INDIANAPOLIS -- Kate Costanzo, head women's basketball coach and senior woman administrator at Allegheny, has been nominated for the inaugural NCAA Division III LGBTQ Administrator/Coach/Staff of the Year Award.

The prestigious award is in its inaugural year and honors the service, leadership and promotion of LGBTQ inclusion by an LGBTQ athletics administrator, coach or staff member in Division III. It is one of a new trio of awards created in support of the NCAA's OneTeam initiative, alongside awards for the LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year and the OneTeam Athletics Department of the Year.

In addition to her primary roles, Costanzo added the responsibility of athletics diversity and inclusion designee (ADID) this year, a newly created role across all NCAA Divisions. The designee serves as the point of contact between the NCAA national office and campus when information around inclusion programs, emerging diversity issues and other related equity initiatives needs to be shared.

Now entering her 14th season at Allegheny, Costanzo has served as the co-chair of the Pride Alliance, the College's faculty and staff LGBTQ+ group. On January 22, 2020, Allegheny celebrated its first athletics LGBTQ+ Pride Night at a women's and men's basketball doubleheader against Oberlin, thanks to Costanzo's collaboration with the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access & Social Justice (IDEAS) Center on campus, and featured t-shirts with an Allegheny Pride logo distributed to students and fans. Money raised during the event was donated to The Trevor Project, the nation's leading organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ young people under 25. This past spring, she facilitated NCAA OneTeam training for the department's staff and was scheduled to attend the NCAA Equity & Inclusion Forum, both of which were delayed due to COVID-19.

The winner of the 2020 Division III Administrator/Coach/Staff of the Year award will be publicly announced and recognized in conjunction with the virtual 2021 NCAA Convention in January.