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Leading Through Transformative Times With America East’s Brad Walker

Guest Brad Walker, America East
16:41 min watch

Summary

America East Commissioner Brad Walker joins ADU’s Tai M. Brown at the 2024 NACDA Convention to discuss the league’s new logo and branding in the context of the transformative change upending the industry. Walker and Brown dig into the value of conference-wide connectivity and how Walker communicates with the various constituents across a conference and intentionally engages with student-athletes. Walker also reflects on his career trajectory, which began in sports information and included five years at the NBA: “[The NBA] values the relationships you have, your network, and your ability to build consensus is really challenged [with the NBA].”

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).

  • - There's a new logo for the conference - tell me about how you decide that it's time to make a change like that?
  • - You started off in sports information in your career. Talk to me about having that as the foundation of your career.
  • - When you were in that storytelling role, how much did you think about where you wanted to be in your career? How much did you think that Commissioner or AD would be an option for you when so many communicators stay in their role for decades?
  • - Tell me about the conversations you have with your various constituent groups about the transformative times the industry is experiencing?
  • - Do your league presidents come to you for translation about the issues going on in Athletics?
  • - Talk to me about guiding your league through the process of accepting and embracing an ever-changing reality.
  • - Does everyone think like that?
  • - You are multiple layers away from student-athletes - do you intentionally try to have touchpoints?
  • - 25 years ago, did you know who your conference commissioner was?
  • - Young people today have so much going on in their head, things to pay attention to, and yet they function at a high level. I wonder if I would have functioned at that high of a level with all that going on.

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