Holy Cross Leadership Academy

10/24/12: Three Crusaders Earn "Leader of Distinction" Honors

The mission of the Holy Cross Leadership Academy is to support Crusader student-athletes in their quest to become world-class leaders in athletics, academics and life.   Holy Cross is partnering with the Janssen Sports Leadership Center to create the curriculum for the Academy.

‘We are very excited to have what we see as one of the nation’s premier leadership programs in collegiate athletics,” said Athletic Director Richard M. Regan, Jr. “We hope that not only will all our teams benefit greatly from the program, but that each participant will learn skills that will help them well beyond their time at Holy Cross.”

2011-2012 Holy Cross Leadership Academy Members (PDF)

About the Holy Cross Leadership Academy

Beginning in the fall of 2011, the Holy Cross Leadership Academy is focused upon leadership development programming for student-athletes which targets three specific groups based upon their classification as well as their readiness to assume leadership roles:

Emerging Leaders
The Emerging Leaders group is designed to provide a select group of high potential sophomore and juniors with the insights, strategies and skills necessary to become effective leaders on their team, on campus and in the community. The emphasis of the program is creating effective “leaders by example” while setting the stage for vocal leadership.

Veteran Leaders
The Veteran Leaders group is designed to provide established (and future) team leaders with advanced leadership training and support.  The program teaches the critical skills and insights necessary to be effective vocal leaders as student-athletes manage and conquer the day-to-day responsibilities and challenges of team leadership.

A third group – Leadership 360 – has been added for the 2012 year.  This group includes select seniors who went through the Veteran Leaders program during their Junior year.

Academy Instructor:

Rebecca Ahlgren-Bedics
Janssen Sports Leadership Center
Director of Leadership Development, Collegiate Division

Rebecca Ahlgren-Bedics serves as the Director of Leadership Development at the Janssen Sports Leadership Center, partnering with collegiate student-athletes, coaches and athletic administrators. Prior to her time at Janssen, she spent nine years in the Educational Affairs Department at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As associate director of educational affairs, she developed the Educational Programming initiative and staff, partnered with associated organizations within higher education, as well as was the primary liaison to the Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. She also oversaw the development and continuing education for the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program at the NCAA for more than eight years and was a staff liaison to the Division II National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for more than seven years.

Ahlgren-Bedics earned her B.A. in psychology from Dayton, her M.S. in social psychology of sport from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and her Ed.D. in sport and exercise psychology from West Virginia University. She has worked with several teams and individual collegiate student-athletes on performance enhancement and life skills issues.

For More Information, Contact:

Frank Mastrandrea
Assistant Athletic Director
One College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
(508) 793-3427
fmastran@holycross.edu