INDIANAPOLIS – Two staff members will represent the Great Midwest Athletic Conference when the 2015 Emerging Leaders Seminar (ELS) is conducted this week at the NCAA national office.
G-MAC Associate Commissioner for Internal Operations/SWA Angela Tressel and Internal Operations Intern Jordan Rickert will both participate in the three-day event beginning Wednesday.
Tressel will serve in an advisory role as an invited member of a panel discussion for ELS attendees interested in the field of compliance. She will speak on Thursday with co-panelists Kristine Fowler (Associate AD of Compliance – Indiana University) and Tom Mitchell (Assistant AD of Compliance – Purdue University).
Additionally, Tressel will be filmed for an interview in the NCAA studio regarding her position as an industry leader who has completed the ELS program.
The Emerging Leaders Seminar provides education and transitional programming for NCAA graduate assistants and interns who have shown a profound interest in pursuing a career in college sports.
After attending, participants bring back to their schools industry knowledge, leadership awareness and broadened perspective of intercollegiate athletics. Participants gain valuable insight that helps them structure the next steps for their careers.
A total of 200 athletics administrators at the start of their professional careers were selected to attend from various schools and conference offices across the country.
Over the seven years of the program’s existence, the Emerging Leaders Seminar has welcomed nearly 1,000 athletics professionals to the NCAA national office for this engaging education and networking opportunity.
During the 2015 seminar, participants will hear from industry leaders and experts, including: Meg Stevens, director of athletics, Averett University; Tracie Hitz, director of women’s basketball, NCAA; Holly Sheilley, director of athletics, Transylvania University; and Scott Wiegandt, director of athletics, Bellarmine University. The participants also have the opportunity to explore the role of NCAA governance, including the differences among the division and the role of conference offices.
Other speakers include: Julie Dunn Hammer, assistant athletics director of career enhancement and employer relations, Northwestern University; Brian Hicks, assistant athletics director for marketing, Xavier University; Mark Jurich, senior associate athletics director for development, University of Louisville; Karen Stromme, University of Minnesota Duluth associate athletics director for internal operations and senior woman administrator; and Eric Wood, associate athletics director for student-athlete services, University of Arkansas.
Additionally, participants will split into small groups and work together to create an operations plan that simulates the application of group dynamics and understanding the holistic operations of an athletics department.