Salt Lake Community College athletic director Norma Carr was honored with The YWCA Outstanding Achievement Award in the category of sports and athletics at the twenty-fourth YWCA Leader Luncheon.
The event was held on Sept. 21 in the ballroom of the Grand America Hotel located in downtown Salt Lake City. The YWCA acknowledged the accomplishments of a panel of five local leaders who have advanced the cause of gender equality in Utah.
“Many times as women, we are overlooked,” said Mildred Sparks, the director of SLCC’s Faculty Teaching and Learning. “I’ve been a great supporter of Norma Carr for many, many years. She believes that all women should help and support one another.”
Carr has been SLCC’s athletic director for more than 20 years, and is still the only woman who has held that position at any Utah college. The award recognizes her role in advancing athletic and academic opportunities for Utah women and girls.
Carr has spent the past 40 years working with, and on the behalf of student’s athletes at high school and college level. In that time, she has been a teacher, coach, official, administrator, advocate and mentor, and has broken barriers for young women in athletics.
Carr gave thanks to the selection committee at the YWCA who nominated her from SLCC, and also those who believed in her.
“In my youth, [girls] did not have opportunities in sports and activity. In fact if you had interests, there was something wrong with you,” said Carr. “I first started with Title 9, because there was no sports sanction for girls on the state level, and we fought very, very hard to get that.”
