From the halls of St. Pius X High School in Ottawa to communities across India, Lisa Travella-Murawsky has built a career around a simple but powerful idea: girls and women deserve the opportunity to play, participate and lead through sport.
Today, Lisa is the Sports Director at the Naandi Foundation in India, where her work helps expand access to sport for approximately 180,000 girls and women in underserved communities. It is a remarkable journey, and one that Lisa traces, in part, back to her years at St. Pius X, where academics, friendships, athletics and faith helped shape the person she would become.
For the way she has carried those values into her life and work, Lisa has been named an OCSB Distinguished Catholic Alumni, recognizing graduates whose contributions reflect the values of Catholic education and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
A Distinguished Catholic Alumni
For Lisa, the recognition is also a chance to look back at where her journey began.
She credits her parents with teaching her the importance of giving back and St. Pius X with strengthening her understanding of community, belonging and supporting those around her. Those lessons have travelled with her.
Through the Naandi Foundation, Lisa is helping create environments where girls and women have the opportunity to participate, lead and grow through sport. The organization’s sports program is powered by approximately 1,500 women, creating a network of leadership and mentorship that reaches communities across India.
Throughout her own journey, Lisa has also seen the difference encouragement can make. She speaks with gratitude about the female mentors and male allies who supported her, challenged her and encouraged her to pursue her belief that sport can be a powerful tool for empowering girls and women.
For Lisa, access is about more than simply having a place to play. It is about creating the right environment and support systems so girls can discover what they are capable of. On a field or court, differences can begin to disappear. Background and circumstance become less important. What matters is the opportunity to participate, contribute, belong and grow together.
Discovering That Sport Is for Everyone
Lisa’s professional journey began in Brussels, Belgium, where she worked with an international sports federation. Her career took her to sporting events around the world and offered an exciting look at sport at the highest levels. But one ordinary moment in Belgium changed the way she thought about her work.
Walking past a playground, Lisa noticed a young girl shooting a basketball by herself. She wasn’t training for a competition or playing on an organized team. She was simply trying to make a basket and having fun. The joy Lisa saw in that moment stayed with her. It reminded her that sport does not have to be about elite competition, medals or professional achievement. Sometimes, it is simply about having the opportunity to play.
That realization helped shift the direction of Lisa’s career. She began focusing on how sport could reach more girls, including those from different backgrounds and with different abilities who might otherwise never have the opportunity to participate.
Carrying OCSB Values Into the World
Today, Lisa is helping build the opportunities she once imagined, giving thousands of girls and women the chance to experience the confidence, connection and joy that can come through sport.
Her journey from St. Pius X to communities around the world is exactly what the OCSB Distinguished Catholic Alumni recognition celebrates: graduates who take what they learned, the values they developed and the gifts they discovered during their school years and use them to make a difference for others.
For Lisa, those values have become a lifelong commitment to ensuring more girls have the opportunity to step onto a field, pick up a ball, discover their potential and, most importantly, have fun. Congratulations to Lisa Travella-Murawsky, OCSB Distinguished Catholic Alumni.
Watch the video below to see how this year’s Distinguished Catholic Alumni Award recipient is turning faith into action:
