LANCASTER, Pa. – Class of 2025 Franklin & Marshall graduate Kennedy Wilburn has been chosen as one of the two Centennial Conference (CC) nominees for the NCAA's prestigious Woman of the Year Award. A forward and team captain for the F&M women's basketball team, Wilburn created a positive impact on the court, the classroom and the community.

The Centennial Conference nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year are selected annually by the conference Senior Woman Administrators. Now in its 35th year, the Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by summer 2025. The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division – and then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who is honored during an awards presentation at the NCAA Convention.

Wilburn excelled on the basketball court, earning All-Centennial Honorable Mention this past season and nearly averaged a double-double with 12.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per contest. The Marlton, New Jersey native ranked third in the Centennial for rebounds and seventh in the conference in points, while averaging 28.2 minutes per game. Wilburn also recorded 17 double-doubles during her time at F&M with eight occurring during the 2024-25 campaign.

In addition to her brilliance on the court, Wilburn shined both in the classroom and in the community during her time at the College. A psychology and public health major with a minor in Africana studies, Wilburn was a two-time College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District honoree, earning the accolade in both 2022-23 and 2024-25. She volunteered her time at the Boys and Girls Club of Lancaster, read to children and tutored math at local elementary schools, and served as a partner runner for Girls on the Run.

At F&M, Wilburn was a member of the Student-Athlete Leadership Council (SALC), serving as the DEI coordinator. She also mentored first-year students in the African Americans in Paris course, worked as a teaching assistant and mentor for a Design & Statistics class, worked as a public relations officer for SISTERS, a female empowerment group, served as a peer health educator to help inform peers on topics such as bystander intervention, consent, healthy relationships, sexual assault awareness, and a personally-designed workshop focused on imposter syndrome, and served as Co-President of F&M's chapter of Psi Chi, an International Psychology Honors Society.