About the Author

Tori served as President of Spalding University from July 2010 until the summer of 2024. Previous to her presidency, she served as Vice President for External Relations, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs and as Corporate General Counsel for several years. Tori earned her A.B. from Smith College where currently she serves on the Board of Trustees. She earned a Masters in Divinity from Harvard University, a Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville School of Law, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing from Spalding University. She was admitted to the practice of law in 1995 and is a lawyer in good standing with the Kentucky Bar Association. Professionally, Tori has worked as Chaplain at Boston City Hospital, the executive director of a shelter for homeless women, as a public policy assistant for the Mayor of Louisville, and she worked for Muhammad Ali to assist with early efforts to create the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. Tori is best known as the first woman and first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was also the first woman and first American to travel over land to the geographic South Pole, skiing 750 miles from the ice shelf to the pole. An avid mountaineer, Tori has climbed on several continents and she was the first woman to climb Lewis Nunatuck summit in Antarctica. She is a fully certified Emergency Medical Technician in both urban and wilderness areas. She is also a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) semester courses in Alaska and Kenya. She serves on the Board of Trustees for NOLS.

Tori is the recipient of multiple international honors. Thor Heyerdahl presented her with the Peter Byrd Trophy; Tori was the first woman to be honored with this award. In Paris she was recognized along with Lance Armstrong by L’Academies des Sport for significant sporting achievement. At the Moscow International Festival of Mountaineering and Adventure Films, the French documentary “Beyond Limits – Tori Murden,” took the prize for the “Best Foreign Adventure Film,” and Dr. Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich awarded Tori with a Russian chalice for extraordinary achievements. Stories about Tori have appeared in more than ten books and thirty major magazines. Tori has appeared on national television shows including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN Domestic and International, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Exhale with Candice Bergen, The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, The Rosie O’Donnel Show, Inside Edition, The 34th Annual Victor Awards (Fox Sports Network), The Discovery Channel, “Storm Warnings,” “Beyond Limits – Tori Murden” French Television TF-1, The Travel Channel “World’s Most Dangerous Sporting Events,” and National Geographic, “Base Camp.”