USA Swimming To Elect New Board of Directors Members Saturday

The United States Aquatic Sports Convention is taking place this week in St. Louis, MO, and USA Swimming will elect four new at-large members to its Board of Directors on Saturday.

We’ve already reported on the nine nominees for the four open spots, and you can read more here. The short version is that the four seats must include at least one coach and at least one representative of the Central Zone. The same candidate could fill both requirements. Here’s a recap of the nine candidates, per SwimSwam’s Braden Keith‘s previous reporting:

Brief Bios, summarized by SwimSwam Full bios, courtesy USA Swimming, are below. In alphabetical order:

• Julie Bachmann is the Executive Director of the Gulf Swimming LSC, which includes Houston and surrounding areas. Her daughter, Olivia, is a swimmer, and she is engaged to swim coach Eddie Adams, who is the father of 2-time US Olympian Cammile Adams. She also has a pet pig with its own Instagram account. Bachmann also has significant outside-of-swimming experience after spending 14 years with ConAgra Foods and 25 years managing a cow-calf farm operation. She launched her own USA Swimming team in 2014, which she coached and owned for 2 years before turning over to local rec team.
• Rebecca Binder became involved in swimming via her son. She is an active official certified in all LSC positions and holds national certifications. In the last few years, Binder has become heavily involved in the SafeSport program, including as the Safe Sport Chair for the Minnesota LSC. She has hosted webinar sessions on MAAPP for the LSC with attendance from neighboring LSCs and presented to the Minnesota House of Delegates. Her platform statements include providing policies that work for the whole membership, not just the elite athlete. Outside of swimming, she is an analyst for a financial services firm.
• Kim Brackin currently runs a 1:1 technique coaching business called Brackin Elite Swim Training. She been a part of seven Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals, and seven NCAA Championship Teams at Auburn before taking over as the head coach at the University off Texas. She also coached on the 2011 USA Duel in the Pool, 2003 USA World University Games and 2002 USA National Junior team staffs. Her primary platform statement involves working to “identify leadership opportunities for girls and women” and “advocating for a culture of mentorship throughout the sport.”
• Julie Chen has been an active official within USA Swimming for 10 years and from 2016 through 2018 served as the Finance Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Swimming LSC in the greater New York City area. Chen has worked on Wall Street as an equity research analyst, and today is employed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She also taught Accounting and Mathematics at Manhattan College and Pace University. Of her goals for the board, Chen says: “Ethics, Integrity and transparency are important, and I believe are key to USA Swimming’s success as a governing organization.  I look forward to your support.”
• Kenneth Chung is the executive vice president of commercial insurance at the Chubb Group: a large Swiss-based insurance company that is a component of the S&P 500 Index. With a number of past and pending lawsuits against USA Swimming related to its handling of abusive coaches, the organization’s insurance policies have been under a spotlight over the last decade. Chung’s primary connection to swimming is a volunteer where he has worked as a meet referee in both New England and North Texas. He also serves as the Diversity & Inclusion Chair for the North Texas LSC.
• Jennifer Gibson has 36 years of experience as an age group coach in USA Swimming. She is also the parent of a swimmer, has served as a USA Swimming National Team Manager on 7 international trips, has worked multiple USA Swimming Camp Staffs and served on multiple USA Swimming National Committees. She’s been an LSC Board member of 3 different LSCs, and has also worked as a high school and summer league coach. In terms of breadth of swimming governance experience, Gibson’s resume is one of the two deepest of the 9 candidates. Her campaign has a slogan: “Big Enough to Serve, Small Enough to Care,” which she says speaks to her belief that’ we must all do our part to insure that USA Swimming continues to strive for ALL members while providing for our top athletes to remain #1 in the world.’
• Kathleen Prindle is the only nominee that rivals Gibson’s depth of swimming governance experience. She currently serves on the Florida Gold Coast LSC Board of Directors (Finance Chair, D&I Chair), USA Swimming’s Senior Development National Committee, the ASCA Board of Directors (Vice President), and the Florida State High School Athletic Association Advisory Board (past Chair). She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Prindle is an ASCA Level 5 coach who once worked with 6-time Olympic coach Michael Lohberg. Together, they produced 8 Olympians and a World Record holder. At her current club, PAQ, she coaches a group of postgrads that includes 2016 Kenyan Olympian Talisa Lanoe, Norwegian National Champion Runar Borgen, Trinidadian international Josiah Morales, and JOrdanian Record holder Lydiah Musleh. Prindle also spent 10 years working int he fashion industry as Director of International Sales for the Liz Claiborne brand.
• Bill Schalz is the head coach of the Academy Bullets Swim Team, which he founded with his wife in 1994. In the last decade, the club has expanded into a huge multi-site program that has qualified swimmers to the World Championships, Olympic Trials, European Championships, and many other events. 2 Bullets swimmers represented Lithuania at the 2004 Olympic Games. Schalz the Club Development, Olympic International Organizing and International Relations Committees and chaired the Governance Task Force that created the template for our current Board of Directors.

The House of Delegates will elect the four new board members on Saturday. The House is scheduled to convene at 9:00 AM, per the event schedule.

In addition, five athletes have been nominated for four at-large memberships to the Athletes Executive Committee:

• Maria Davila
• Dakota Noble
• Annie Norris
• Jake Simmons
• Josie Uerling

You can read their full bios here.