Celia Slater is the founder of True North Sports, an organization whose purpose is to challenge coaches to find their True North and coach from “that” place—the most authentic place—that lies within. As part of this endeavor, Celia also runs Camp Elevate, which is a professional development conference for coaches unlike any other. Through True North Sports, Celia also launched the Assistant Coach Immersion Program (ACIP). The ACIP is a unique educational experience that will bring men and women coaches from all sports together. The vision of this program is to develop the next generation of head coaches who will coach from a strong sense of purpose or their authentic True North.
Prior to starting True North, Celia was a head women’s college basketball coach. As a player, she earned MVP honors during her senior year at Florida State University. True North isn’t the first organization that she has founded. She served as the co-founder and Executive Director of both the NCAA Women Coaches Academy (WCA) and The Alliance of Women Coaches (The Alliance). The WCA started as a professional development program and, due largely to Celia’s efforts, soon exploded into a network of women coaches with an ever-growing grant to aid in expansion.
Celia is on the current board of Girls Place Inc., a non-profit that serves girls ages 5-18 through after-school programs, athletics, and summer day camp. She is also a graduate of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) Institute for Administrative Advancement, a certified Change Cycle Trainer and a certified facilitator for the Pursuing Victory with Honor Sports Ethics Program. In addition, she is a graduate of the Good Life Project Immersion Program. A Toastmasters International fanatic, Celia has also been involved with the organization for several years and earned her Competent Toastmaster Credential (CTM).
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- Why Camp Elevate is a MUST-ATTEND event if you are a coach
- How coaches can improve their effectiveness (as well as their results)
- Ways that administrators can help their coaches improve
- What administrators can do to help make their student-athletes better
This is the NCAA’s lucky day (originally published on May 22, 2012) because I have the solutions for their transfer policies, which have come under considerable fire in recent weeks and months (e.g. 
(editor’s note: published on April 18, 2012)
The Penn State University scandal is a situation that we all must pay attention to and learn from. I will not be writing an Op-Ed piece, nor passing judgment in this brief column. Rather, I encourage all coaches, administrators, teachers . . . anyone that is reading this to take heed and examine how you would handle this kind of situation. More importantly, how would you handle other situations that may be once in a lifetime situations.