1-General | 2/10/2026 2:30:00 PM

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Barry University welcomes back a pioneer in women's collegiate athletics, a decorated administrator, and former Dean of the School of Health and Performance and Leisure Sciences (HPLS)/Director of Athletics for the Buccaneers, Dr. G. Jean Cerra. Dr. Cerra will be on campus in The Shores on Friday, February 13, for an author chat with Karen Rudolph who wrote 'Sidelined No Longer: The Untold Story of Women's College Sports.' 

Author Chat Information: 
When: Friday, February 13, 2026 | 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. 
Where: Barry University, Andreas 111 
Who: Dr. G. Jean Cerra and Karen Rudolph 

While today's women athletes fill stadiums and arenas and sign multimillion-dollar contracts, the architects of their opportunity remain largely unknown. Sidelined No Longer reveals the battle waged by eleven women administrators in the late 1970s who recognized that the very organizations meant to advance women's athletics were sometimes holding them back. 

At the story's center is Jean Cerra, the University of Missouri's women's athletics director. Cerra and her allies at major universities challenged the limiting visions of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Cerra, herself, fought for a pragmatic approach that would truly deliver on Title IX's promise of equality.  

Karen Rudolph masterfully connects these groundbreaking "hidden figures" to today's explosion in women's sports–from Nebraska's 92,000 volleyball fans to the first privately financed women's soccer stadium. This essential history illuminates how yesterday's unsung heroes paved the way for women to compete, lead, and inspire based on competence "from the neck up" rather than gender. 
 
Dr. Cerra pioneered a model for athletics that integrated athletics into an academic division. Under her leadership, the Buccaneer athletic program attained overwhelming success at the conference, regional, and national levels. Barry also gained acclaim for its emphasis on academics. 
 
Barry won six national championships under her watch as dean – two in women's soccer in 1992 and 1993; three in women's volleyball in 1995, 2001 and 2004; and one in men's golf in 2007. Barry became the first school in any division to have two winners of the prestigious NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship. 

A live stream for the author chat will be available at gobarrybucs.com/tv