INDIANAPOLIS --- Twelve men and women identified as individuals with exceeding potential to one day lead an athletics department or athletics conference office have been named to the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program.

The NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program was created with the specific goal of enhancing the employment and leadership opportunities for women and ethnic minorities at the senior management level of intercollegiate athletics administration. The 18-month program provides individuals with academic and practical work experiences that will enable them to develop their talents and abilities and mesh those skills with their career aspirations. The program is designed to foster leadership within intercollegiate athletics and relate to the participants how athletics fits within the total academic experience.

NCAA Fellows remain at their current institutions, and are assigned an executive mentor from the NCAA membership who will help them gain insight into the administrative decision-making process at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics. NCAA Fellows attend the NCAA Convention, Association-related meetings, retreats and workshops. Special training includes the areas of marketing, public/media relations, budgeting, booster relations, leadership training, compliance, fundraising, diversity training and management training. NCAA Fellows also identify, plan, and complete a project (outside of normal job responsibilities) during the 18-month period.

The Fellows program was developed by the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics. The NCAA selected its first Fellows class in 1997.

“The NCAA Fellows Program prepares some of the brightest minds in intercollegiate athletics for future roles in senior leadership at the campus and conference levels,” said NCAA vice-president for diversity and inclusion Charlotte Westerhaus. 

“The 12 administrators, who are mentored by respected leaders in intercollegiate athletics, complete the program with proven models of administrative success in hand and an enhanced skill set that puts them on the fast track in their current positions and a step ahead for potential senior management roles.  We can point to past Fellows who are now athletics directors, such as Damon Evans at Georgia and Sean Frazier at Merrimack College, who are helping women and ethnic minorities reach their goals.”

The twelve participants and their executive mentors for the 2007-08 NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program are: