Fighting for Gender Equity in Sports
By Melanie Morrissey Clark
Photo by Ron Coleman, C4 Photography
Kimberly Thomas has always loved sports, and she learned from a young age how important gender equity can be. At age 8, she played on a boys’ T-ball team in her hometown of North Platte, Nebraska—the only girl on the team.
“This was a big deal because when I was growing up, girls didn’t have the space to experience and thrive in sports. Sports have always been first, white male-dominated, then male-dominated, then white girls, then girls of color. Women weren’t even allowed in the PGA until 1977.”
Thomas saw further disparities as her own two biracial daughters—whose father is Nigerian and was a professional soccer player—navigated through sports in their youth.
“It’s a pay-to-play model, and it’s a privileged space and world. When you speak up you can negatively impact your kid, so you take a back seat because you don’t want to hurt her. I never had the power to step into that space for myself or for them, without a negative impact.”
Now, in her role as Executive Director of EPIC for Girls, she has the power to step into this space. EPIC stands for Equal Play: Inspiring Confidence. The organization conducts research, advocates for funds and finds innovative solutions that address inequities in sports for girls of color.
“It almost feels too good to be true,” she says about her role. “I met my husband in sports, my daughter is in sports, I coach volleyball. I have so many memories throughout my life around sports and sport-related activities.”
The position is also a perfect blend with her previous nonprofit experience. Thomas spent her early career working in juvenile justice and child welfare, and she served as executive director of CASA for Douglas County for nearly 10 years. CASA trains volunteers to advocate for children in the foster care system. Thomas increased the number of children served from just under 200 when she started in 2012, to nearly 600 when she left in 2022.
“Some of the things I’m most proud of is increasing CASA’s presence in the community; increasing awareness of the issues that are going on in our community,” Thomas said. “And of course increasing the number of kids served who have a dedicated advocate. Seeing the overall growth and conveying that to donors and convincing them to get behind it was really impactful for me.”
Her transition to EPIC was natural and seemed meant to be. “I never saw myself working in a field that I wasn’t passionate about, so this was just a perfect blend of my passion for athletics and child advocacy.”
Not only did she have the donor relationships, infrastructure knowledge and board of directors experience from her work with CASA, she also knew how to grow an organization. “I knew I could lean on content experts as it relates to sports and delivery of sports with our nonprofit partners, and my founding board was really strong and extremely passionate, so it just all came together nicely.”
Just two years in, EPIC is already making an impact. The organization provides nearly $300,000 each year to nonprofit sports programs in Omaha serving girls of color. “We know from large scale studies that 94 percent of executive level women participated in some level of organized sports,” Thomas said. “We want to bring that down to a micro level and show our community how it’s changing the lives of local girls. So we bring those 23 sports partners together and roll out that research. The goal is to remind people that playing sports is a right, not a privilege.”
Thomas says that in addition to providing research, EPIC is a resource generator, creating local and national relationships with donors that benefit its partners. For example, one donor provided a $70,000 donation for sports bras. Another gave EPIC partner organizations new sports equipment.
Girls, especially girls of color, drop out of sports at alarming rates when they hit high school, Thomas said.
“Our goal is to keep girls engaged in sports, for the health, social and psychological benefits. That’s also why we partner with five area schools, providing grants so they can purchase equipment and uniforms, helping to put them on par with their West Omaha counterparts, where resources and support look different. We also know that participation in sports leads to a healthier community—fewer risky behaviors, less teen pregnancy, higher graduation rates, development of leadership and teamwork skills.”
Athletics can, of course, be a pathway to higher education dollars in the form of scholarships. “These don’t all have to be to a D1 school. The priority is getting the girls to college and playing sports in college.”
EPIC’s board of directors is all women, so Thomas is surrounded by strong women focused on lifting up girls of color. “We are living our mission by giving young women this experience,” she said.
Thomas brings her passion to this job, and it gives back to her in spades. “It’s refreshing to be on this side, working upstream, versus just in a reactive state, like I was at CASA. The foster care space is tough, and I give it up to everyone who is working in it. But here, everyone I’m around has hope. I can see a lot of people around me, working every day to make sure kids have something really great. I could not love my job more.” W