50 women who have made a positive difference to me - Lisa Delpy Nierotti

2022 - On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, I have been and will continue to shine a light on 50 women who have been amazing teachers, thereby affecting my sports career as well as the careers of other women and men in sport.

Lisa Delpy Neirotti: Life is short, and the world is wide

My mother loved international travel. She'd work in a sports event like Wimbledon wherever she could.  And when she came home, she’d buy every Rick Steves video travelogue covering her journey’s route. Her hundreds of Rick’s video cassettes became my mother's video memories. 

Dr. Lisa Delpy Nierotti is the Rick Steves of the Sports Business. She’s traveled to 81 countries and attended 21 consecutive Olympic Games as well as five (soon to be six) World Cups. Along the way, she has contributed to hundreds of publications on international sports events and spoken on numerous newscasts about sports. (Lisa has taken the opportunity to take her students with her on many of these trips!) Lisa’s travel is especially relevant because half of the jobs in sports are in the United States; the other half are in the rest of the world. 

While Americans feast on Saturday college football games, there is no such thing as college sports outside our country. Rather, many countries outside the US devote their resources to their Olympic teams. A single US Power 5 college’s athletic budget can equal an entire country’s travel and training budget. Canada’s budget for their Winter Olympic team is a case in point. 

Most sports outside of the United States, except for soccer in the UK, are organized around each sport's governing body events. These include Formula One, All England Tennis Championships, UEFA Championships, European Golf Tour, Asian Tour, FIFA World Cup and FIS Skiing, for example. However, there are some competitions between professional clubs that we don’t see in the US that are common outside our borders, like cricket, rugby and men’s volleyball. 

Young people, and obviously some older ones like my mother, are drawn to experience sports outside our borders. As George Washington University’s Director of the MS Sports Management Program and Associate Professor of Sports Management, Dr. Lisa Delpy Nierotti provides needed education and experience for her students to these international competitions. (GWU is a TeamWork U partner.)

For 31 years, Lisa has been at GWU where she’s carved out an international games niche few professors or schools can match. Her love of sport came from her days of competitive swimming; she dreamt of swimming in the Olympic Games.  Lisa interned for the United States Olympic (and now Paralympic) Committee as well as Washington’s outstanding sports marketing firm and IMG competitor, ProServ. Then she transitioned into teaching. She always volunteered to work events and as a professor offered to conduct research.  Lisa said “Yes!” to anything she could.

As for promoting women, Lisa said “Yes!” in 2006 to co-founding the Washington, DC Chapter of Women Sports & Events and serving as its President for 10 years over two terms. She also was an advisory board member to the Women Sports Foundation.  Lisa organizes the Sports Industry Networking & Career Conference (SINC), an annual event that has featured many national and international sport leaders.

“Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate souvenir is a broader perspective,” according to Rick Steves. That is so true, and Lisa has certainly provided her students, and now industry executives, a much broader education on the world outside our borders. Thank you, Lisa, and "keep traveling!"

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