@1QLeadership Question: How can leaders in college sports build innovative, business-savvy organizations that still protect and prioritize the long-term wellbeing and development of student-athletes?

Gary Stokan, retiring President and CEO of the Peach Bowl, reflects on his 47-year career in sports and how coaching principles shaped his leadership in college football. He shares his core frameworks—TEAM (teamwork, empowerment, accountability, management), CARE (customer, attitude, relationships, excellence), and ROCKS (relationships, opportunities, competitiveness, knowledge, strategy)—as simple guides for building people-first, business-smart organizations.

Stokan and 1Q guest host, Steph Garcia Cichosz also unpack his role in growing the Peach Bowl, bringing the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta, and navigating today's changing landscape of NIL, the transfer portal, and playoff expansion. Throughout the episode, he stresses keeping student-athletes' long-term wellbeing at the center while maintaining an "attitude of gratitude" and enjoying the journey. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown - Steph Garcia Cichosz

@1QLeadership Question: What exactly is the problem in college athletics?

Sean Frazier, VP of Athletics and Recreation at NIU, discusses how and why the Huskies is restructured its conference affiliations, and also explores how new financial models can help sustain athletics without burdening the institution.

• Frazier explains NIU's strategy to "decouple" football from its traditional all-sports conference, moving football to the Mountain West, Olympic sports to the Horizon League, and wrestling to the Pac-12 to reduce travel costs, increase media revenue, and better align regionally while maintaining academic and athletic standards

• He describes the financial and strategic logic behind this model, including regional scheduling savings, expanded media markets, and using new conference affiliations to enhance both the university's athletic profile and potential academic and research partnerships

• The discussion also explores private capital and private equity in college sports, distinguishing capital from equity, examining venture-capital-style investment, and emphasizing the need for entrepreneurial thinking and stronger governance to address new expenses like revenue sharing and NIL without compromising core academic values

A frequent guest on 1Q, Frazier has always thought strategically, and creatively, about the intercollegiate athletics community and how to position all involved for success. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

How do you become indispensable to your athletics department and athletics director?

Charity Anderson, Assistant AD for Scholar-Athlete Success at UC San Diego, joins 1Q's Steph Garcia Cichosz to offer insight into this question after serving for five years as an Executive Assistant to then-Tritons AD Earl Edwards. Anderson discusses the impact of collaboration and how she remains compassionately curious while staying rooted in her core values.

00:00 - Introduction

01:24 - You've been with the Titans for six years, including five years as executive assistant to the great Earl Edwards. You have a background in sports psychology and you have experience working directly with athletes, including as a SAAC advisor. Walk us through your journey to San Diego.

03:52 - You said you had aspirations to be a sports psychologist - where did that come from?

06:57 - So in the ecosystem of athletics, you wanted to support the holistic, whole person side of an athlete - rather than serve as a coach or agent.

09:00 - Where does the executive assistant side come into this story? How do these puzzle pieces fit together?

12:05 - There are three pieces to your puzzle: your sports psych background, your high level of emotional intelligence, and your organizational capacity. What advice do you give aspiring senior leaders who hope to recreate their own version of this?

15:29 - What was the moment for you when you realized you were living your truth?

18:07 - Respect and trust… when did you trust the senior administrators around you, in that they were taking your perspective and your feedback seriously and truly incorporating your perspective?

21:57 - Do you feel pressure to be an AD or do you feel you can be the most effective from behind the scenes?

- One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown - Steph Garcia Cichosz

@1QLeadership Question: What role do external partnerships, internal collaboration, and campus engagement play in growing the athletics program's visibility, revenue, and fan base?

From the 2024 PacNet Conference, Phil Wang, Sr. Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs at UC Irvine, talks about his almost 20 years at UCI. His transition from finance to external affairs, and how the department is maximizing automation and innovation with Learfield and Paciolan.

Wang also covers collaboration with campus, the value of athletics within the university and broader community, and how the department operates with resources that could be considered limited in the context of the athletics industr. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

@1QLeadership Question: How can student-athlete development programs be effectively built and measured within collegiate athletics?

Dr. Marissa Nichols, Sr. Associate AD for Student-Athlete Experience and Director of the Cameron Institute at Cal, shares her approach to creating measurable student-athlete development initiatives—from conducting needs assessments and aligning with institutional strategic goals to setting clear metrics for measuring program outcomes like career placement, mental well-being, and alumni engagement. She also talks about the three skill sets she brings as a college athletics executive:

• Program building
• Engaging stakeholder to get resources
• Measuring outcomes

Nichols, a future TEDx speaker, believes the direction of college athletics should be refocused on the student-athlete experience. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

@1QLeadershp Question: What are some useful elements of cultivation for fundraising in college athletics?

Mimi Hill, Sr. Associate Athletics Director at Hampton University, talks with 1Q guest host Jazmin Elliott about Hill's journey working in college athletics advancement.

• connect and listen to donors
• personalize your engagement
• cultivate each interaction

Hill gives a few personal stories involving failure, success, mentorship and much more. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

@1QLeadership Question: How can an internship directly impact your early years as a young professional?

Brandon Fisher, Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Development at UNT, and Colby Wilson, Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Development at Pitt, discuss the mindset and competencies they learned during the NCAA Post Graduate Internship Program, and now apply during their first full-time job as young professionals.

• Fisher - Understand how your supervisor operates
• Wilson - Advocate for yourself

When asked where they see themselves in the future. Fisher wants to merge his passion for sport with his passion for leading people, while Wilson is driven by the impact of developing talent. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

@1QLeadership Question: What role does leadership play in shaping feelings of inclusion (or exclusion) among Black women in college athletics administration?

Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, Head Volleyball Coach at Augustana University, discusses her dissertation research outcomes after interviewing multiple Black women from all divisions of college athletics. One of the key findings is that the default for leadership is to be exclusionary, meaning helping people feel included is not automatic.

• There were no inclusionary moments that didn't have direct involvement with supervisors
• Inclusive leadership is an active process

Dr. Jacobs also talked about her fundraising process at Augustana, which supports 75% of her annual budget for the volleyball program. She has raised roughly $1 million over the past few years. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown