BE the Change is the BIG EAST Conference's strategic platform to educate, engage and lead in diversity, equity and inclusion. As part of our strategic commitment, individuals are encouraged to enhance their personal awareness and be active participants to ending racism and other forms of social injustice.
"We look forward to bringing together all of our schools to consider additional programs, practices and promotional activities that will help increase athletics-based opportunities and retention for underrepresented groups across all of our campuses," said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. "The commitment and deep knowledge of our working group members will be of immense value as we strive to be a force for positive change and better correlate the make-up of our athletics leadership ranks with the diversity of our student-athlete population."
The BIG EAST Conference's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion working group has been tasked with examining the current diversity environment in intercollegiate athletics and creating a strategic DE&I roadmap for the Conference's Presidents and Athletics Directors. The working group will review policies, initiatives and best practices among BIG EAST member institutions and other athletics conferences and develop strategies designed to enhance the athletics-related DE&I efforts already underway on BIG EAST campuses.
The DE&I working group roster represents a broad cross-section of athletics department and university personnel from all ten BIG EAST schools and includes the following:
Sonya Hopkins, Associate Director of Academic Support, Butler University
Kevin Freeman, Associate Director of Athletics / Executive Director of the National C Club, University of Connecticut
Sarah S. Walker, PhD, Associate Professor, Heider College of Business, Creighton University
Dr. Stephanie Baugh, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Specialist, DePaul University
Rosemary Kilkenny, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, Georgetown University
Adrienne Ridgeway, Executive Associate Athletic Director, Academic Services & Student Programs, Marquette University
Jill LaPoint, Deputy Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator, Providence College
Nancy Kaplan, Ph.D., Associate Provost/Student Development for Athletes Program, St. John's University
Robert Sasso, Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development & Leadership, Seton Hall University
Leashia Lewis, Assistant Athletic Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/Director of UNITAS, Villanova University
Nate Lie, Head Women's Soccer Coach, Xavier University
The working group will also include representation from the BIG EAST Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. St. John's track and field student-athlete Samantha Morillo will serve in that role in 2022-2023.
All ten BIG EAST schools, as well as the Conference Office, were early signatories to the 2016 NCAA Presidential Pledge, an association-wide commitment to promoting diversity and gender equity in intercollegiate athletics. In 2017, the BIG EAST hosted a D&I Solutions Roundtable in Providence, R.I., for more than 75 college administrators in an early attempt to identify strategies around hiring, retention and positive work environments for women and people of color.