Margaret “Midge” Purce is an American soccer player who plays as a forward for the Sky Blue FC in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Purce was recently part of the Equal Pay Day event at the White House along with President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and USWNT star Megan Rapinoe.
However, Purce’s prowess is not only limited to the soccer turf, she is an activist with the Black Women’s Player Collective and won a seat on the Harvard Board of Overseers last year on a climate change platform.
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During her years at Harvard University, she donned the Crimson jersey and playing for the college team she scored 11 goals in 18 games in the freshman year and was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year.
By the end of her junior season, she had scored 30 goals and lead her squad to the NCAA tournament twice.
A psychology concentrator and pre-med student, she was involved in the Race and Ethnicity Program at the Institute of Politics
As a member of the National Women’s Soccer League‘s collective-bargaining executive committee, she champions equal playing conditions for female athletes.
Purce is also an advisor to Coaches Across Continents, a global non-profit that uses soccer to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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She became passionate about sustainable development during her time at the World Bank, where she collaborated with NGOs to analyze the cultural and economic implications of bank aid in foreign countries.
At Harvard, Purce played varsity soccer, becoming an All-American, two-time Ivy League Player of the Year, and the first person in League history to earn Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year simultaneously.