Dr. Bob Frederick Sport Leadership Lecture Series
Reflections
"I really enjoyed how the presentation spoke to the importance of having girls participate in sports and have success through sports."
- Natahnee Spencer
"I was shocked to learn about how women find it challenging to compete in the sport work force."
- Savannah Valladarez
Leading with Courage and Confidence:
Lessons from Inspiring Women
Mandy Close Kavanaugh
Founder/Host of "Inspired by Her" Podcast
JH Consulting Recruiting Advisor
About Mandy:
Mandy Close Kavanaugh founded “inspired by her” Podcast in 2016 and is the host to the Podcast that serves as a platform for women in sports to share their stories of success, leadership, and adversity. She has featured women in the field of coaching as well as sports administration, most recently featuring Jennifer Cohen, Athletic Director at the University of Washington.
Close Kavanaugh also serves as the veteran basketball advisor for JH Consulting. Her aim is to help girls basketball players and their families navigate the college recruiting process with ease and confidence.
Prior to her current endeavors, Close Kavanaugh was a four-year letter winner from 2002-06 for Oregon State Women’s Basketball. After her playing stint she entered the collegiate coaching ranks as an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at Montana State University. She spent five seasons with Montana State before being called up to her alma mater at Oregon State. Close Kavanaugh’s three seasons on the coaching staff at Oregon State were the best years in school history. The Beavers won their first ever Pac-12 title in 2015 and repeated as conference champions in 2016. Her time at Oregon State was capped with the programs first ever Final Four appearance and #2 National ranking in 2016.
Among numerous responsibilities, Mandy worked closely with Oregon State’s guards, prepared opponent scouts, and served at the program’s recruiting coordinator. As recruiting coordinator, she helped sign the #12 ranked recruiting class in the nation in 2015.
Her passion for mentoring and developing young ladies helped lead players to a number of individual honors as guard Jamie Weisner was named an All-American and Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2016. Weisner was joined by teammates Ruth Hamblin and Sydney Wiese on the All-Pac-12 Team for the two straight seasons.
Under her tutelage Oregon State also saw nine student-athletes named to the All-Pac-12 Academic Team culminating with Ruth Hamblin being named an Academic All-American as well as Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Born and raised in Bozeman, MT, Close Kavanaugh had a standout prep career in basketball, track, and volleyball at Bozeman High. She now resides in Portland, OR with her husband, Taylor.