Menu
Game Changers

Game Changers: Jacqie Carpenter

Photo: KEITH CEPHUS PHOTOGRAPHY
Beach time is a nice break for Carpenter and her daughter, Samone Marie.
Organizational Drivers
Jacqie Carpenter
CIAA | Commissioner

A
fter completing her first year as commissioner of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Jacqie Carpenter is pleased with the stability and cohesion the past 12 months have brought. “We’re just touching the surface, but in the first year I feel we’ve been able to set a foundation and a ground on how we want to move forward this upcoming year,” Carpenter said.
 
Carpenter spent nine years at the NCAA, earning the role of director of championships and alliances, before taking over leadership at the conference of historically black colleges and universities. Through enhancing the CIAA’s championships and developing the CIAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee leadership programs, all while keeping the conference within its financial means, Carpenter feels the conference is moving in a direction that can better support its student athletes, an area she considers her main focus. “I think [the student athletes] can see and feel that there’s more of a focus on them,” she said.

Under Carpenter’s leadership, the CIAA re-evaluated contracts and agreements and scaled down certain expenses, ultimately cutting $1 million from the budget and ending the year without a deficit after several years of financial challenges. The conference also underwent a rebranding effort, which saw its logo changed in January. But Carpenter is mindful of the CIAA’s century-long history, as well. “This conference is 101 years old,” she said. “There’s a lot of history surrounding it, so as we move forward, we want to continue to tell those stories and make sure people understand the history of what the CIAA is about.”

— Anna Hrushka

  • Person who had the biggest influence on your career in sports: James Battle, past director of athletics at Virginia Union University. He was the first to give me an opportunity to enter the field of intercollegiate athletics.
  • Woman in sports business you’d most like to meet: Laurel Richie. I am impressed with her background and career path in serving in the corporate world, but also in the community. She is the first black woman to run a professional sports league, and I am the first black woman to serve as full-time appointed commissioner.
  • Best advice you’ve received: Trust and keep God first in everything you do. (From my mother, Eunice McWilliams, 1946-2007.)

“Jacqie is a role model in every sense of the word. She feels a deep sense of responsibility to teach and mentor, and has positively impacted countless young professionals in this business.”

— Jeanne Boyd | Managing director | NCAA men’s basketball championships

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2013/09/09/Game-Changers/Jacqie-Carpenter.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2013/09/09/Game-Changers/Jacqie-Carpenter.aspx

CLOSE