Category: Interviews

Mario Moccia is an alumnus and former standout baseball player at New Mexico State where he now serves as Athletic Director. Moccia starts by sharing how he took a different path to the AD chair than former Mizzou colleagues Ross Bjork (Texas A&M AD) and Chris Del Conte (Texas AD) by heading to an FCS…

UNO Vice President of Athletics and Recreation Tim Duncan joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast and started the conversation with an institutional profile. Duncan is well-known as a speaker throughout the industry but even he acknowledges this interview brought different questions than he typically is asked. Duncan talks not just about creating a strategic plan…

Arizona State University as an institution is known for innovation and doing things differently. As you’ll discover in this interview, the athletic department has embraced that culture of innovation under President Crow and Vice President/Athletic Director Ray Anderson. This episode is packed with campus collaborations, such as with the ASU Global Sport Institute, led by…

GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast and started the conversation with an institutional profile of Grand Canyon University. Known as a large online university, too, Boggs shares the incredible enrollment growth and buildings that have been built at GCU’s physical campus as a strategic initiative. Smith asks Boggs…

Nina King is entering her first year as Vice President and Athletic Director at Duke University after serving as a senior-level administrator for 13 years. After giving an institutional profile of Duke, King shares her thoughts on what it is like moving from a position of input to a position of decision-making. She shares her…

UNT Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast to discuss the 20-year Light the Tower athletic facilities master plan for the Mean Green and to share lessons learned from his career experiences. Baker become an administrator at the age of 26 as both a principal and athletic director…

The interview with Dr. Moore begins by explaining being a successful athlete and SAAC president at Missouri helped convince her to work in intercollegiate athletics. Moore explains what the differences are between working at a big school like UNC or Oklahoma, versus a Colgate. She explains the history behind the recent campus identity change with…

UNC Chapel Hill athletic director Bubba Cunningham joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast for an informative conversation. Cunningham starts the conversation talking about what he learned early in his career at Notre Dame as well as what his two previous AD jobs at Tulsa and Ball State taught him before leading North Carolina. Bubba then…

Milwaukee Athletic Director Amanda Braun joined the Higher Ed Athletics podcast for a discussion heavy on institutional branding and the future of corporate naming rights in college athletics. Braun and Smith discuss the upcoming challenges and opportunities for D1 institutions operating in cities. Braun closes the episode talking about a problem developing in D1 intercollegiate…

Chris King of Robert Morris University joined me on the Higher Ed Athletics podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on his career and philosophy in being a vice president and athletic director. We start by talking about the institutional profile challenges and opportunities of a small private D1 research institution like RMU. Next we speak about…