More Than A Game: Sport-Success-Significance

Marlene Bjornsrud’s career over the past 35 years has included leadership roles in several facets of the sports industry including a collegiate national championship tennis coach and an athletics administrator at Grand Canyon and Santa Clara Universities. She was the first General Manager of the San Jose CyberRays of the professional Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and the team won the inaugural WUSA championship.

Marlene comes to The Alliance from the Bay Area Women’s Sport Initiative (BAWSI, pronounced “bossy”), a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 by Marlene and USA Olympic and World Cup stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy.

The organization was founded on the belief that the full aspirations of women in sports are yet to be realized, and that the full benefits of sports in society cannot be achieved without women. BAWSI is an advocate for all social and policy issues that impact the lives of girls and women in sports.

BAWSI’s mission is to awaken the power of female athletes to be change makers in the world. BAWSI has engaged more than 8,000 women athletes in the fight against child obesity by having them inspire more than 16,000 BAWSI Girls in underserved communities in the Bay Area and more than a thousand children with disabilities, called BAWSI Rollers, to get moving and involved in fun, active play.

As CEO of BAWSI, Marlene had complete oversight for management of the organization, including fundraising, strategic planning and representing BAWSI to government agencies and within the community.

Marlene’s work in helping girls and women through sport was recognized by the International Olympic Committee with its prestigious 2013 Women and Sport Award for the continent of the Americas. The award recognizes a lifetime of work in the women’s sports community and specifically for her role as co-founder of the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative.