Western Michigan Vice President & Director of Athletics Dan Bartholomae sits down with ADU’s Tai M. Brown at the 2024 NACDA Convention to reflect on leadership, legacy and core values while offering insights from his career journey that began in the mailroom and progressed to the big chair. In reflecting on the early stages of his career, Bartholomae notes that his initial interest was in politics before he spent an undergraduate Spring Break shadowing Athletics administrators at Pittsburgh and found his way to a grad school position with the Panthers: “I started in the mailroom and finished as Deputy AD – sort of a different career trajectory.” Bartholomae discusses the various ways he translates the leadership skills he learned from both an academic pursuit of politics and an MBA program to Athletics; talks through his strategic planning process; and offers his strategies for tapping into connection in order to cultivate buy in from staff and student-athletes.
The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).
