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The Woman of the Year Selection Committee has named nine student-athletes from the Top 30 honoree pool as finalists for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
The nine finalists consist of three student-athletes from each NCAA division. Each finalist was selected for her outstanding achievements in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
Representing Division I, the finalists are Callie Dickinson, Georgia; Logan Eggleston, Texas; and Ellie Shahbo, Harvard. The finalists from Division II are Peyton Barnes, Fairmont State; Charlotte Richards, Missouri-St. Louis; and Madi Wulfekotter, Central Missouri. Division III finalists are Kristen Palmer, MIT; Sophia Glory Slovenski, Southern Maine; and Anika Washburn, Case Western Reserve.
Of 619 student-athletes nominated for this award, 164 student-athletes were selected as conference-level nominees. That pool of student-athletes was narrowed to the national Top 30 honorees.
On Jan. 11, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated during a ceremony at the NCAA Convention in Phoenix. There, the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named.
Read the finalists’ biographies, including excerpts from their personal statements, to learn more about each of them:
Peyton Barnes
School: Fairmont State University
Division II
Conference: Mountain East Conference
Sport: Acrobatics and tumbling
Majors: National security intelligence, political science and criminal justice, with concentrations in homeland security, law enforcement, firefighting and related protective services
“I am proud to say that during my time at Fairmont State, I have grown as an athlete, as a person, and as a leader, throughout all walks of life. … I am grateful to have spent my time in a community such as this one, and while I move on with life, I am excited to see continued growth and remember what it was like to make history.”
Peyton Barnes was a three-time 450 salto toss, three-time synchronized pyramid and two-time 6 element acro Mountain East champion with the Fairmont State acrobatics and tumbling team. She was also a member of Mountain East regular-season and tournament championship teams in 2021 and 2022. She earned the 2023 Mountain East Specialist of the Year Award and was a two-time All-Mountain East second-team honoree. Graduating summa cum laude in three majors, Barnes was a three-time National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association All-Academic Selection Team honoree and spent four straight years on the NCATA and Mountain East Academic Honor Roll. She earned the 2023 NCATA Colleen Kausrud Leadership Award, which recognizes a senior student-athlete who exemplified servant leadership throughout her career. Barnes also received the 2023 Fairmont State Jasper H. Colebank Award, given to the top senior student-athlete. The eight-time Fairmont State President’s List honoree was named a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success in 2022. A four-year member of the campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Barnes served as president from 2020-22 and was the representative to the Mountain East SAAC. She also served as president of the Black Student Union for three years and was vice president of the Iota Phi chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority for 2022-23.
Callie Dickinson
School: University of Georgia
Division I
Conference: Southeastern Conference
Sport: Swimming and diving
Major: Exercise and sports science
“Throughout my collegiate career, I have been surrounded by incredible female leaders and mentors. … I am forever grateful to the women who showed me the available opportunities to flourish as an athlete, leader, and scholar. As many women have done for me, I hope to empower more women to use their voice and knowledge to grow and help others.”
Callie Dickinson was a six-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American, earning first-team honors for her fifth-place finish in the 4×200-yard freestyle relay at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The three-time second-team All-SEC honoree earned silver in the 200-yard butterfly at the 2023 SEC championships, following bronze finishes in the 200 butterfly and 4×200 freestyle relay in 2022 and the 4×200 freestyle relay in 2021. Dickinson holds four top 10 times in program history in four events. She has represented the U.S. in international competition since 2017, including the 2023 World University Games. The five-time first-team CSCAA Scholar All-American earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District recognition in 2023 and 2022. Dickinson was the 2023 SEC H. Boyd McWhorter Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year and earned a 2023 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. The summa cum laude graduate was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society, and she served as president for Georgia’s Blue Key Honor Society chapter. She was one of eight student finalists at the 2023 annual meeting of the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine for her abstract on the effects of strenuous exercise on muscle mitochondrial capacity. A member of her campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2023, she was also selected for Georgia’s Student-Athlete Leadership Academy. Dickinson also mentored local youth and volunteered as a national Crisis Text Line counselor.
Logan Eggleston
School: University of Texas at Austin
Division I
Conference: Big 12 Conference
Sport: Volleyball
Major: Business management
“My experiences at Texas have broadened my perspectives and opened doors that I look forward to exploring as I face the challenges of a growing and complex world. Throughout my college experience, I discovered my passion of helping others strive for greatness and reaching their goals. I have been fortunate to be guided by diverse individuals in my athletics department who showed me directly how the representation of women and people of color in sports leadership positions have positively impacted myself and the many students-athletes around me.”
Logan Eggleston led Texas to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship title and was named Most Outstanding Player. The 2023 Honda Sport Award winner for volleyball was the first in Texas history to become American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year, earning the honor in 2022. The five-time AVCA All-American and three-time Southwest Region Player of the Year won three Big 12 Conference Player of the Year Awards and earned five All-Big 12 first-team honors. The three-year team captain led Texas to five straight conference championships and holds the conference record for career service aces, along with placing top 10 in seven program record categories. She has represented the U.S. internationally since 2016 and was named team captain, most valuable player and best server of the women’s junior national team in 2018. Eggleston is a three-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, a two-time Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar and the 2020 Big 12 Volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year. In 2023, she was awarded the McLendon Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship and NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship. The three-year campus Student-Athlete Advisory Representative served a two-year presidency. As president, she created the Developing Neighborhood Athletes Fund, raising money and funding sports opportunities for underprivileged youth in Austin. Eggleston also was a founding member and president of the Longhorns for Equity, Access and Diversity initiative, providing financial support to organizations supporting underprivileged and diverse communities.
Kristen Palmer
School: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Division III
Conference: Northeast Fencing Conference
Sport: Fencing
Majors: Electrical engineering; computer science
“Throughout my journey as a scholar, athlete, and leader, I have had transformative experiences that shaped who I am today. … I learned the importance of being a leader who is humble and willing to engage deeply with those around me. A true leader’s role is to guide and teach others, but also to listen, learn, and collaborate with those they serve.”
Kristen Palmer was a two-time first-team U.S. Fencing Coaches Association Division III Sabre All-American after earning second-team USFCA National Collegiate Sabre All-America recognition. She appeared in two National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships and finished 16th in 2023 as one of two Division III sabre qualifiers. The team captain was a two-time Northeast Fencing Conference Sabre All-Star first-team honoree, earning conference Fencer of the Year and Rookie of the Year in 2020 and was named her team’s Most Valuable Player the same year. The two-time College Sports Communicators At-Large All-District team member was a three-time USFCA All-Academic team member and a two-time USFCA Scholar of Distinction. She taught high school students in South Africa and Botswana the basics of machine-learning robotics and artificial intelligence with MIT Global Teaching Labs. She also researched the use imaging methods to embed unobtrusive but machine-readable physical codes in objects in MIT’s Human-Computer Interaction Engineering Lab. Palmer was a campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative and was co-president of Juniper House, a living group centered on celebrating achievements of Black women. She was a member of the Black Students’ Union, Black Women’s Alliance, National Society of Black Engineers and Society of Women Engineers. Palmer volunteered as a college access and career advisor tutor, working with members of her local community and through alumni groups to review college essays and applications, offer computer science tutoring and support students in finding scholarships.
Charlotte Richards
School: University of Missouri-St. Louis
Division II
Conference: Great Lakes Valley Conference
Sport: Volleyball
Major: Supply chain management
“As a scholar, athlete, and leader, I have developed qualities that are transferable to other aspects in my life. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to share the love and passion I have for each of these roles with those who surround me. Despite my collegiate career coming to an end, the memories and relationships created are going to be moments I look back on and cherish for a lifetime.”
Outside hitter Charlotte Richards was a three-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American and a two-time Division II Collegiate Coaches Association All-American, earning three first-team recognitions collectively. She finished the 2022 season in the top 15 in the NCAA Division II volleyball record books in total kills (eighth), total attacks (eighth), points per set (11th) and kills per set (13th). Richards helped lead the Tritons to the semifinals of the 2022 NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship. The 2022 AVCA Midwest Region Player of the Year was named Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year three times and earned first-team All-Great Lakes Valley recognition four times. The three-year team captain holds five program records, including career points scored (2,155). Richards earned first-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-America recognition in 2022, following second-team honors in 2021. She earned Academic All-Great Lakes Valley honors four times and was the Great Lakes Valley Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2021 and 2022. She received the 2023 Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award, given to the conference’s female student-athlete of the year, and twice received a Great Lakes Valley Brother James Gaffney Distinguished Scholar Award for maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout the academic year. Richards was a four-year member of her campus Supply Chain and Transportation Club, where she received the Supply Chain and Analytics Outstanding Student Award. She also volunteered with the Special Olympics, Ronald McDonald House and Food Lifeline.
Ellie Shahbo
School: Harvard University
Division I
Conference: The Ivy League
Sport: Field hockey
Major: Neuroscience
“It strikes me that my experiences and personal development as an athlete parallel my personal journey toward medicine. … As an aspiring physician, I am determined to exercise these values of leadership and empathy in a clinical setting to positively impact the lives of future patients.”
Goalkeeper Ellie Shahbo was a 2021 second-team National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-American and helped her team to the semifinal round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship. The four-time NFHCA All-Northeast Region selection’s career goals-against average (0.76) ranks in the top 10 in NCAA Division I, and she was a four-time All-Ivy League selection. The team captain and 2021 Harvard Crimson Female Athlete of the Year is the only goalkeeper in program history to reach 50 wins, finishing with 52, and holds the single-season shutout record (10). She competed internationally for England for four years and was selected as the captain of the national team’s U18 squad. Shahbo earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-America at-large third-team honors in 2022 and CSC All-District at-large honors in 2023. She was a four-time NFHCA Scholar of Distinction and earned 2022 Academic All-Ivy League honors. She received Harvard’s 2023 Francis Hardon Burr Scholarship, recognizing character, leadership, scholarship and athletic ability. As a research assistant in the Balu Laboratory at Harvard, she analyzed molecular pathways driving autism and schizophrenia. She served as the executive head of outreach for Women of Harvard Athletics, helping to create a more inclusive space and spearheading its Black Lives Matter movement. Shahbo served as president and vice president of the Athlete Medical Mentorship Program, providing mentorship and shadowing opportunities to student-athletes, and was president of Harvard’s IC final club, promoting equity and diversity efforts. She also volunteered weekly with the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter.
Sophia Glory Slovenski
School: University of Southern Maine
Division III
Conference: Little East Conference
Sports: Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Major: Health science
“Throughout my studies, I learned how underrepresented and under-researched women are in medicine. I began asking questions and searching for answers, and now I am on a mission to become a naturopathic doctor specializing in women’s health.”
Sophia Glory Slovenski was the 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field champion in the javelin. She is a three-time U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-American, earning first-team recognitions for javelin in 2019 and 2021. The six-time Little East individual champion also contributed to six team championship titles. The two-year team captain holds the indoor school record in the pole vault (3.82 meters) and the outdoor school record in the javelin (48.21 meters). Slovenski was named the 2023 Division III Commissioners Association Women’s Sport Student-Athlete of the Year. She earned College Sports Communicators first-team Academic All-America honors in 2021 and 2023. The three-time USTFCCCA All-Academic team member and five-time All-Little East Academic team member was recognized by Southern Maine as a two-time William B. Wise Scholar-Athlete. Slovenski was Southern Maine’s Most Outstanding Student Leader of the Year for 2021-22 and the 2022 and 2023 recipient of the school’s Paula D. Hodgdon Leadership Award for female student-athletes. Slovenski served on her campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for four years and created mental health initiatives as president in 2022-23. She was a member of the Student-Athlete Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Committee and was a founding member of her university’s Strong Girls United chapter, mentoring young girls and raising $2,000 for a multisport event focused on increasing sport opportunities for girls.
Anika Washburn
School: Case Western Reserve University
Division III
Conference: University Athletic Association
Sport: Soccer
Major: Computer science, with a concentration in software engineering
“This type of leadership as one who makes decisions while also continuing to earn trust and respect from others translated over into multiple aspects of my life including as soccer team captain and in the workplace. … As I enter my STEM career, I look forward to continuing my involvement in bridging the technology gender gap.”
Anika Washburn led her team to a second-place finish in the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Championship. She earned first-team United Soccer Coaches All-America honors in 2021 in addition to three first-team All-Region selections during her career. Washburn made the all-tournament team during the 2022 tournament run, where the Spartans set a Division III record for goals scored in an NCAA championship tournament. She is a three-time All-University Athletic Association first-team honoree and was named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year twice. The team co-captain and Case Western Reserve’s 2020 Glenn and Peggy Nicholls Female Athlete of the Year set multiple program records, including both career and single-season records in goals, assists, points, game-winning goals and penalty kicks made. Washburn is a four-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, earning first-team honors in 2020 and 2021. Case Western Reserve awarded her the 2022 Bill Sudeck Outstanding Student-Athlete Award, recognizing athletics, academics and campus engagement, and Washburn placed second in both the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium ideaLabs and the Case Western Reserve business pitch competitions. Washburn was a five-year member of her campus Girls Who Code group and helped create curriculum and sessions in her three years as co-president. She also served as developer team lead and vice president of her campus Google Developer Student Club, leading development of an application to connect local food suppliers and nonprofit organizations. She is the founder of Signature Signs Co., constructing and selling custom neon signs across campus.
Madi Wulfekotter
School: University of Central Missouri
Division II
Conference: Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
Sports: Indoor track and field, outdoor track and field
Major: Elementary education
“My journey as a female scholar, a female athlete, and a female leader intertwines and molds an individual into an individual capable of leaving a lasting impact on the world. Through academic pursuits, athletic endeavors, and leadership opportunities, I have built resilience, strength of character, and a drive to make a difference in the world as a female student-athlete at the University of Central Missouri.”
Pole vaulter Madi Wulfekotter was a four-time U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association first-team All-American, with four top four individual finishes at the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She holds the sixth best indoor pole vault in NCAA Division II track and field history and the seventh best outdoor pole vault. Wulfekotter is a five-time All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association team member and was a finalist for the Mid-America Intercol. 2022-23 Ken B. Jones Award, recognizing top student-athletes. She had five second-place conference championship finishes and was a contributor to her team’s 2021 indoor conference title. The Central Missouri 2023 Dr. Peggy Martin Outstanding Senior Female Athlete Award winner holds program records in the indoor (4.26 meters) and outdoor pole vault (4.31 meters). Wulfekotter earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors five times in her career. The 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America second-team selection was also a five-time Mid-America Intercol. Scholar Athlete. Wulfekotter was on the Central Missouri Literacy Team, reading to local elementary school students, in addition to volunteering in local elementary school classrooms. She supported incoming freshmen as a mentor at Central Missouri, as well as tutoring underclass students. She also volunteered as a youth pole vault coach, as an official at track meets and at Central Missouri’s Campus Cupboard.
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