SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Shippensburg University Assistant Director of Sports Medicine Miranda Fisher is among the inaugural recipients of the L.P. Hill Unity in Sports Award announced Monday by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC).
 
The L.P. Hill Unity in Sports Award recognizes the contributions of an individual or group from each PSAC institution that, through intercollegiate athletics, epitomizes the promise of Unity, Equity, and Access For All. Award-winners will be recognized annually coinciding with the celebration of Martin Luther King Day.
 
Fisher, in addition to her role in sports medicine, heads the ONEShip organization at Shippensburg. ONEShip brings student-athletes of diverse backgrounds together to help build an anti-biased and anti-racist community on campus.
 
Over the past couple of years, Miranda has expanded the ONEShip student group from a few members to 55-plus participants. She has developed space for students to engage in challenging and often difficult conversations. Moreover, she has created a platform for student engagement and education on varied topics related to diversity while also promoting action to stimulate culture change.
 
Miranda has facilitated varied initiatives, including the annual NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign and SU athletics Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Autism Awareness Social Media Campaigns. She has afforded students participation opportunities in trainings such as A Long Talk, created a bi-annual athletics department diversity week, and collaborated with campus entities to promote voting initiatives, screenings of educational films, and involvement in marches.
 
Miranda is also the advisor for the Tau Kappa Athletics Honor Sorority, a group of female student-athletes dedicated to empowerment, service, and leadership development. She is a member of the SU Women's Consortium and was recognized in March 2024 with the DIVA Award at the Big Hat Brunch and Hair Show sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) DIVAS organization.
 
Fisher's voice has extended far beyond SU. Most recently, she attended the 2025 NCAA Impact Forum in November in Indianapolis, which brings together leaders within higher education and intercollegiate athletics, including student-athletes, for programming centered around creating cultures of belonging and well-being. She was also a panelist at the 2024 NCAA Convention in Phoenix.
 
The L.P. Hill Unity in Sports Award is named after Leslie Pinckney Hill, the first President of Cheyney State Teacher's College. From 1913 to 1950, he was the Principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and oversaw its establishment as Cheyney State Teachers College. The Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard-educated son of a former slave taught at Tuskegee Institute and was a renowned educator, writer, poet, and community leader. 
 
In 1927, a year after the first documents that created the Pennsylvania State Normal School Athletic Association, Mr. Hill argued for the inclusion of Cheyney in the Associations bylaws which had been left out in the initial drafting. The Board of Principals immediately rectified this error, and all 14 state-owned institutions were then included in the Association's initial governing documents.