Speakers
We have many great speakers presenting at the conference! There is more exciting information to come!
Gina Barreca
Keynote speaker on Thursday
"Gina Barreca, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, Dr. Phil, NPR and Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor and Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League in addition to the six other books she's written and the sixteen she's edited.
Gina has been called “smart and funny” by People magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman,” by Dave Barry. She was deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine and Wally Lamb said “Barreca’s prose, in equal measures, is hilarious and humane.” Gina, whose weekly columns from The Hartford Courant are now distributed nationally by McClatchy, is a Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut.”
Carleton Giles
Carleton Giles was appointed to the Board of Pardons and Paroles as a full-time Board Member in September 2013 by Governor Dannel P. Malloy, and then appointed as Acting Chairperson in April 2014. He is a retired police officer who served thirty-three years with the Norwalk Department of Police Service, spending several years assigned to the department’s youth division, where he was responsible for investigating improper conduct and criminal activity against children. During his distinguished career in law enforcement, Mr. Giles was actively involved with the city’s youth, both through his work with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and as a certified School Resource Officer. Officer Giles’ work focused on preventing juvenile delinquency by promoting positive relations between youth and police through law enforcement, education and counnseling. Mr. Giles is a graduate of the Suffolk County, New York Police Academy and the Connecticut Municipal Police Officer Training Academy. He is a former Chairman of the city of Milford’s Police Commission.
Jennifer Rizzotti
Keynote speaker on Friday
289-180 (.616) / 168-80 (.677)
NCAA Tournament Appearances
Automatic Bids – 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011
At-Large Bids – 2010NCAA Tournament Victories
First Round – 64-58 vs. Temple (March 19, 2006),
59-55 vs. Syracuse (March 22, 2008)
WNIT Appearances
Automatic Bids – 2007
At-Large Bids – 2009, 2012, 2013
America East Conference Championships
Regular Season – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010
Tournament Championship – 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011
Conference Coach of the YearAmerica East Conference – 2006, 2007, 2010
Career Highlights
• Inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame - June 8, 2013
• 289 career victories is most among all active and former America East head coaches
• Fifth all-time among all current and former AE Coaches for win percentage (.616)
• 168 AE victories is most among all active and former America East head coaches
• Eighth all-time among all current and former AE Coaches for AE win percentage (.677)
• 24 AE tournament wins is most among all current and former coaches (24-10 overall record)
• Five AE Championships is most among all current and former coaches• Finalist for Kay Yow National Coach of the Year (2010)
• Two America East Players of the Year: Erika Messam (2005-06), Diana Delva (2009-10)
• One America East Rookie of the Year: Erika Beverly (2005-06)
• One America East Defensive Player of the Year: Erika Beverly (2005-06)
• One America East Sixth Player of the Year: Morgan Lumb (2013-14)
• 23 different players named to All-Conference teams (9 first team, 13 second team, 12 third team, 13 all-rookie team, 6 all-defensive team, 8 all-academic team)
• First ever national ranking 2009-10, as high as 19th in coaches poll, 21st in AP poll.
• School record 20 consecutive game win streak, 2009-10
• First ever WNBA draftee; Danielle Hood :: Atlanta 2008
• School record wins: 28 total wins :: 2007-08, 16 league wins :: 2009-10
• Nine 1,000 point scorers
• WBCA Academic Top-25: 2010-11 :: 7th, 2009-10 :: 23rd, 2008-09 :: 25th
CAREER BIOGRAPHY
In 15 years with the University of Hartford, head coach Jennifer Rizzotti has built the women’s basketball program into an America East power and a nationally recognized program, winning four regular season championships over the past nine years, five tournament championships in 12 years, and making six trips to the NCAA Tournament. Rizzotti, a three-time America East Coach of the Year, led the 2013-14 Hawks to their ninth America East semifinal appearance in the last 10 years and 14th all-time. Overall, the Hawks finished with a 13-18 record including the program’s 11th straight year with a .500 or better league record with a 9-7 tally in 2013-14.
Rizzotti’s 289 career victories is the most among all current and former America East head coaches, while she also holds a 24-9 record in league championship play. The 24 wins are also the most wins in conference tournament action, while the five conference titles she has led Hartford to is the most for a single coach in conference history. The all-time winningest coach for men’s or women’s basketball at Hartford, Rizzotti scored her 275th career victory on March 8, 2013 leading the Hawks to a 68-53 win over Binghamton in the America East quarterfinals.
In 2012-13, Rizzotti led the Hawks to their eighth America East Championship game and their ninth-straight postseason appearance earning an at-large bid into the WNIT for the third time in program history. Hartford finished the 2012-13 season with a 21-12 record, their seventh 20-plus win season in school history.
In June of 2013, Rizzotti was one of six members inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame which was officially inducted on June 8, 2013 in Knoxville, Tenn. Rizzotti, who was inducted as a player, joins other noteworthy Division I head coaches Gary Blair (Texas A&M) and Jim Foster (Chattanooga) who are also members of the Class of 2013. Rizzotti is the also the third member of the Connecticut Huskies family to be inducted joining Rebecca Lobo and head coach Geno Auriemma.
In 2011-12 Rizzottti and the Hawks opened the season as one of four host sites for the Preseason WNIT, advancing to the semifinals before falling to Notre Dame. The Hawks finished the 2011-12 season with a 19-13 overall record, winning her 250th career game on February 1 against New Hampshire.
In 2010-11 the Hawks secured the programs fifth America East Championship and sixth NCAA Tournament appearance. For the first time, the Hawks conference title came on the road as they traveled to Boston University defeating the Terriers on their home court. The Hawks finished 2010-11 with a 17-16 overall record, marking eight-straight seasons with a .500 or better overall record.
In the summer of 2011 Rizzotti’s success on the court at Hartford was extended to the international scene as she led the USA Basketball U-19 women’s national team to a gold medal at FIBA Championships. This most recent stint with USA Basketball was not her first as she led the U18 national team to a gold medal at the 2010 FIBA Americas U-18 Championship, and was an assistant coach to Doug Bruno (DePaul) in 2006 when the U-18 National Team won the FIBA World Championships held at the US Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. Rizzotti has an all-time record of 13-1 as a head coach with USA Basketball.
Following the 2009-10 regular season, Rizzotti was named a finalist for the Kay Yow National Coach of the Year award after leading theteam to a school record 20 consecutive game winning streak, a perfect 16-0 record in conference play and the programs first ever national ranking.
Since taking over at Hartford, Rizzotti has coached 36 different players to All-Conference distinction, highlighted by two America East Player of the Year recipients, Diana Delva (2010) and Erika Messam (2006). She has also coached the program’s first ever conference Rookie of the Year in Erica Beverly (2006), who also became the first player in school history to amass more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. In addition, Rizzotti led freshman guard Morgan Lumb to capture the America East’s first ever Sixth Player of the Year accolade. Rizzotti also coached the first player ever drafted into the WNBA as Danielle Hood (‘08) was picked with the 32nd overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the expansion Atlanta Dream.
Throughout her 13 years as head coach at Hartford, Rizzotti has coached four major school record holders; Hood (667 career field goals, 2004-08), MaryLynne Schaefer (222 career three pointers and .856 free throw percentage, 2005-09), Delva (.613 field goal percentage, 2006-10) and Beverly (131 career blocks and 1,006 career rebounds 2005-10). Hood (second - 1,679), Delva (third -1,391), Beverly (fourth 1,298) and 2007 graduate Ikea Witt (fifth, 1,297) make up four of the top-six in career points, all coached by Rizzotti and her staff. In total, players that Rizzotti has coached appear in all 19 career statistical categories and make up 86 of the top-10 spots in those rankings. Rizzotti has also coached five of the individual season record holders; Hood (534 points in 2007-08 and 207field goals made in 2007-08), Delva (.647 field goal percentage in 2009-10) Schaefer (63 three-point field goals made in 2007-08), Messam (.843 free throw percentage in 2004-05), Beverly (271 rebounds in 2005-06 and 65 blocked shots in 2009-10).
Rizzotti not only instills success on court within her program, she expects her student-athletes to be successful in the classroom as well. Following the 2010-11 season, the Hawks cracked the top-10 in the nation academically ranked seventh in the WBCA’s annual academic top-25. The 2010-11 honor marked the third-straight season for the Hawks in the top 25. Also following last season, senior Mary Silvia was named to the America East All-Academic Team and the Capital One Academic All-America District One First Team as well as being named to the Division I AAA Scholar Athlete Team. Since the inception of the program in 2005-06, three different Hawks have earned conference All-Academic honors.
After cracking the top-25 for the first time on February 9, 2010, the Hawks reached as high as 19th in the country in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 21st in the nation in the Associated Press poll. The Hawks closed out the 2009-10 regular season and the conference championship with a 27-4 overall record and earned the program’s first ever at-large ticket to the NCAA Tournament and a date with the LSU Tigers in the first round.
The Hawks’ 27 wins in 2009-10 was the fourth time in the last five years the team has amassed 25 or more victories. Rizzotti was honored by her peers as the America East Coach of the Year, the third time she has received the distinction. WBCA All-America nominees Diana Delva and Erica Beverly were named America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively. Beverly began her senior season on the prestigious John R. Wooden watch list as one of the top 30 players in the country while Delva closed out her career being named to the ECAC All-Star Second Team.
Rizzotti was named the seventh head coach in University of Hartford women’s basketball history on Sept. 17, 1999. Just 12 days earlier, Rizzotti celebrated with her Houston Comets teammates after defeating the New York Liberty for the WNBA championship. At the time of her appointment, she was the youngest Division I women’s basketball coach in the country.
Rizzotti played eight seasons of professional basketball following her graduation from the University of Connecticut in 1996. In addition to five seasons in the WNBA - two with the Houston Comets and three with the Cleveland Rockers - she competed for three seasons with the New England Blizzard in the American Basketball League. In the ABL she was a two-time All-Star. While proving to be a star at the professional level, the Hawks coach truly made her mark on the basketball world during her memorable career at the University of Connecticut.
Rizzotti’s individual accolades are numerous. The point guard was the Associated Press National Player of the Year and the Wade Trophy winner as college basketball’s outstanding senior player in 1995-96. She was also a two-time Kodak All-America First Team selection, a GTE/CoSIDA Women’s Basketball Academic All-American, the Big East Player of the Year, and the Big East Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. During the Huskies’ memorable run to the national championship in 1995, Rizzotti was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
During her collegiate career, Rizzotti averaged 11.4 points and totaled 637 assists and 349 steals. She set the UConn season and career records in both of those categories. A native of New Fairfield, CT, Rizzotti is a 1992 graduate of New Fairfield High School, where she was part of two state championship teams. She was also selected as the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Connecticut as a senior.
Rizzotti and her husband, Bill Sullivan, welcomed their second child, Conor, in July of 2008. Older brother, Holden, was born in April 2005, shortly after the Hawks played Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament.