Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women's hockey across eight conferences in the 2023–24 season.
[1] A conference with seven or more affiliated programs automatically qualifies for the NCAA DIII Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.
It was founded in 2017 by the women's ice hockey teams of five schools in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC); its membership was increased to seven programs in 2019–20.
The programs competing in the NEWHL are: The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) is a hockey-only conference, which operates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Since 2007, it has been named after Laura Hurd, a stand-out player for Elmira College who was killed in a car accident.