Irvine : Women’s Conference on Fitness Scheduled

The first California Women’s Leadership Conference on Fitness and Health, exploring ways women can increase their fitness and the fitness of people around them, will be held March 26 and 27 at UC Irvine.

The conference, a follow-up on the 1984 National Women’s Leadership Conference on Fitness held in Washington, will present the latest medical research, educational techniques and recreational resources used to promote health and fitness.

“The goal . . . is to help assure unbroken generations of healthy Americans,” said Marlee Parker, a spokeswoman for the conference.

Parker said that because women are largely responsible for guiding the fitness practices of their children and their families, the conference is designed to “underscore the important leadership role women can assume in promoting their own health and the fitness of others.”

The conference, sponsored by the governor’s office and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, will start next Wednesday night with an awards dinner honoring, among others, tennis player Tracy Austin and aerobicist Jacki Sorensen for their “participation and leadership in the world of fitness and health,” Parker said.

California First Lady Gloria Deukmejian, honorary chairwoman of the conference, will open the morning session March 27, followed by lectures and demonstrations of topics including the physiological and psychological aspects of exercise, nutrition for fitness and weight training for women.

William Haskell, associate director of the Stanford University Center for Research in Disease Prevention, will head a panel of speakers including Judith Stern of UC Davis and Millie Cooper, author and lecturer from the Aerobics Center in Dallas.

Cost is $25 for the awards dinner on Wednesday, $45 for the entire conference. For more information, call (714) 542-3577.