Social Conversations Webinar: "LGBTQ+ Athletics & Inclusive Spaces" Set For April 12
4/5/2021 2:20:00 PM | General
Moderated by Dr. Nich Lee Parker '20TC, the webinar will feature panelists Dr. Nora Beck '83BC '93PHD, Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally and Ruba Nadar '21BC
NEW YORK - Columbia Athletics will hold another installment of its Social Conversations webinar series on Monday, April 12, at 7 p.m. ET. The webinar, titled "LGBTQ+ Athletics and Inclusive Spaces," will be moderated by lightweight rowing head coach Dr. Nich Lee Parker '20TC. Featured Panelists will include Columbia women's basketball Hall of Famer Dr. Nora Beck '83BC, '93PHD, founder of Athlete Ally and former wrestling assistant coach Hudson Taylor, and senior women's rower and co-president of the Columbia University Athlete Ally chapter Ruba Nadar.
Click here to register for the event, and for more information contact lionstickets@columbia.edu.
Nich Lee Parker
Dr. Nich Lee Parker '20TC has been the head coach of Columbia's lightweight rowing program since 2013. In 2016, his third year at the helm, Columbia won its first national championship since 1929, a come-from-behind season that was featured in the ESPN documentary, "The Boathouse". Two years later, the Lions won their first Ivy League team championship and second national championship, as Parker was also selected the 2018 Ivy League Coach of the Year.
In addition to his coaching duties, Parker completed his doctorate at Columbia's Teachers College in 2020, where he continues his research investigating the development of expertise in elite athletes. He is a mentor to up-and-coming coaches working to bring rowing into under resourced communities, and he chairs the diversity committee for the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association.
Parker is the first openly gay head coach of a Division I men's program, as well as the first to lead a Division I team to a conference and regional championship.
Nora Beck
A fighter for human rights, Nora Beck is currently the Director of Musicology at Lewis Clark College. A dual citizen, Beck brought her family to Italy during the 2013-14 scholastic year for her sabbatical research into Renaissance music in the archives of Bologna, but her families visas were denied due to Italy not recognizing same-sex marriage. Beck found an attorney in Italy to help them, and after many twists and turns, like the road that climbs to her ancestral home of Gressoney, her case was presented before the Italian supreme court in 2016. She and her daughter traveled to Rome in February 2016 for the verdict. She was interviewed in the Italian press and on Italian TV. In 2018, the Bologna Court of Appeals rendered a verdict which allowed her daughter to become an Italian citizen.
Beck graduated from Barnard College in 1983 and is regarded historically as one of the best players of the pre-consortium Barnard Bears team. She was inducted into the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame as a three-year captain of the women's basketball team, earning second team All-American and Jewish All-American honors during her career.
Hudson Taylor
An assistant coach for Columbia's wrestling program from 2010-13, Hudson Taylor was a rare breed of Division I wrestler and thespian. As a three-time All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland, he was ranked second in the country heading into his senior season. He was, in addition, a theater major, and the two worlds couldn't have been more different on the topic of LGBTQ+ respect and inclusion. In theater, Taylor had friends and classmates coming out and being accepted and welcomed. But on the wrestling mat, homophobic and sexist rhetoric and actions were rampant.
To stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and confront the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people in sport, he decided to wear an LGBTQ+ equality sticker on his headgear. Though he encountered criticism from his teammates, he received national media attention and thousands of emails from parents and closeted athletes encouraged by his advocacy. This experience inspired Taylor to launch Athlete Ally.
Ruba Nadar
Ruba Nadar is a senior at Barnard College and is a member of the women's rowing program. In the fall of 2019, Nadar and fellow teammate Honor Clements founded the Columbia University chapter of Athlete Ally. Since forming the chapter on campus, the organization has grown to more than 50 student-athletes and coaches, with an executive board that has received recognition from the university through alumni awards and the King's Crown Leadership of Excellence award. Nadar and Athlete Ally played an integral part in the inaugural Pride Night which was held at the Columbia women's basketball game on March 6, 2020.
Click here to register for the event, and for more information contact lionstickets@columbia.edu.
Nich Lee Parker
Dr. Nich Lee Parker '20TC has been the head coach of Columbia's lightweight rowing program since 2013. In 2016, his third year at the helm, Columbia won its first national championship since 1929, a come-from-behind season that was featured in the ESPN documentary, "The Boathouse". Two years later, the Lions won their first Ivy League team championship and second national championship, as Parker was also selected the 2018 Ivy League Coach of the Year.
In addition to his coaching duties, Parker completed his doctorate at Columbia's Teachers College in 2020, where he continues his research investigating the development of expertise in elite athletes. He is a mentor to up-and-coming coaches working to bring rowing into under resourced communities, and he chairs the diversity committee for the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association.
Parker is the first openly gay head coach of a Division I men's program, as well as the first to lead a Division I team to a conference and regional championship.
Nora Beck
A fighter for human rights, Nora Beck is currently the Director of Musicology at Lewis Clark College. A dual citizen, Beck brought her family to Italy during the 2013-14 scholastic year for her sabbatical research into Renaissance music in the archives of Bologna, but her families visas were denied due to Italy not recognizing same-sex marriage. Beck found an attorney in Italy to help them, and after many twists and turns, like the road that climbs to her ancestral home of Gressoney, her case was presented before the Italian supreme court in 2016. She and her daughter traveled to Rome in February 2016 for the verdict. She was interviewed in the Italian press and on Italian TV. In 2018, the Bologna Court of Appeals rendered a verdict which allowed her daughter to become an Italian citizen.
Beck graduated from Barnard College in 1983 and is regarded historically as one of the best players of the pre-consortium Barnard Bears team. She was inducted into the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame as a three-year captain of the women's basketball team, earning second team All-American and Jewish All-American honors during her career.
Hudson Taylor
An assistant coach for Columbia's wrestling program from 2010-13, Hudson Taylor was a rare breed of Division I wrestler and thespian. As a three-time All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland, he was ranked second in the country heading into his senior season. He was, in addition, a theater major, and the two worlds couldn't have been more different on the topic of LGBTQ+ respect and inclusion. In theater, Taylor had friends and classmates coming out and being accepted and welcomed. But on the wrestling mat, homophobic and sexist rhetoric and actions were rampant.
To stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and confront the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people in sport, he decided to wear an LGBTQ+ equality sticker on his headgear. Though he encountered criticism from his teammates, he received national media attention and thousands of emails from parents and closeted athletes encouraged by his advocacy. This experience inspired Taylor to launch Athlete Ally.
Ruba Nadar
Ruba Nadar is a senior at Barnard College and is a member of the women's rowing program. In the fall of 2019, Nadar and fellow teammate Honor Clements founded the Columbia University chapter of Athlete Ally. Since forming the chapter on campus, the organization has grown to more than 50 student-athletes and coaches, with an executive board that has received recognition from the university through alumni awards and the King's Crown Leadership of Excellence award. Nadar and Athlete Ally played an integral part in the inaugural Pride Night which was held at the Columbia women's basketball game on March 6, 2020.
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