Professional, collegiate and high school athletes - now college coaches, police officers, business leaders, sports professionals, sports team owners, financial leaders, non-profit leaders, college
athletic directors and educators among those sharing insights with Greater Boston, Brockton and Lawrence area middle and high school female student athletes.
NEEDHAM, MA, June 6, 2026 – If you need proof that participation in sports plays an important role in empowering girls and young women to succeed, look no further than the 11th Annual Dream Big! Leadership Conference.
Presented by Dream Big! at the University of Massachusetts Boston, more than 250 female student athletes and coaches from 13 Greater Boston, Brockton and Lawrence public schools and sports programs heard true-life accounts from former professional, collegiate and high school female athletes about how their involvement in sports – and the mentors and friends they found through those efforts – laid the foundation for phenomenal success in the class room, in their careers and in life.
Emphasizing the equally crucial ‘off-the-field’ benefits, the conference speakers shared insights about how their participation in athletics paved the way for careers as police officers, sports professionals, finance, marketing and business leaders, non-profit leaders, coaches, college athletic directors and educators. The women also answered questions and provided advice to the students about the wide range of sports, educational and career opportunities that are available to them in today’s society and what they could do themselves to make their own dreams come true.
Conference presenters (in photo above) included:
Dr Kate Ackerman: Co-founder and Director of WHSP Medical, WHSP Institute, as well as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Chief Medical Officer of US Rowing
Sports: Rowing
Mary Lou Bohn: President, Titleist Golf Balls, Acushnet Company
Sports: Golf
Shauna Cobb: Sr Associate Athletics Director & Senior Woman Administrator, Boston College
Sports: Basketball, Track & Double Dutch
Brianna Duncan: Software Engineer, Liberty Mutual
Sports: Track & Field & basketball
Lucia Robinson-Griggs: Head Women's Basketball Coach, MIT
Sports: Basketball, Softball, Soccer & Football
Patty Raube Keller: Director, Sports Administration and Sports Analytics Graduate Program, Boston College
Sports: Lacrosse, Soccer & Softball
Katie McInerney: Senior Assistant Sports Editor, Boston Globe
Sports: Swimming, Field Hockey & Softball
Jammy Torres Millet: Community Marketing Manager, Boston Legacy FC
Sports: Basketball
Student athletes in attendance represented:
Beyond Soccer Lawrence, Boston Latin Academy, Brockton High School, Charlestown High School, Dearborn Stem Academy, Eliot K-8 Innovation School, Margarita Muniz Academy, Metro Cobras, New Mission High School, Roosevelt K-8 School,
Ruth Batson Academy and Tech Boston Academy.
“A girl who learns the discipline of athletics, who knows the joy of winning and finds the strength to accept defeat with grace is a girl who will be a strong woman. I'm willing to bet that same girl will always Dream Big!”
