Leigh began rowing in high school in Concord, New Hampshire, and continued her career at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She had remarkable success during her collegiate career, winning the New England Rowing Championship and the ECAC National Invitational Championship in 2004, and competing in three NCAA National Championships, finishing second in 2004 and 2005, and fourth in 2006. After graduating from Smith, she returned there as an assistant coach.

She is excited to work with the athletes from G-ROW, and eager to share with them her enthusiasm for the sport. Leigh knows the transformative power of sports and a supportive team and is thrilled to be part of such a strong program. You can email Leigh at Leigh@growboston.org

Alice Taggart
Academic Coordinator/Novice Coach

Alice began rowing at Amherst College in 1996 and fell in love with the sport.  For the past five years, she has been rowing with the CRI Competitive Women, and she also is an assistant coach for the CRI Competitive Girls team.

Having first volunteered with G-ROW at the Timilty Middle School, Alice is thrilled to be more involved in such a great program!  As the Academic Coordinator, Alice enjoys working with the girls to build their confidence in school and help them view academics as an opportunity for success and an area in which they can take risks and really excel.  She believes G-ROW provides a supportive environment in which girls can do this, and is very excited to work with the girls, their parents, and the schools.  You can email Alice at alice@growboston.org

Bruce Smith
Executive Director, Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI)

Bruce Smith, the Executive Director of Community Rowing, provides logistical and facilities direction to G-ROW, and helps to ensure that G-ROW is a welcome and integrated part of CRI’s program offerings.

Bruce works on daily management and long-term growth opportunities for CRI. As the link between the CRI Board of Directors, the membership, and the staff, Bruce manages CRI personnel on a daily basis to implement CRI’s positive vision, and he develops long-term resources and growth opportunities for rowing in Boston.

Holly Metcalf
Executive Director, Row As One Institute

Holly Metcalf, the Executive Director and founder of Row As One, contributes program planning and design, and is a trainer and advisor for the G-ROW coaching staff.

Holly has been involved with rowing as an athlete and coach for almost twenty years. As an athlete, Holly was a six-time national/Olympic team member, bringing home the Olympic gold in 1984, as well as three silver and one bronze World championships medals between 1981 and 1987. She has coached at the national team level and collegiate and community levels. In 1990, Holly joined Project TEAMWORK, a Reebok-sponsored human rights speaking team. Holly made presentations to 100,000 students during her 3 ½ years as a member of Project TEAMWORK using rowing as her metaphor for the unity of people's mental and physical power. As a result of the positive response to her message, Holly began to address the sexist, elitist, racist reputation that rowing has had in the past by founding Row As One in 1994. Holly has completed her Masters and Certificate of Advanced Study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in Risk and Prevention and Human Development and Psychology. She is presently writing a book about rowing, being a female athlete, and how keeping a journal since age sixteen helped her achieve Olympic victory in 1984.