Pepperdine University Athletics

From the 2017 Hall of Fame program:

Vilma Charlton, a two-time alumna who was likely to have been one of the first women to receive an athletic scholarship at Pepperdine, has been hugely influential in sport for her native Jamaica, competing at three Olympics and spending decades as a track official and university lecturer.
 
Charlton was already a world-class athlete before arriving at Pepperdine in 1966. Her first Olympic experience had come in 1964 when she ran on Jamaica’s 4x100 relay team in Tokyo, Japan. She won the 220 yards at the 1965 West Indian Championships, and received a bronze medal for the 200 yards at the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, while winning a gold in the 4x110 relay at that event.
 
Charlton came to the U.S. to further her education, and she received a track scholarship at a time when Pepperdine had not yet established a full women’s athletics program. But, a number of young women, several of whom would compete in the Olympics, represented the University at various high-level club and international track meets.
 
During her years at Pepperdine, she continued to represent Jamaica. She won a bronze medal in the 4x100 relay at the 1967 Pan American Games. Her second Olympics experience came in 1968 in Mexico City, Mexico, when she took part in the 100 and 200 meters and the 4x100 relay.
 
In 1966, she was nominated as the top female athlete in California by the Amateur Athletic Union.
 
Charlton graduated from George Pepperdine College with a degree in physical education in 1969 and was honored as the school’s Outstanding Woman of the Year. She was nominated by Pepperdine’s faculty to appear in the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Charlton worked as a physical education teacher at Jordan High School in Los Angeles from 1969 to 1973, and earned a master’s degree in education from Pepperdine in 1973.
 
Her third and final Olympic experience came in 1972 when was she part of the 4x100 relay team in Munich, Germany.
 
After her own running career ended, Charlton has spent the past four decades devoted to education and to furthering sport in her native Jamaica.
 
Since 1983, she has been a lecturer at the University of the West Indies. She has represented the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association since the 1980s and has been a Vice President since 2004. She is also the President of the Olympians Association of Jamaica.
 
Charlton serves as an International Amateur Athletic Federation instructor and was the first female to work in this role in the Caribbean. She has served as a team manager for Jamaica at dozens of international track competitions since the 1970s and was there as the country became a world leader in producing sprinters, such as Olympic gold medalists Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Veronica Campbell-Brown.
 
The Jamaican government awarded her an Order of Distinction, Officer Class, for her service to the nation in education and sport in 2004.
 
Charlton has written or contributed to three books – Jamaican Gold: Jamaican Sprinters in 2010, Physical Education for Primary Schools in 2009 and Helpful Hints for the Track and Field Official in 1986 – and published many articles in various journals.
 
She currently lives in Kingston, Jamaica. She has one daughter, Bridgette.