Prince George's Athletics Director Jo Ann Rogers Todaro Earns The Mary Ellen Leicht NJCAA Service Award

LARGO, Md. – Prince George's Community College Athletics Director Jo Ann Rogers Todaro was named the recipient of the Mary Ellen Leicht Service Award at the National Junior College Athletic Conference (NJCAA) meeting on Thursday.

Todaro has worked at Prince George's for 33 years and has been the Owls Athletic Director since 2005. She also started the Prince George's women's soccer team and served as its head coach from 1997-2004. In her time as athletics director, the Owls have won 11 NJCAA Region XX titles (baseball [2], men's basketball [5], women's basketball [2] and men's soccer [2]) while almost 100 student-athletes have received NJCAA All-America status.

Todaro has also been a huge contributor at the conference, region and national level. She is an advocate of the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference (MD JUCO) and currently serves as the MD JUCO treasurer. Todaro has served as the NJCAA Region XX Women's Chair since 2005 and also serves on national committees.

Todaro is the third Prince George's honoree of the Service Award after former Athletic Director Ronald Mann and Dr. Jack Cistriano shared the award in 2004.

Founded in 1959, the NJCAA Service Award is the most tenured honor handed out by the Association. It is given to those - most often not an athlete - who have made significant contributions to two-year college athletics on a national level for an extended period of time. Annually, one Service Award can be reserved for a member of the media. No more than four Service Awards can be presented in a given year.

In 2017, the NJCAA renamed the honor to the Mary Ellen Leicht Service Award in recognition of the 28 years of dedicated service by its third Executive Director. Leicht began her journey with the NJCAA in 1989 as an eligibility administrator and was quickly promoted to associate executive director. Her promotion in 2009 to Executive Director made history as she became the first female chief executive of not only the NJCAA but of any national collegiate athletic organization in the United States. After nearly three decades with the Association, Leicht retired from the NJCAA in 2017.