Anne Kakela

Anne Kakela grew up skiing and riding horses in Colorado.  She started rowing as a freshman at Dartmouth College.  After graduation, Kakela competed on the U.S. National Rowing Team for four years.  During that time, she won four silver medals in the 8+ and 4- in the 1993 and 1994 World Championships. In 1995, Kakela won gold in the 8+ at the World Championships.  She culminated her rowing career with a 4^th place finish in the 8+ at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA.

After retiring from rowing, Kakela wanted to experience the corporate world.  She earned an M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado.  She worked as a computer network consultant for Accenture and a network security systems engineer for Nokia Internet Communications.  Although the work was challenging and interesting, it was not a good fit.  After six years, she managed to extricate herself and returned to rowing through coaching.

Kakela was an assistant coach at Oregon State University from 2003-2006 and at the University of Pennsylvania from 2006-2008.  She was named the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Northwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2005 and the CRCA Mid-Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2007.

In the fall of 2008, Kakela joined the USRowing women’s coaching staff.  Daily she assists Head Coach, Tom Terhaar, and Assistant Coach, Laurel Korholz, with the women training for the U.S. National Team in preparation for the World Championships and Olympic Games.  Additionally, she is responsible for athlete identification and development.  She runs camps nationally to find talent with Under-23 and Senior National Team potential.  In June and July she directs and coaches the Under-23 National Team Selection Camp concluding with the U23 World Championships.  In 2010, she earned the U.S. Olympic Committee Rowing Developmental Coach of the Year Award for her work with the Under-23 National Team.

Kakela is married and has two young children.