Congratulations to Jennifer McCarthy Templeton who on Thursday, May 15, 2025, successfully defended her dissertation proposal. The title of Jennifer’s dissertation is "COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR LEADERSHIP ROLES AND RESPONSIBILTIES: A QUALITATIVE STUDY DURING TURBULENT TIMES."
Athletic directors continue to experience "turbulent times" due to the internal and external factors of college sports, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic which created unprecedented challenges, such as lost revenue, staff attrition and schedule disruption; and current socio-political challenges, such as transgender participation debates. Additionally, with recent changes in name, image, and likeness rules, as well as student-athlete mental health, and BLM protests, athletic directors must navigate increasingly complex and uncertain environments. The concept of turbulence is drawn from the theoretical lens for this study, Gross’ (1998) turbulence theory. The purpose for this qualitative study is to describe how collegiate athletic directors provided leadership and executed their responsibilities during turbulent times and further seeks to describe how leaders (athletic directors) adapted to the uncertain and disruptive situations that they encountered. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with Division 3 athletic directors to collect the leadership experiences of 15 NCAA collegiate athletic directors. Additionally, they must be in this athletic director position for over 5 years, so they can effectively answer the interview questions. The interviews will hope to explore the athletic directors' decision-making processes, communication strategies, relationship management, and crisis management techniques, among other leadership aspects. This study will give a voice to athletic directors to provide a better understanding of how they manage their leadership roles during turbulent times, which can inform future research, policy development, and practice in sports leadership.
Dissertation Committee Co-Chairs:
Dr. Yiping Wan
Dr. Susan V. Iverson
Dissertation Committee Member:
Dr. Kevin McGinniss
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