Behind the Blog: Lori Windolf Crispo

About Me                                                               Lwcblogphoto_6                                                                           

  • Bollinger Sports, Senior Executive VP, Sports Insurance Division, 1985 to present

  • Business Insurance, July 31, 2007, named one of 50 "Women to Watch" in the field of insurance and risk management (read all about it)

  • Team Crispo, Operations Manager supervising our household comprised of spouse (Coach Alex) and our two terrific MVP's, 11-year old  daughter and 8-year old son. 1993 to present

  • Lacrosse Magazine, featured monthly columnist writing "Insurance 101" on sports insurance and risk management issues for the lacrosse community.  2001 through 2006

  • Smith College (MA), B.A. cum laude, French/Medieval Studies, 1983

Before I tell you about sports safety, you should know what compels me to blog in the first place. In my day job, I have logged 22 years in the Sports Insurance industry as the head of Bollinger's Sports Division ~ a specialty niche at Bollinger for over 60 years.

The best part of my job is working with sports organizations to improve safety by looking at injury data and coming up with ways to minimize future claims. The frustrating part of my job is getting out among coaches and parents and realizing that all our hard work on safety has not trickled down to the playing field.

This disconnect has prompted me to adopt my "Miss America Platform" to spread the word on sports safety. I am also driven to speak out on safety because it's alarming to deal with the kinds of claims and injuries I see every day. In sports, these claims can be very ugly ~ and when they happen to kids like yours and mine, it is gut-wrenching. No one wants to hear about catastrophic injuries, permanent scarring, emotional trauma or fatalities. But they happen.

What gets me so fired up is that an estimated 90% of sports injuries to kids can be prevented. That's why I feel the need to get on this soapbox and tell every parent and coach, "Hey, you've got to do something about safety. You can make a difference."

So let's get cracking. The message on safety has to get out to the field of play because even the slightest improvement in safety can be meaningful. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.