Full NCAA Release 

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA released its Top 30 honorees for the 2022 Woman of the Year Award on Thursday, with the Pac-12 being one of two NCAA Division I Conferences with multiple candidates. Chosen from an initial list of 577 nominees and then narrowed down to 156, Stanford’s Pac-12 Woman of the Year Brooke Forde and Arizona State’s Emma Nordin are among the 30 female athletes selected as honorees.

Nine finalists will be chosen by the selection committee, with three honorees from each division. From those nine, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will go on to select the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. The Woman of the Year, along with the Top 30, will be celebrated at the NCAA Convention, for the first time in history, in January. 

In its 32nd year of celebration, Woman of the Year honorees are chosen due to their diligent demonstration in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.

As female student-athletes that have completed their undergraduate studies, this award recognizes those who have stood out and set themselves apart in their communities, in their academic careers, and in their athletic endeavors.

Four student-athletes from the Pac-12 have won the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award: Justine Schluntz (2010), Lacey Nymeyer (2009), Whitney Myers (2007) and Tanya Jones (1994). All four were student-athletes at the University of Arizona.

BROOKE FORDE

A standout in-and-out of the pool for Stanford women’s swimming and diving, Forde (Louisville, Ky.) recently completed a master’s degree in epidemiology with a 4.2 grade-point average after receiving an undergraduate degree in human biology with a 3.96 GPA in 2021.

During her five seasons competing on The Farm, Forde helped the Cardinal to a pair of NCAA Championships (2018, 2019) and four Pac-12 Championships (2018-20, 2022). She claimed five NCAA individual or relay national titles - part of being a 19-time NCAA All-American - as well as six Pac-12 individual or relay titles; prior to her fifth and final season, Forde captured a silver medal in the 800 free relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Among her academic honors is being named 2021 CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-American of the Year and a three-time CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American (2020, 2021, 2022). Additionally, she was the 2020-21 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, a four-time CSCAA Scholar All-American (2018-21), three-time Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll recipient (2020, 2021, 2022) and a 2019 Pac-12 All-Academic First Team All-Academic selection.

Her leadership and service activities included serving as co-president of the Stanford Student-Athlete Sustainability Committee and member of the Pac-12 Sustainability Committee during which she spearheaded a Zero Waste initiative at a Stanford football game with recycling, e-waste, and donation drives that were duplicated during basketball season. Forde, who received Stanford University’s James W. Lyons Award for Service, which highlights outstanding contributions in areas of extraordinary need that result in substantial change, will join the Peace Corps this fall to be a public health officer in rural Peru.

EMMA NORDIN

Nordin (Carmel, Ind.) was recently named ASU’s female recipient of the Pac-12 Tom Hansen Medal following her illustrious career with the Sun Devils’ women’s swimming and diving program. Nordin departed the program with school records in four freestyle events - 200-, 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-meter. She was Pac-12 titlist in the 500 free in 2020 and represented ASU in both the 2019 and 2022 NCAA Championships.

A 2021 Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship recipient, Nordin recently completed her graduate degree in biology after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences (neurobiology, physiology and behavior) in May 2021. Over the course of her athletics career Nordin was a nine-time Dean’s List member, a three-time CSCAA Scholar All-American (2019, 2020, 2022), named to the 2020 Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll in 2020 and Pac-12 Women’s Swimming First Team All-Academic in 2019, as received ASU’s 2022 Bill Kajikawa Award for graduating student-athletes with demonstrated academic excellence, athletic accomplishment, leadership and service in the community.