 |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
About the DirectorsClick on photo to learn more:
Dr. Richard Lapchick, Founder and Human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports issues, scholar and author Richard E. Lapchick is often described as “the racial conscience of sport.” He brought his commitment to equality and his belief that sport can be an effective instrument of positive social change to the University of Central Florida where he accepted an endowed chair in August 2001. Lapchick became the only person named as “One of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sport” to head up a sport management program. He remains President and CEO of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport and helped bring the NCAS national office to UCF. The DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF is a landmark program that focuses on the business skills necessary for graduates to conduct a successful career in the rapidly changing and dynamic sports industry. In following with Lapchick’s tradition of human rights activism, the curriculum includes courses with an emphasis on diversity, community service and philanthropy, sport and social issues and ethics in addition to UCF’s strong business curriculum. The DeVos Program has been named one of the nation’s top five programs by the Wall Street Journal, the Sports Business Journal and ESPN The Magazine. In December of 2006, Lapchick, his wife and daughter and a group of DeVos students formed the Hope for Stanley Foundation which is organizing groups of student-athletes and sports management students to go to New Orleans to work in the reconstruction efforts in the devastated Ninth Ward. As of the summer of 2007, Hope for Stanley members have spent five weeks in the city in a partnership with the NOLA City Council. Lapchick helped found the Center for the Study of Sport in Society in 1984 at Northeastern University. He served as Director for 17 years and is now the Director Emeritus. The Center has attracted national attention to its pioneering efforts to ensure the education of athletes from junior high school through the professional ranks. The Center's Project TEAMWORK was called "America's most successful violence prevention program" by public opinion analyst Lou Harris. It won the Peter F. Drucker Foundation Award as the nation's most innovative non-profit program and was named by the Clinton Administration as a model for violence prevention. The Center's MVP gender violence prevention program has been so successful with college and high school athletes that the United States Marine Corps adopted it in 1997. Athletes in Service to America, funded by AmeriCorps, combines the efforts of Project TEAMWORK and MVP in five cities across the nation. The Center helped form the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS), a group of over 215 colleges and universities that have adopted the Center's programs. To date, more than 27,430 athletes have returned to NCAS member schools. Over 12,200 have graduated. Nationally, the NCAS athletes have worked with more than 15.3 million students in the school outreach program, which focuses on teaching youth how to improve race relations, develop conflict resolution skills, prevent gender violence and avoid drug and alcohol abuse. They have collectively donated more than 16.6 million hours of service. Lapchick was the American leader of the international campaign to boycott South Africa in sport for more than 20 years. In 1993, the Center launched TEAMWORK-South Africa, a program designed to use sports to help improve race relations and help with sports development in post-apartheid South Africa. He was among 200 guests specially invited to Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. Lapchick also consults with companies as an expert on both managing diversity and building community relations through service programs addressing the social needs of youth. He has a special expertise on Africa and South Africa. He has made 30 trips to Africa and African Studies was at the core of his Ph.D. work. Before Northeastern, he was an Associate Professor of Political Science at Virginia Wesleyan College from 1970-1978 and a Senior Liaison Officer at the United Nations between1978-1984. In 2006, Lapchick was named both the Central Florida Public Citizen of the Year and the Florida Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Lapchick has been the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards. He was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of the Commonwealth Nations in 1999 in the category of Humanitarian along with Arthur Ashe and Nelson Mandela and received the Ralph Bunche International Peace Award. He joined the Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe and Wilma Rudolph in the Sport in Society Hall of Fame in 2004. Lapchick won Diversity Leadership Award at the 2003 Literacy Classic and the Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University in 2000. He won the Wendell Scott Pioneer Award in 2004 for leadership in advancing people of color in the motor sports industry. He received the “Hero Among Us Award” from the Boston Celtics in 1999 and was named as the Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez Fellow by the State of Michigan in 1998. Lapchick was the winner of the 1997 "Arthur Ashe Voice of Conscience Award.” He also won the 1997 Women's Sports Foundation President's Award for work toward the development of women's sports and was named as the 1997 Boston Celtics "Man of the Year." In 1995, the National Association of Elementary School Principals gave him their first award as a "Distinguished American in Service of Our Children." He was a guest of President Clinton at the White House for National Student-Athlete Day in 1996, 1997, 1998 and again in 1999. He is listed in Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, and Who's Who in American Business. Lapchick was named as "one of the 100 most powerful people in sport" for six consecutive years. He is widely known for bringing different racial groups together to create positive work force environments. In 2003-04 he served as the national spokesperson for VERB, the Center for Disease Control’s program to combat preteen obesity. Lapchick has received eight honorary degrees. In 1993, he was named as the outstanding alumnus at the University of Denver where he got his Ph.D. in international race relations in 1973. Lapchick received a B.A. from St. John's University in 1967 and an honorary degree from St. John’s in 2001. Lapchick is a board member of the Open Doors Foundation, SchoolSports, the Team Harmony Foundation, and the Black Coaches Association and is on the advisory boards of the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Giving Back Fund. Under Lapchick’s leadership, the DeVos Program launched the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport in December 2002. The Institute focuses on two broad areas. In the area of Diversity, the Institute publishes the critically acclaimed Racial and Gender Report Card, long-authored by Lapchick in his former role as director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University. The Report Card, an annual study of the racial and gender hiring practices of major professional sports, Olympic sport and college sport in the United States, shows long-term trends over a decade and highlights organizations that are notable for diversity in coaching and management staffs. In another diversity initiative, the Institute partners with the NCAS to provide diversity management training to sports organizations, including athletic departments and professional leagues and teams. The Consortium has already conducted such training for the NBA, Major League Soccer and more than 80 university athletic departments. In the area of ethics, the Institute monitors some of the critical ethical issues in college and professional sport, including the potential for the exploitation of student-athletes, gambling, performance-enhancing drugs and violence in sport. The Institute publishes annual studies on graduation rates for all teams in college football bowl games, comparing graduation rates for football players to rates for overall student-athletes and including a breakdown by race. The Institute also publishes the graduation rates of the women’s and men’s basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament as March Madness heats up. Richard is the son of Joe Lapchick, the famous Original Celtic center who became a legendary coach for St. John's and the Knicks. He is married to Ann Pasnak and has three children and two grandchildren. To learn more about Dr. Richard Lapchick, Founder and Director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport, click here.
Dr. C. Keith Harrison Dr. C. Keith Harrison is currently Associate Professor in the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida in the College of Business Administration. Dr. Harrison not only brings theoretical knowledge to intercollegiate athletics and sport management, but also unique personal insights as a former NCAA football scholar-athlete, co-captain his senior year and honor roll performer during his community college and university life experiences. Harrison earned his associate of arts degree from Cerritos College, a bachelor’s degree from West Texas State in physical education, his master’s degree in physical education from California State University, Dominguez Hills and a doctorate in higher and post-secondary education from the University of Southern California (USC). Following his doctorate at USC, Harrison accepted a joint appointment as a visiting professor in the Departments of Teaching and Learning and Kinesiology and Leisure Studies in the College of Education. Harrison was recognized as outstanding faculty educator by fraternity and sorority student groups during his two years at Washington State University. To learn more about Dr. C. Keith Harrison, Associate Director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport, click here.
Dr. Fitz Hill, Visiting Scholar of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport Dr. Fitz Hill is the 13th president in Arkansas Baptist College's 122- year history. Hill most recently served as the Executive Director of the Ouachita Opportunity Fund at Ouachita Baptist University of Arkadelphia. The 41-year-old is the co-founder and co-general manager of Life CHAMPS Sports, a youth sports program headquartered in Little Rock. He is the former head football coach of the San Jose State Spartans and served as assistant head football coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks under head football coach Houston Nutt from 1998 to 2000. Hill is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University. He received a Master's degree in student personnel services from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., and a doctorate in Higher Education leadership from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1997. He also served in the military during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and received the Bronze Star and Commendation Medal for services rendered. Dr. Hill was awarded the Doctorate of Education degree from the University of Arkansas. His doctoral dissertation was titled “Examining the Barriers Restricting Employment Opportunities Relative to the Perceptions of African American Football Coaches at NCAA Division I-A Colleges and Universities." Since the completion of the degree requirements, Dr. Hill has continued his research, publishing his findings in journals as well as making national presentations regarding the employment experiences of African American coaches at predominantly white collegiate institutions. Coach Hill’s research has been featured on ABC Nightline with Ted Koppel, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumble, The Black Enterprise Report, CBSportsline.com, ABC Sports, ESPN.com and two ESPN sport programs (Cold Pizza & Outside the Lines). He has been profiled and featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education on three different occasions relating to his research of African American collegiate football coaches as well as his personal experiences in the coaching profession. His research has been featured in major newspaper stories and magazines. The former division I-A head football coach authored and published several articles. To learn more about Dr. Fitz Hill, Visiting Scholar of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport, click here.
|
||||||
