UMaine Athletic Director Search Underway
Contact: Contact: Brent Williamson at (207) 581-4158
ORONO, Me. — A national search for a University of Maine athletic director is underway, with a ten-member search committee at work on identifying qualified candidates to lead the Black Bear athletic department.
In November, UMaine President Robert Kennedy appointed the search committee, which is chaired by UMaine oceanography professor David Townsend. The group met several times in late 2005 to develop a job description and related materials, so that active searching could begin this month.
“This is an important position in our administration, and I am pleased that we are moving forward in this process,” Kennedy says. “Athletics represent an important part of our student experience at UMaine, and sports provide a strong link to the greater community. I believe that UMaine has the appropriate perspective on intercollegiate athletics, and we aim to hire a strong leader who will manage a department that continues the Black Bear tradition of excellence both in the classroom and on the field of play.”
UMaine has 416 varsity student-athletes, competing in 19 sports. The Black Bears are Maine’s only Division I sports program. UMaine sports generate statewide news coverage, and games in some sports are broadcast live on radio and television in both Bangor and Portland.
“This is an exciting opportunity,” says Townsend, who is the director of UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences. “As one who has been affiliated with UMaine since graduating from high school, I appreciate the enthusiasm that people feel for Black Bear sports, and the important role athletics plays in our campus life. As a professor, I have had the opportunity to teach many UMaine student-athletes. I have been impressed with their commitment to the necessary balance between sports and studies, and I am hopeful that we will find an athletic director who exemplifies and models that ethic.”
Blake James has served as UMaine’s interim athletic director since July 2005. James was senior associate athletic director during the tenure of athletic director Patrick Nero, who left UMaine last summer to become commissioner of the America East Conference.
The search committee includes two additional UMaine faculty members: Sandra Caron from the Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies and George Jacobson of the Dept. of Biological Sciences. Jacobson also serves as UMaine’s NCAA Faculty Representative. Women’s basketball coach Ann McInerney and hockey coach Tim Whitehead represent the athletics department staff on the committee. Joe Carr, director of university relations, Tammy Light, interim director of student records, Associate Dean of Students Angel Loredo and Dan Willett, a planned giving officer in the University of Maine Foundation, are also on the committee, along with community members Barb Dalton and Tom Patrick. Dalton is a 1981 UMaine graduate who lives in Veazie; Patrick, who graduated from UMaine in 1962, lives in West Boothbay Harbor.
When finalists are identified, they will come to UMaine for a series of interviews and meetings.