Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: While getting your undergraduate degree at Brockport, were you a student-athlete?
A: I was not.
Q: Did you spend a lot of time with the athletics department?
A: Not necessarily. Being a physical education major, I was in the buildings that most of athletics was housed in and, also, was friends with a lot of student-athletes given my major and my proximity to all of the practice facilities and competition facilities.
Q: Based on your physical education major, I’m assuming you wanted to go into teaching physical education?
A: I did. I always wanted to be a Phys Ed teacher and a coach and then maybe eventually move into athletic administration and be an administrator at the high school level. I had some Phys Ed teachers that sort of inspired me along the way - two of them were females, specifically. I didn’t think I could do anything else besides work in sport and that just seemed like the perfect outlet for me.
Q: While at Brockport studying physical education, were you involved with the college athletic administration?
A: My studies were definitely focused on teaching and then learning sports - whether they were individual team or lifelong activities - the background of them, what culture they come from or nation they come from, how to teach them, and coaching strategy type classes, as well. There was no administration, in terms of studies, at that time. When I pursued my master’s, I focused on that.
Q: Speaking of, I also saw that you did work in the athletic department while you were at Indiana getting a master's degree. Can you talk about your time both studying athletic administration and also seeing that applied in real time?
A: Sure. I graduated during the recession, so finding teaching jobs was pretty hard, in 2007. So, I continued on with my master’s degree and I really wanted to go out of state, so that’s why I landed at Indiana University. And, actually my studies were athletic administration and sport management, primarily focused on collegiate and professional sports. It really was a pivot away from kind of what I initially thought I wanted to do. I was fortunate to have a job working in the athletic department while I was there. I worked with the senior administration and the athletic director on various projects that they had and assisted them with whatever they needed. It gave me some insight into what it would be like to be a college athletic administrator. I wasn’t specifically in NCAA compliance at the time but it gave me a really nice general overview of athletic operations.
Q: So, you went into your collegiate students … Originally you were inspired by your physical education teachers and wanted to work in high school, whatever position that was. And then you went, and you specialized in higher education and professional sports for your master’s. You graduated and … what were you looking for? Did you want to go back to high school? What was, kind of, the plan at that point?
A: I think I was still just trying to figure it out and find myself. I was still pretty young when I graduated. I was open to either profession, so I was applying for both. I substitute taught and coached while I was searching for full-time employment. And then, I landed in the college athletics realm and I’m pretty happy to be here still.
Q: Speaking of the college athletics realm, when you got into your job in compliance, I think it was a temporary position at Siena?
A: Yes, I started there as an intern. I needed to get my foot in the door somewhere. I’m not from this area, but they happened to take me under their wing as an intern. Then, after a couple of months, the individual that I was working with took a position at another institution, so I went through an interview process just like anyone else that had to - they left it open for other people to apply - and I was able to solidify the full-time job.
Q: And, while at Siena, you joined the NAAC Membership and Awards Committee shortly after you went full-time, I'm assuming. Did you fully apply yourself to compliance at that point, or were you still trying to figure it out?
A: I did. Wanting to work in college athletics and just reviewing … based off of my education at IU and my experience in the athletic department, I could narrow down things that I knew I didn't want to do or that wouldn't fit my skillset and compliance seemed to be the most natural fit. I found it really interesting, as strange as that sounds, from the class I had to take so it was something I started to focus on.
Q: What led to the switch from Siena to UAlbany?
A: I was ready for the next step. I felt like I had grown as much as I could in the position I was in, and I was very grateful for the opportunity that I had there. I was applying around the country, interviewing for positions in the next step in administrative movement, and there happened to be an opening down the road so I gave it a shot and I went through the process, and I was hired as the Assistant AD for Compliance.
Q: And once again, at UAlbany, just a couple months later, you got a promotion. Can you talk about that a little bit?
A: Yes. Actually on my first day before noon, my supervisor notified me that she had, over that previous weekend, accepted a job at another … I think it was within an athletic conference at that time. So, here I am … first day on the job, new school, not a new area so that was helpful but [I was thinking] “I'm going to be on my own in two weeks, oh my goodness.” Our athletic director, Mark Benson, entrusted me with [the department to] see how it goes - like a dry run, a test. I took it as an opportunity to really show what I can do, what I'm capable of learning and accomplishing. I must have done something right because he promoted me into the Associate AD position after a few months.
Q: You’ve been here for nearly eight years … actually, eight years, total.
A: I just finished my eighth year in January.
Q: Were you able to … has Dan [Vandenburg] been on nearly as long as you, or did you have someone else on your team beforehand?
A: I had another assistant AD that came on, Jose Genao, and now I have, Dan Vandenberg. I've been fortunate to have two really great assistant ADs. I couldn’t ask for better colleagues, human beings, to be on staff with me. It makes for a really great team. Dan's been on board for about five years now.
Q: Can you tell me what exactly is it that you do as a compliance officer?
A: We oversee all NCAA regulations and athletic conference regulations for the athletic department and the university. That can be anything from initial eligibility [and more] … our student-athletes who are coming in from high school, ensuring that they're going to be eligible upon enrollment, [but we are] more so dealing with transfers, now. Incoming transfer eligibility - a lot of people hear about the transfer portal - we deal with that on a daily basis. Athletic scholarships - distributing the National Letter of Intents to student-athletes who are signing, and then when they get here, doing the calculations of their scholarships. Working with academic services on eligibility of our student-athletes from semester to semester, year to year. I mean, we’re communicating with them daily. We work very, very closely together. And any other waivers that might come up for situations that a student-athlete might need or a coach might need a waiver for.
Q: It seems like people kind of just come to your office anytime they have a question about something, whether it's relevant to what you do or not. What is it like to be in that position where people are coming to you with several questions?
A: We try to operate as a resourceful office where people can come to and feel comfortable. [We don’t want to be viewed] in the old school way that compliance used to be viewed historically, where it was the cops, the police, and they're out to get you and all those types of things that we used to associate with [compliance]. We don’t have that framework; we don’t operate that way, so I think people know we're a resource and they feel comfortable talking to us no matter what it's about … even if it has nothing to do with compliance and they simply don't know who to go to on campus for something, they know that we're going to try to help them figure out where they need to go or who they need to speak to next. So, we definitely need to have a lot of patience in this job and just be able to pivot all the time from a really awful conversation or an unpleasant or uncomfortable one to a very positive one. It’s definitely flipping your switch all day every day.
Q: What would you say is the most similar job to something that a young kid would know?
A: I don’t know that I can equivalate it to another job necessarily, but I'd like to think about it as the framing of a house. It’s not the pretty stuff, it’s the core of it and it's necessary. It has to be strong, and then all the pretty stuff goes up around it. It's necessary and it's behind the scenes and it doesn't get the gratitude - it doesn’t need it, it doesn’t want it - but that’s just the purpose that it serves - to provide that strong foundation so that the house can operate properly. That’s the best way I can explain it.
Q: The gratitude is in the foot traffic that comes there often. *both laugh* In the changing landscape that is NIL, you guys have a lot of changes to deal with. How has NIL impacted compliance and what you guys do on a daily basis?
A: It’s shifted how we think. It feels really foreign. It goes away from the model we’ve always known of collegiate athletics. Things had to change for a reason, and we all have our own views or opinions on how it should look moving forward. But needless to say, we have to operate under these interim policies and constantly changing state laws. New York State does have one. So, it’s tapping into resources like our government relations office or legal counsel that we maybe don't work with as regularly as we do with other offices on campus. And then you’re seeing what other institutions are doing and it’s hard to navigate what’s permissible and what’s not permissible because there's varying state laws and there's varying ways to interpret the regulations that we all have to live within on top of that. It’s added a layer of complexity, for sure.
Q: What does it mean to you to hold a senior role in an athletics department, especially in something that's typically a male-dominated department?
A: That’s a great question. It feels special. Sport - I’ve always been involved in it, whether I was playing it, learning it to teach it, teaching it, or now helping administer it. I don’t know much else other than that. It's taught me a lot of skills - leadership, perseverance, teamwork, patience - so many things, and I've developed so many relationships through all those experiences. To be able to help another student-athlete, specifically females, accomplish their dreams, whatever it might be, sport can be a vehicle for that. It's amazing what our student-athletes become when they leave here. They’re just so accomplished and you love to see that. So, I enjoy being behind the scenes and seeing them grow and leave here to their next chapter of life. It's very cool.
Q: Would you change your path? If you could go back and do it all over again, would you?
A: Nope, I view life as a book. We have a book of life, and we write our chapters. Sometimes we have control of the narrative and sometimes we don’t and it doesn’t go our way. It’s still my book of life - everything that’s happened to me - and I’m appreciative for it. It’s taught me a lot. I’m here where I am today because of all those experiences, good, bad, or in between, so I would not change a thing at all.
Q: How did the women around you help you to become the person you are today?
A: It starts with, I think, your mom. My mother raised three of us kids, my mother and my father. She worked really hard and just kept grinding it out to make sure we had opportunities as kids to explore the things we wanted to, whether it was dancing or instruments or sports. And, I always looked up to my sister when I was little - you want to be your older sister and dress like them. We had arguments about me stealing her clothes … still steal some of them to this day, maybe. *smiles* And, I mentioned them before, but I had the, specifically, two physical education teachers when I was in high school. They were just so positive and energetic and active and kind, and I just … to this day, I still have so much admiration for the both of them. They've been retired for several years now, but I really have a lot of respect and hold them very close to my heart. They kind of inspired me to start the career path that I initially was on and to this day they still inspire me because they're just so active and positive and … just to look up to them so much, I can't even explain it. All the other women that have come before us in life - whether it was about voting rights or working in research and getting in the workplace when men had to go to war - wow they've done so much to pave the way for us.
Q: What does it mean and how does it feel that young women and girls might look up to you because what you do or have done?
A: Most days I'm just Melissa. I'm just another person in the crowd. But, I appreciate that they look up to me and I hope that [when] they come out of a conversation or an experience with me that they find something of value that they can leave with. [I hope that they] can come across adversity or a change in what they thought was their path in life and can kind of do what they want to do. You can write your own book … you can write your own story.
Q: And finally, what does women’s history mean to you?
A: It’s a celebration of where women have come from and where we’re still going. I do hope that one day we don’t need to have a women’s history month and we're just celebrating it all the time. I think a lot of us do and I think it’s important to commemorate all the accomplishments that have happened, but there is more work to be done.
For more content from the Women's History Month #GreatWomenGreatDanes series, click here.
