Inspire Sonoma program kicks off Sept. 15 with Olympic gold medalist
Inspire Sonoma, a speaker series bringing together leaders from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds, will feature Team USA Olympic gold medalist and League One Volleyball professional Haleigh Washington as its first 2026 speaker on Tuesday, September 15.
Washington – whose topics will include her journey and what it takes to be an Olympian, the discipline of excellence, how readers become leaders, and “dreaming big, starting small” – will appear in Student Center Ballroom A on the Sonoma State campus. Her talk begins at 7 p.m. The presentation also will be available on Zoom.
Washington is a two-time Olympic medalist for the United States Women’s Indoor Volleyball team. Following a decorated junior career, she attended Penn State University on a full volleyball scholarship and competed in the NCAA for four years. During her freshman year with the Nittany Lions, she started for the 2014 NCAA Championship team, helping to win the seventh championship title in program history. She was named the Big Ten Conference's freshman of the year, and ultimately was a three-time Academic and Athletic All American, as well as Big Ten Conference Defensive Player of the Year her senior year.
After graduating with a B.A. in philosophy, she moved to Italy to begin her professional athletic career, playing for five different clubs and earning medals and accolades in domestic and international tournaments, including a CEV Championship in 2023. Since 2020 she has been a founding athlete for America’s next major sports league, LeagueOne Volleyball, and since 2025 has competed for the LOVB Salt Lake team. Currently, Washington is playing for the LOVB Los Angeles team.
Washington has been a member of USA’s Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team since 2018, winning silver medals at the 2019 NORCECA tournament and 2019 World Cup and gold medals at the 2018 Pan-American Cup and the 2019 and 2021 FIVB Nations League Tournaments. In 2021, she was a starter for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where the United States won its first-ever gold medal for Indoor Women’s Volleyball and Washington was named Best Middle Blocker. She was again a starter for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, adding a silver medal to her trophy case.
Inspire Sonoma, a collaboration between multiple Sonoma State departments and the cities of Cotati and Rohnert Park, brings together educators, policymakers, business leaders, students, and community members to explore how education, healthcare, technology, entrepreneurship, legal frameworks, and human-centered leadership can shape Sonoma County’s future.
Anchored in the theme “Preparing Today for Tomorrow,” the series focuses on individuals sharing their experiences and insights to explore how free expression, education, mentorship, and perseverance can unlock opportunity and reveal and illuminate social and economic mobility pathways. Inspire Sonoma’s speaker schedule currently runs through early November, and can be found here.
In addition to the series, Sonoma State University will host the 2026 SSU Makeathon October 23-25, where student teams will have 48 hours to create a minimum viable product. At the end of the 48 hours, students will present their work and a brief presentation to judges who will vote to determine the winners and provide feedback to student teams.
The event will end with a project demo and presentation expo at 5 p.m. Sunday, October 25, during which students will showcase their projects to other students and the public. Winners will be announced at the end of the presentations. For more information about award prizes, key dates, and to register for this event visit the SSU Makeathon website.