Etienne Thomas chosen to participate in NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program
Indianapolis, Ind.-----Etienne Thomas, director of compliance for San Jose State University's division of intercollegiate athletics, is one of eight men and women selected to participate in the NCAA's 2005-06 Fellows Leadership Development Program.
The 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, but are assigned an executive mentor, athletics director or conference commissioner from the NCAA membership who will help them gain insight into the administrative decision-making process at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics.
Thomas has served as the school’s director of compliance since May 2003. Her mentor will be Christine Plonsky, director of women’s athletics and men’s and women’s external services at the University of Texas.
The Fellows attended the NCAA Convention, and they also will attend Association-related meetings, retreats and workshops. Special training includes the areas of marketing, public relations, budgeting, booster relations, leadership training, compliance, fund-raising, diversity training and management training. Fellows also write position papers on athletics-related issues, participate in the preparation of policy manuals and research studies, and conduct briefing sessions with athletics staffs.
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 remaining participants for the 2005-06 NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program are:
M. Grace Calhoun, special assistant to the director, Dartmouth College (Division I).
Kevin G. Clark, associate athletics director/financial business office manager, Indiana University, Bloomington (Division I).
Camille Filardo, senior woman administrator/compliance coordinator, Sonoma State University (Division II).
Phillip D. Grayson, associate athletics director student-athlete welfare, Clemson University (Division I).
Jill Marie La Point, associate athletics director/student services/senior woman administrator, Providence College (Division I).
Tracey Ranieri, senior associate athletics director/women's soccer coach, State University College at Oneonta (Division III).
Tonia Walker, associate athletics director/senior woman administrator, Winston-Salem State University (Division II).