WSF/NWSA welcomes Deborah Ann Grimm, Ph.D. to the Board of Directors. Debby was female sailor of the year at New Orleans Yacht Club in 2001 and outstanding woman sailor at Southern Yacht Club in 2012. She was a founding member of the Lake Pontchhartrain Women’s Sailing Association and has served on its board and as Commodore. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with her.

2021 board member Debby Grimm

Grimm began sailing at Girl Scout camp in Indiana and continued leisure sailing through high school in Alabama. She began sailing in New Orleans in the early 1990s. She regularly competes in local regattas often skippering their family boat, Hot Chocolate, J30, or sailing Cayenne, J22, which she co-owns with three other women.

She has competed in the Sundance Cup, Rolex and US Women’s Championship match racing events, the Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship, J30 North Americans, Race to the Coast, Great Lake Race, Lake Pontchartrain Racing Circuit, Knost (both one-design and PHRF) and numerous J22, J30, Flying Scot and PHRF regattas. Debby is a five-time GYA Women’s PHRF Champion, multiple winner of the Coco Seemann Regatta (one design keelboat women’s regatta) and multiple winner of both the Race for the Roses and Women’s Trilogy.

Debby is a research scientist at Tulane’s Coordinated Instrumentation Facility, a research laboratory responsible for maintenance and operation of state-of-the-art scientific equipment. She graduated from Transylvania University with a BA in chemistry and computer science. She is a member of their Athletic Hall of Fame. She completed her graduate work in analytical chemistry at the University of Tennessee. She is married to Casey Grimm, and they have an 18-year-old daughter, Kaylor.