WOMEN LEADERS IN SPORTS ANNOUNCES THE 2023-24 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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PRESS RELEASE
October 12, 2023
Contacts:
Mandy Marks
Women Leaders in Sports
[email protected]
925.899.1356
Kansas City, Mo.— Women Leaders in Sports (Women Leaders) has elected the following to serve on the 2023-24 Board of Directors.
President-Elect:
Gloria Nevarez, Commissioner, Mountain West Conference
Board of Directors:
Candace Campbell Jackson, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff, Syracuse University
Nina King, Vice President, Director of Athletics, and Adjunct Professor of Business Administration, Duke University
Chrissi Rawak, Director of Athletics, Community, and Campus Recreation, University of Delaware
Jennifer Williams, Chief Development Officer, USA Basketball Foundation
Board of Directors Announcement
Women Leaders in Sports is thrilled to announce incoming Board of Directors Members. Gloria Nevarez, Commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, will serve on a three-year executive track, serving as president-elect in 2023-24. Additionally, the four-year board terms of King, Jackson, Williams and Rawak officially began on October 10th, announced during the final day of the 2023 Women Leaders in Sports National Convention in New Orleans.
Nevarez, a 25-year veteran of intercollegiate athletics, is the second Commissioner in the history of the Mountain West Conference. Nevarez came from the West Coast Conference (WCC), where she served as Commissioner since 2018. While at the WCC, Nevarez shaped nearly every facet of the internal and external operations of the WCC. She directed significant overhauls to the conference’s branding, expanding the league’s national television contracts, adding a long-term title sponsor for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and launching groundbreaking social justice initiatives. Nevarez was currently serving on the Women Leaders Board of Directors.
Jackson serves as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff to Chancellor Syverud. An accomplished higher education executive, Jackson is recognized for being an exemplary strategic and operations leader with a strong record of achieving successful outcomes in all critical higher education management functions. Upon arriving at Syracuse University in August of 2015, Jackson and Chancellor Syverud quickly joined forces to complete the building of the senior leadership team. Jackson oversees agenda development for all meetings of the senior vice presidents and the deans, and acts as an executive project manager to make sure the Chancellor’s annual goals are met and significant progress towards the five-year goals is achieved.
King was named Duke’s Vice President, Director of Athletics, and Adjunct Professor of Business Administration on May 19, 2021, after 13 years on the department’s executive leadership team. In 2021-22, King served as the Chair of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee for the second consecutive year. The 10-person group's charge, among many duties, is the selection, seeding, and bracketing for the annual NCAA Women's Basketball Championship. In addition, King teaches a sports business course in Duke’s Fuqua School of Business as part of Duke’s MBA program. Prior to joining Duke University, King served as the Director of Rules Education in the Notre Dame Athletics Department from 2005-08.
Rawak was named the University of Delaware Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Services (now Athletics, Community, and Campus Recreation) in 2016. Rawak is responsible for leading the Blue Hens’ intercollegiate athletics program consisting of 21 Division I men’s and women’s sports, as well as the University’s Recreation Services Department, which offers intramural sports, club sports, and fitness opportunities to all students, faculty, and staff. She is the sixth director at Delaware since the position was established in 1940, and notably Rawak is the first woman to hold the position on a permanent basis. Before her arrival at Delaware, Rawak spent more than a decade in the athletics department at the University of Michigan, culminating in her role overseeing external relations and strategic initiatives while serving as executive senior associate athletic director.
Williams is responsible for all aspects of the USA Basketball Foundation as chief development officer, including developing a holistic fundraising platform to support various USA Basketball national team programs and youth and sport development initiatives. Named on Oct. 10, 2018, the director of intercollegiate athletics at Alabama State University, she previously served as Alabama State’s interim athletic director and deputy athletic director for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years. During her time at ASU, the Hornets experienced tremendous success, with athletic teams winning 43 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships, three consecutive commissioner cups, and two conference academic awards for the highest GPA under her leadership.
King, Williams and Rawak step in for departing board members Joelene Akin, Georgia Tech; Jill Bodensteiner, Saint Joseph’s University; Kelley Kish, Former Athletic Director at Wingate; and immediate past president Sandy Barbour.
Gloria Nevarez has accepted the President-Elect position shifting from her Board seat into the Executive Committee track. Candace Campbell Jackson will fill Gloria’s Board seat and finish out the remaining two years of Gloria's term.
View the complete Women Leaders in Sports Board of Directors list here.