The AAUW Corpus Christi Branch held a meeting on April 6, 2019, at 10:30 a.m. at the YWCA.  Our speaker was Brenda Marshall who is the Senior Director for Athletics at the Corpus Christi Independent School District.

A native of Corpus Christi, Brenda Marshall graduated from Ray High School in 1973.  At that time, most school systems — including CCISD — did not offer many sports for women.  Brenda enrolled at UT Arlington, which was just beginning a softball program.  Upon graduation, Brenda tried out and made the first ever USA softball team for the 1979 Pan American Games, and she went on to win a Gold Medal.  Brenda started her first coaching job at West Texas State University and then moved to Sam Houston State University, where her teams played in two College World Series.  In 1986, Brenda returned to Corpus Christi, becoming the first female hired in the CCISD Athletic office.  In 2006, she became the first female Athletic Director for CCISD.  Brenda was a recipient of the Y Women in Careers award in 1998, and she was inducted as a Distinguished Alumnus and Hall of Fame Athlete at UT Arlington.

Brenda spoke about the challenges and rewards of working in a male-dominated field.  She emphasized that, today, girls have an equal number of choices in athletic programs as boys, primarily due to the passage of Title IX, a federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972.  In addition, Brenda mentioned that the coaches at CCISD are assigned coaching responsibilities by sport, not by gender, and that salaries and stipends paid for coaching are standardized and equal for male and female coaches.

Dr. Catherine Cox, Program Vice President, thanked Brenda Marshall for speaking to us, and she presented Brenda with two books related to Texas and ranching, topics of interest to Brenda.

Left to right: Dr. Catherine Cox, AAUW Program Vice President; speaker Brenda Marshall, Senior Director for Athletics, Corpus Christi ISD; and Dottie Ewing, AAUW Branch President.

After the speaker’s presentation, Dottie Ewing continued the meeting with an introduction of the nominees for officer positions.  With no other nominations from the floor, Dottie asked for a motion for the slate to be approved by acclamation. The motion was seconded and approved. The new officers for 2019-21 are: Dr. Sylvia Rendon as Program Vice President; Dr. Catherine Cox as Membership Vice President; and Dr. Vickie Natale as Finance Officer.

Left to right: Dr. Sylvia Rendon, 2019-21 Program Vice President; Dr. Catherine Cox, 2019-21 Membership Vice President; Dottie Ewing, current President; and Dr. Vickie Natale, 2019-21 Finance Officer.