Bio

Dr. Judith R. Holland was one of the three founders of what is now known as The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA), a program she championed in 1976 to recognize excellence in women’s collegiate athletics. The CWSA annually recognizes the outstanding athletic and academic achievement of female collegiate student-athletes in 12 Division I NCAA sports, as well as an overall honoree in Division II and III.

Prior to serving as the CWSA’s first executive director, Dr. Holland enjoyed a very successful 30-year career with UCLA Athletics, notably serving as the first Director of Women’s Athletics from 1975 to 1980, then as UCLA’s Senior Associate Athletic Director before assuming the role of Executive Assistant and Chief Planning Officer for UCLA’s Office of Student Affairs, a position she held for ten years before her retirement from the university.

Dr. Holland supervised a period of significant growth and unprecedented success at UCLA, including 37 national championships under her leadership. With the passage of Title IX in 1972, Dr. Holland set a goal of raising the notoriety of the UCLA women’s athletics program equal to that of the men’s program. In creating a “blueprint for success,” she campaigned for crucial funding for uniforms, travel expenses and coaches’ salaries. She began the practice of offering collegiate scholarships for women’s athletics at the same level as the men’s to attract the best players. She gave her first athletic scholarship to eventual 1977-78 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, Ann Meyers-Drysdale, a 4-time All-American who is one of the most decorated student-athletes, male or female, in UCLA history and the only female to sign a National Basketball Association (NBA) contract.

In 1981, Dr. Holland, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and a Master’s Degree from Sacramento State University, supported the creation of the NCAA’s division for women to help improve recruitment, provide greater funding, and gain more recognition for women’s athletics nationwide. This was seen as a bold move for a woman who was formerly the president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). She proposed that men’s and women’s athletics programs be joined together to promote true equality in a combined athletic department program. After demonstrating the success of her theory at UCLA as the Senior Associate Athletic Director of a combined program, many other collegiate athletic departments followed her lead, supporting Dr. Holland’s unprecedented model of a unified athletic department system.

Throughout her career, Dr. Holland served in many capacities in collegiate athletics, including as Chairperson of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, NCAA Football television committee, and the NCAA Council.

She has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout her career, and in 2012 received a Circle of Excellence Trailblazer Award from IOC Committee Member, Anita DeFrantz.

In her 36-years at the head of The Collegiate Women Sports Awards, Dr. Holland carefully guided its growth from the first awards presentation of the “Broderick Cup” in 1976 to Delta State University basketball player, Lucy Harris, to the nationally televised awards program on ESPNU that recognizes the “Best of the Best in Women’s Collegiate Athletics” including 12 Honda Sports Award winners, the best athletes in Division II and III, an Inspiration Award, and the winner of the coveted Honda Cup, presented to the most outstanding collegiate female athlete in the nation.