History

The New Agenda- Northeast was founded in the spring of 1986 by Mary Lydon, President of the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. Mary Pratt, Past Vice-President of the Division for Girls’ and Women’s Sport for the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Mark Colon, Education Director for the New England Sports Museum. It was based on the National New Agenda, established in 1983 through the efforts and leadership of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, an Association of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, and The Women’s Sport Foundation.

The NAGWS granted permission for the use of the name, New Agenda, and plans were developed by the New Agenda- Northeast to hold a New Agenda- Northeast Conference at the Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, on December 6 and 7, 1987.

In 1988 New Agenda- Northeast began its Hall of Fame to honor those women who have helped advance the role of women in sports in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

New Agenda- Northeast and the Committee on Girl’s Sports sponsored and co-spnsored the National Girl and Woman in Sports Day since 1998, to celebrate all female athletes.  Starting in 2024, the responsibilities for the MA Celebrations were turned over to the MIAA completely.