Heather Cartwright completed her third season as the head coach of Radcliffe lightweight crew in 2010-11.  Cartwright, who guided the Radcliffe varisty, brought 15 years of coaching experience to the position, on the high-school, club, collegiate, provincial and national-team levels.

Cartwright quickly established a track record of success in Weld Boathouse. In her debut system, she led the Black and White to a 5-1 dual record and a fourth-place finish at the IRA National Championships.

The second time around was even better, as Cartwright's varsity eight earned Radcliffe's first EAWRC Sprints medal in four years with a third-place finish. The second varsity eight, varsity four and novice also medaled, making Radcliffe the only lightweight program who had each of its competing athletes return to campus with a Sprints medal. Another fourth-place IRA finish followed for the Black and White varsity.

In her third and final season, Cartwright led Radcliffe to a second straight Sprints bronze, third straight fourth-place IRA showing and 6-2 dual record. She finished with a 15-6 dual record.

Prior to her arrival at Harvard, Cartwright served four years as the varsity assistant coach at Boston University. She was primarily responsible for coaching the second varsity eight and varsity fours, along with coordinating recruiting efforts.  In 2006, her varsity A four finished the season with a silver-medal finish at Eastern Sprints, BU's first Sprints medal in 13 years.  The Terriers earned an invitation to compete at the NCAA Championships that season.

Previously, Cartwright spent the 2003-2004 season as an assistant coach at Princeton University, guiding the second varsity eight to a bronze medal at the Eastern Sprints and the third varsity four to an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Cartwright, a Canadian, is a NCCP Certified Level 4 coach.  She graduated from the National Coaching Institute, Ontario in 2004 with a diploma in high-performance coaching. She is a past chair of the Women in Rowing Committee for Rowing Canada. In summer 2006, she was part of the coaching team for the USRowing U-23 Boston Development Camp. She was the assistant coach for the U23 Canadian Women's National Rowing Team the following summer.

Cartwright began rowing at Branksome Hall, Toronto, in 1985. She continued at the University of Western Ontario under coach Al Morrow, the women's coach of the Canadian National Rowing Team. As a rower, she won gold medals at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, the Canadian National Championships, the Ontario University Championships and the Dad Vail Regatta.

An aspiring elite athlete, her rowing career was ended abruptly in her junior year due to a medical condition. At the encouragement of her coach, Cartwright became coach of the varsity lightweight women's program while still at university. She led the team in her senior year to gold medals at the Ontario University Championships and the Dad Vail Regatta.

Upon graduation from Western in 1993 with a degree in English literature, she attended film school and began a 10-year career in the internet and communications industries, co-owning a company prior to its sale in 2002. In addition to college and national-team-level coaching, Cartwright has volunteer-coached at the high school, club and provincial levels since 1991. She coached women's crews to gold-medal finishes at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta,  U.S. Nationals, Ontario Championships, Head of the Charles Regatta and Canada Cup. In 1992 she was the manager for the Canadian National Team at the World Rowing Championships, and in 1998 she served as an apprentice coach to the Canadian National Team.