Erica Kowal will tell you she is a teacher at heart. She hasn’t stood in front of a classroom in years. Even so, the instincts she built there still show up every day on the pool deck: patience, empathy, and a belief that every kid deserves to be seen.

Kowal is a mother of three, a former stay-at-home mom who decided she could not sit on the sidelines of her own frustration any longer. Today, she is the owner and operator of Big Blue Swim School Paoli. She also holds locations in Fairless Hills, Springfield-Delco, and Cherry Hill, with two more on the way. Her story is less about a single career leap and more about a series of decisions to show up fully, for her kids, for her staff, and for the hundreds of Main Line families who now walk through her doors each week

Erica Kowal is a 2026 Main Line Parent Women of Influence Award Winner

Main Line Parent’s Women of Influence Awards celebrate exceptional women making significant impacts in our community. Erica was nominated by her employee Brooke Lough and selected based on her achievements and dedication to creating positive change. Each Women of Influence Award Winner has committed to support Family Focus Media’s core values. Together, we are fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment for all families. All backgrounds, races, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome and safe with us.

Beyond the awards, our Women of Influence Luncheon and Speed Networking Night attendees come together as our Women of Influence Network, a community fostering connections, collaboration, and mutual support.

A Mother’s Frustration, Turned into a Main Line Business

Kowal’s path to swim school ownership started the way a lot of important decisions do. She watched her own child struggle. Her oldest son had ear tubes, low buoyancy, and sensory sensitivities, and typical swim lessons never felt like the right fit for him. She tried various programs. She also tried private lessons. Still, nothing gave her family the attention or individualized approach she was looking for.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she remembers thinking, and that was the turning point. Her sister-in-law, an Olympic swimmer, helped her think through the curriculum. She then began researching swim schools and eventually found Big Blue. Kowal was drawn to its structured, proven approach to teaching both safety and technique.

In the end, the bet paid off in the most personal way possible. Her son, once anxious in the water, is now swimming competitively. Her son, once anxious in the water, is now swimming competitively. He can cover more than a thousand feet using all four strokes Her six-year-old daughter, who Kowal admits was resistant at first, now swims 180 feet of freestyle and backstroke. “Watching children overcome fears, gain life-saving skills, and celebrate milestones with their families has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey,” she said.

As a result, Kowal now splits her time between acting general manager on the ground in Paoli and owner across the portfolio. She oversees hiring, staffing, training, and community partnerships. Kowal now splits her time between acting general manager on the ground in Paoli and owner across the portfolio. She oversees hiring, staffing, training, and community partnerships.

Growth has meant letting go of some control. “I was a bit of a control freak,” she admitted, describing the early days of running a single store. Bringing on a regional manager in the past six months has freed her up to focus on what matters most to her: the relationships and outreach.

Every Family Deserves the Same Level of Care

The initiative Kowal points to most often traces back to something she noticed early on at Paoli. More and more families were showing up with kids who had water anxiety, autism, ADHD, or physical limitations. A typical lesson plan wasn’t built to handle any of it. Her team did not want to simply pair patient instructors with those kids and hope for the best. They wanted formal training behind it.

That search led Kowal to Swim Angelfish, whose program trains instructors in adaptive techniques for exactly those needs. Once she connected with them, she said, the fit felt immediate. Her locations have since become among the program’s top performers regionally. The training has also sharpened how every instructor at Big Blue approaches fear and comfort in the water, not just in adaptive classes

Kowal describes parents of adaptive swimmers as “warriors,” people who fight daily for resources and rarely get a moment to exhale. Her goal is to give them thirty minutes where they can trust their child is safe and simply breathe. 

“Inclusion and accessibility are deeply important to me,” Kowal says, “and this partnership (with Swim Angelfish) allows us to better serve families who may struggle to find supportive swim instruction programs elsewhere. Every child deserves the opportunity to feel safe and confident in the water.” 

That philosophy extends into the company’s broader water safety advocacy work, which Kowal treats as core to the mission she is bringing to Main Line families, not an add-on.

Community involvement also runs alongside the swim instruction at Big Blue. Across her four locations, Kowal and her team partner with local schools, parent groups, and small businesses, promoting them on Instagram, buying from them, wearing their shirts, and showing up for their events in return. “I believe businesses have a responsibility to be active contributors to their communities, not simply operate within them,” she said.

Building Leaders, Not Just Employees

Ask Kowal what she looks for in a Big Blue Swim School team member, and she will not lead with resume lines. She looks for grit: adaptability, a willingness to be coached, and a genuine desire to grow. 

One of her clearest points of pride is a swim associate she hired early on. That associate is now on track to help open the company’s fourth location as a manager.

That kind of investment is deliberate. Kowal sees the swim lesson environment itself as a training ground for young professionals, preparing them for real-life decision making. Under Kowal’s leadership, these professionals learn to adapt to a new situation, a new child, a new challenge, every thirty minutes. “Supporting young professionals and helping team members build confidence has been one of the most meaningful aspects of leadership for me,” she said. 

Her approach to mentorship carries an edge of hard-earned honesty, too. She has learned to set boundaries with people who offer support only in words and never in action. That lesson sharpened after her father’s sudden death from a heart attack, which happened just as she was opening her first store. She kept going, she said, because of the work ethic he instilled in her and her focus on reducing the risk of drowning for local families. Losing him also taught her who her real support system was. She has tried to pass that clarity on to the women she leads.

Her advice to women who might feel stuck echoes the same theme: time is the most precious thing they have. They do not have to spend it doing everything alone. “Bravery comes with not quitting in the hard time but continuing to overcome challenges day by day,” she said.

A Second Home for Main Line Families

Outside the pool, Kowal is quick to note that her family life and her business life are not separate tracks. Rather, they run on the same set of values. 

She wants her three children to see, in real time, what it looks like to work hard and keep going. That means showing up even when a year doesn’t unfold the way you planned. Big Blue, she hopes, will feel less like a service and more like an extension of home for the families it serves. It’s a place where a lesson means more than technique. Kids should leave as stronger, safer swimmers, ready for pools, lakes, and oceans well beyond the facility’s walls.

That larger sense of purpose is woven through everything Kowal has built, from the company’s mission and values to the daily habit of greeting families by name on the pool deck. It is also what she hopes people remember when they think of her leadership: not a title, but a standard.

“Daring to bloom means that no matter what life throws at you, you have the power to control only your actions and invest time and energy into the things and people that will invest it back to you.”

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Follow Erica on Instagram @ericakowal and Big Blue Swim School Paoli @bigblueswim_paoli. 

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