Kenyon’s Heis Selected as 2026 Pam Smith Award Recipient

CLEVELAND, OH -- Recent Kenyon College graduate and soccer and swimming & diving student-athlete Brooke Heis (Cincinnati, OH/Forest Hills) has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 North Coast Athletic Conference Pam Smith Award.
 
A dual-sport student-athlete, Heis excelled on both the soccer pitch and in the diving well during her Kenyon career. As a defender for the Owls’ soccer program, she earned first-team All-NCAC honors in 2025 after receiving third-team recognition in 2024, while also being named to the 2025 NCAC All-Tournament Team, Second-Team All-Ohio and Fourth-Team All-Region VII. She served as a three-year team captain for the women’s soccer team and helped lead Kenyon to the 2022 NCAC Championship and a record-setting 2025 campaign that established program records for fewest goals allowed in a season (9), lowest goals-against average (0.50) and single-season shutouts (11). In swimming and diving, Heis contributed by scoring points in the diving well as Kenyon captured three consecutive NCAC team championships from 2024-26. Along the way, she qualified for the 2024 NCAA Division III regional diving championships.
 
An outstanding student, Heis graduated with a perfect 4.00 cumulative GPA as a Biochemistry major and was selected as Kenyon's 2026 Class Valedictorian. She graduated summa cum laude and earned distinction for her senior thesis: Analysis of Optimization Strategies and Evaluation Discrepancies of Niclosamide as Treatment for COVID-19. Heis received the 2026 American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry, the Barbara H. Reitsma Award for excellence in peer tutoring, and the 2026 NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award. She was also a First-Team Academic All-Ohio selection, a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District and All-American honoree, and was inducted into both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, the international scientific research honor society. Heis is an eight-time member of the Kenyon Merit List and a three-time NCAC Dr. Gordon Collins Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll honoree. Her research experience included faculty-mentored projects at both Kenyon and The Ohio State University, where she investigated novel compounds with potential anticancer and anti-inflammatory applications while mentoring younger student researchers.
 
Heis demonstrated exceptional leadership through service across campus and in the community. She served in numerous leadership roles on Kenyon's Student Council over four years while representing students on the Wellness and Safety Committee and previously leading the college's Title IX Committee initiatives. As coordinator of Kenyon's STEM Mentoring Program and lead organic chemistry tutor, she fostered collaborative learning environments while connecting students with academic resources and professional development opportunities. Her commitment to healthcare included volunteering at Clinica Latina, where she managed laboratory operations, as well as serving in the Knox Community Hospital emergency department. Heis also volunteered with Wiggins Street Elementary, along with promoting and organizing engagement with Morgan's Message, National Girls and Women in Sports Day and Samaritan’s Operation Christmas Child programming.
 
Heis was one of five outstanding nominees considered by the selection committee. The other candidates included:
 
Alyssa Markell, Field Hockey, Ohio Wesleyan
Evie Sanford, Women's Track & Field, Wooster
Sarah Sollinger, Women’s Soccer, Denison
Rebecca Williams, Women’s Golf, DePauw
 
The NCAC Woman of the Year Award commemorates former Wittenberg women’s basketball Head Coach and Associate Director of Athletics Pam Evans Smith, who had a profound impact upon the athletes she coached and the students she taught over an illustrious career that spanned more than two decades. She was the architect of the women’s basketball program with the most wins and highest winning percentage in NCAC history through 2007. A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith earned seven NCAC Coach of the Year awards and compiled a 401-170 record after taking the reins of a struggling program prior to the 1986-87 season. She led the Tigers to eight NCAA Division III tournament appearances, twelve 20-win seasons, and 11 NCAC regular-season championships.
 
Heis will also represent the NCAC as the conference's nominee for the Division III Commissioners Association Female Sport Student Athlete of the Year.

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