culturally Sensitive Apparel Co-Design on the Physical Activity of East African Adolescent Girls,” which designed and created culturally appropriate activewear for East African girls thus allowing the girls to be physically active while still maintaining and respecting cultural practices. During the project, Muna help initiate the creation of the first-ever culturally sensitive sports uniform for Muslim girls, and now currently a part of the uniforms used by female athlete who are a part of the Cedar Riverside Community Traveling Basketball Program. Influenced by this, Muna began her own research. From her continued work in this area, she started her business, Kalsoni, whose mission is to empower women and girls to be physically active by bringing activewear that upholds their values of modesty and instills confidence.

Alicia Pelton, Founder, Athletic Leadership Alliance & Athletic Director, Madison West High School

Alicia Pelton has spent the past 30 years actively involved in sports as an athlete, wife, mother, manager, teacher, business owner, coach, mentor, board member, marketing director, and high school athletic director. Her range of experiences have weaved through many diverse segments of the population in various parts of the world and have helped her understand the perspectives of players, coaches, owners, and parents. In 2015, Alicia founded Athletic Leadership Alliance. She actively engages the community to grow the game for females from participation to leadership roles on a state-wide youth through high school level. She is vocal in the local and state community focusing on changing rules and policies, growing collaborations, and educating communities. In 2018, Alicia was one of the founding members of the Wisconsin Women’s Soccer Advisory Council, which celebrates females in soccer. She is one of the principle advocates responsible for growing girls hockey in Wisconsin, now the fastest growing girls hockey state, by 25% in three years.

In 2019, Alicia took the role of Athletic Director at Madison West High School, the fourth largest school in Wisconsin, and is striving to have an impact on Wisconsin high school sports for girls, currently ranked as one of the lowest ten states in participation.

Maria Stuber, Founder, Women Ski Coaches Association, Head Coach, Nordic Skiing, St. Scholastica College

Maria Stuber founded the Women Ski Coaches Association (WSCA) in 2019, a grassroots organization that gives women ski coaches a voice. The WSCA works to develop, retain and advance women in ski coaching leadership. Just three months into this project, the WSCA has over 90 members and has unanimous support from women head coaches and program directors in US cross-country skiing. The WSCA was recognized internationally at the Norwegian Ski Federation’s Ski Leaders of Tomorrow event in September 2019 and has begun collaborating with the skiing National Governing Body to change skiing sport culture to support and value women coaches. Stuber is the Head Men’s and Women’s Ski Coach at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. She leads the largest ski team of any division in the NCAA, serves as president of the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) conference, and is an assistant coach to the men’s and women’s cross-country running teams. She has coached athletes to six CCSA All-Conference honors and 15 All-Region finishes. The Saints have qualified 4 individuals for the NCAA DI National Championships in her first 3 seasons.

Shelly Breen, Author of Shelly Bean the Sports Queen

A children’s book author and entrepreneur, Shelly Breen is no stranger to perseverance. She is a staunch advocate for equity in sports, a trauma survivor and on a mission to help all children feel seen. A native of Brainerd, MN, Shelly grew up with aspirations of playing professional sports. She spent countless hours on the basketball court, neighborhood hockey rinks and local golf courses. With a B.A. in Physical Education and an M.S. in Leadership, she started out teaching and coached college and high school basketball and tennis. She then worked with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx organization and later moved into a sales consulting role for the WNBA including the 10th Anniversary WNBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden.

Before writing the Shelly Bean the Sports Queen series, she founded the Let Me Play grants supporting Minnesota girls’ participation in sports and fitness which are now part of the Ann Bancroft Foundation. Most recently, Breen served as Honorary Co-Chair for the Read to Final Four as part of the 2022 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four. Her 6^th book, “Shelly Bean the Sports Queen Loves Tennis” is due out in May 2022!

This project is associated with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport.
School of Kinesiology | College of Education and Human Development