College of Saint Mary welcomes former women’s basketball star Jacqui Kalin as International Women’s Day speaker

OMAHA, Neb. – College of Saint Mary (CSM) will be hosting former University of Northern Iowa women’s basketball star Jacqui Kalin as the International Women’s Day speaker on Tuesday, March 3. Kalin will be presenting “100 Years Later: Pay Inequality in Athletics” and will discuss the gender pay gap among athletes as well as her struggles in identity once she was no longer an athlete.

“We are really excited to have Jacqui on our campus,” said Kirk Walker, head basketball coach at CSM and Kalin’s former high school coach. “Jacqui has a compassion and empathy for people that makes her a terrific role model for how you should treat others. She carries her willingness to work and improve into all aspects of her everyday life, and I feel so blessed not only to have had her play basketball for me but also now, more importantly, to call her a friend and colleague.”

When Kalin graduated in 2013, she went on to play professionally overseas. After two years of playing professional basketball, she transitioned into coaching. It was her dream job.

“Basketball was my life, and it’s also how everyone else knew me,” said Kalin. “But in my transition from college to professional, I started to grow away from the game. I didn’t have the same desire and motivation. And that’s why I walked away…I wasn’t ‘all in’ anymore.”

Once she left the game of basketball behind, she encountered some challenging personal identity struggles that eventually put her on a path toward greater self-awareness.

“I want to use my personal journey – the ups and downs in my athletic career – as an example of how we can better identify ourselves as people. To be defined as who we are, rather than what we do.”

This mental health journey, integrated into the issue of the athletic gender pay gap, will be the focus of Kalin’s presentation.

“Any individual can benefit from having a better grasp of how he or she identifies as a person and figuring out what is important to us,” said Kalin. “I never know how long I will be at a particular job, but there are certain values and ways I want to live that will follow me wherever go.”

Kalin graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2013. In 2017, she was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame for setting the women's basketball school records for points, assists, and 3-point shots made and being awarded the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2011 and 2013. Kalin joined the Drake basketball coaching staff in 2015 and now works for Herzl Camps as their staff development coordinator.

“100 Years Later: Pay Inequality in Athletics” is being put on in collaboration with this year’s International Women’s Day Celebration and as part of CSM’s series in honor of Women’s History Month. The series, called W.I.L.L. Power (Women Inspiring Legacy Leadership), features several speakers and events celebrating strong female leadership in fields such as culture, athletics, ministry, and healthcare.

Kalin’s presentation will take place on Tuesday, March 3, at 4 p.m. in the Warde Conference Center at CSM. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Kris Czerwiec, director of student leadership, at 402-399-2309 or KCzerwiec [at] csm.edu.