As a player, Cindy Parlow Cone was a twice Olympic Gold Medalist, a 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup winner and a three-time NCAA Champion at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC). Cone served as assistant coach to Anson Dorrance at UNC from 2007 to 2012 before moving to the NWSL Portland Thorns FC where as head coach she won the Championship in 2013. Cindy Parlow Cone served on multiple US Soccer Committees including the Athletes’ Council. In February of 2019, she was elected interim Vice President of US Soccer and a year later was elected to a four-year term. She assumed the Presidency in 2022 and was elected to a four-year term the following year. As President, Cone was instrumental in the Women’s National Team litigation settlement, bringing commercial rights back to the Federation, and partnered with corporate, philanthropic and local/state governments to build US Soccer’s first National Training Center. In 2025, Cindy Parlow Cone was names to Forbes’ America’s Most Powerful Women in Sports list. On learning of her Lifetime Achievement Award from the Walt Chyzowych Fund, Cindy Parlow Cone said: “I’ve been fortunate to spend my life in soccer, and that only happens because of leaders like Walt Chyzowych who came before me and helped build the foundation of the sport in the United States. This honor is really a reflection of all the teammates, coaches, staff and mentors who shaped me along the way. They challenged me, believed in me, and made me better, and this award belongs just as much to them. I’m deeply grateful for this recognition and excited to keep driving the game forward for future generations”.