When Amanda Brown became director of athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2013, women represented about 1 in 5 athletic directors in college sports.
Today, a decade after she took the helm of Panthers athletics, the ratio is about 1 in 4 athletic directors, according to the NCAA.
One national group working to further elevate women in college sports is the Montana-based organization Women Leaders in College Sports. The group recognized Braun as executive of the year.
During Brown’s tenure, UW-Milwaukee athletics increased donors by 45 percent, secured the largest endowment in its history and maintained an athlete grade point average of 3.0 or better, according to the university.
Brown recently appeared on WPR’s “The Morning Show” to discuss her national recognition and the advancement of equity in college sports.
“I’m working hard to encourage not only our women, but our male counterparts in our department — in our league — to see women as leaders,” Brown said.
The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Amanda Brown: That’s the question I think we’re working to answer, and not just for women, but for people of color. How do we create a conveyor belt that welcomes people regardless of their background and values the difference and diversity that people bring? I think the answer to the question really lies in encouraging people to do this early on.
For me, that’s part of my why. I definitely like being a leader. I’m a strategic thinker, a problem solver – all those things that come with organizational leadership. But I also really care about women seeing other women in these roles.
KAK: You were recognized by the Women Leaders in College Sports organization. Mentorship and collaboration seem to be really important in this organization. Will there ever be a day when no specific organization is needed?
AB: I hope. I really do — although I think there will always be some uniqueness to our experiences, and often only other women can appreciate the nuances we experience as leaders in any organization, in any industry.
So I think (an organization) will always be useful for sharing perspectives and helping each other in those ways. But yes, I certainly hope we get to where 50 percent of athletics directors at all levels of college athletics are women. That would be great.
HOW: What are those business-side leadership skills that distinguish women in collegiate sports administration?
AB: I wouldn’t say it’s much different than leadership for women in general. You need to socialize expectations of how you look or act. We often walk a tightrope, don’t we? Are you too ambitious or aggressive or too pushy?
I’ve always thought that a sense of humor is really important when I have experiences like this. I often just take it with a grain of salt and laugh it off. Obviously, if there is a real problem, you need to address it immediately. But often it’s the subtleties. People don’t understand.
I can’t tell you how many times in my 10 years here at UW-Milwaukee people have said, “So you’re the athletic director of all sports?” And I guess men don’t understand that question. I respond with nothing but grace, like, “Actually, yes, I am, and we have 15 sports programs.”
HOW: Are athletic directors doing enough to give women’s sport more visibility, more coverage and more resources?
AB: I think so, but it depends. We are at the Division I level and our resources are a little bit bigger than Division II and certainly Division III, even without football.
We really need to focus on making sure that we fund our programs appropriately, and it’s not just the men’s programs, but the women’s programs as well.
In many of our divisions, the revenue generation path is currently through often men’s sports, so we would like to diversify those more and the marketing efforts are there for women’s sports. … We need to get people to cover a little more media exposure that we don’t necessarily create ourselves, and then take full advantage of that when it happens.
HOW: In October, the state Legislature advanced a Republican-backed measure that would restrict college athletes from playing on teams based on the gender they were assigned at birth. If the measure passes the full legislature, Gov. Tony Evers has vowed to block the plan from becoming law. How do you feel about this proposal with the staff and the athletes?
AB: Yes, this issue has been around for quite some time and we have had a number of conversations, not just with our coaches.
I had a roundtable last year with our head coaches just to hear from them on this topic and do they have experience with recruiting and things like that. The interesting thing is that they hadn’t encountered it much, and actually one of our coaches said, “Well, we’ve had transgender athletes in our sport for decades, and now it’s becoming an issue.”
As a former student athlete myself, I can understand this perspective and the difficulties people have with transgender women participating in women’s sports. I understand this.
I feel we can come together and have conversations instead of being so oppositional about it. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening right now.
In my opinion, there is no easy answer, but it is something worth analyzing, talking about, and really trying to find a solution for.
HOW: Is it worth talking about in the legislative environment, in state law?
AB: I can’t talk about that. I understand why people put it there. I do it. This is where people go to try to do something at that level.
I’m not sure this is necessary, but it has progressed to this. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. We are very, very open with our student-athletes to take care of all who they are and make sure they feel safe and included in our athletic department.
But this is a sticky question.
HOW: We’re seeing UW-Green Bay, UW-Oshkosh and other campuses in the University of Wisconsin system face budget pressures and cut staff. Are athletic departments managing similar financial difficulties?
AB: We sure are, yes. We don’t generate much revenue above what we spend. So we’re fully integrated into the university and we’re dealing with the same kinds of challenges.
It hasn’t been easy over the past few years, but academic support is one area where we definitely don’t want to compromise. So we will find other ways.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful base of donors who have helped us get some things done. I’d like to make more investments, I’d like to grow a bit more with things. But right now it’s really about maintaining the quality of experience that we can have for our student-athletes.
