Taking another step in the search for a new director of Intercollegiate Athletics at West Virginia University, President James P. Clements today announced a seven-person screening committee to review candidates’ credentials and to recommend persons to be interviewed.
The committee – representing various perspectives of academics, staff, athletics, alumni, finance and fund-raising – began its work Wednesday and will review materials and continue the process until the position is filled.
Applications for the position have been arriving since the job was posted in late March, Clements said, and the field remains “wide open.”
Clements said he plans to add people to a broader interview team to further screen and assess candidates as the process moves forward. The interview team will include student-athletes as well as additional staff, faculty and coaching personnel, among others, he said.
“We are first looking at credentials and resumes,” Clements said, “and then will begin the process of conducting interviews to find the very best leader for our successful athletic program.”
“The search is under way,” said Professor Samuel Ameri, who will chair the committee, “and an important part of the review process will be maintaining confidentiality for the candidates.” Any future information will be released through News and Information.
Public information about the search will be posted, as it becomes available, at: http://adsearch.wvu.edu/.
Applications and nominations can be emailed to: WVUADSearch@mail.wvu.edu.
The screening committee consists of:
Samuel Ameri, chair
Chairperson, WVU Dept. of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
Professor, College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
Ameri has more than 30 years of distinguished service in both industry and academia. He has in-depth experience in fossil energy areas, particularly natural gas and oil extraction. As a researcher, he has developed a high-quality research program in the area of oil and gas recovery and compiled an outstanding record of publications across a wide spectrum of oil and gas issues. Ameri has been active in the Society of Petroleum Engineers, including co-general chair of SPE’s Eastern Regional Conference and Exhibition 2000, serving on SPE’s Education and Accreditation Committee, Continuing Education Committee and the Eastern Regional Technical Conference Program Committee. He also served as chair of the Department Heads of Petroleum Engineering Schools USA, SPE’s Cedric K. Ferguson Medal Committee and Northern West Virginia Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He is a long-time member of WVU’s Athletic Council and the parent of a former student-athlete.
Nancy McCormick DiPaolo (‘76 BS)
Chair-Elect, WVU Alumni Association Board of Directors (becomes Chair in May 2010); financial officer of JNDI Corp., Spring, Texas.
A native of Logan, McCormick and her husband, Jed (‘75 BS), served as co-presidents of the WVU Alumni Association’s Lone Star Chapter. In that position, she helped to build alumni membership; coordinate activities, including the annual Shrimp Boil; encourage community service projects; and recruit prospective high school students. She has been actively involved in developing networking and career opportunities for WVU graduates moving to the Houston area. She also chairs the Texas chapter of the WVU Parents Club. In addition to her involvement with WVU, DiPaolo is active in several community and non-profit organizations. She previously served as vice president of activities for the National Charity League; was a member of the executive board of the Sugar Plum Cotillion; and volunteers with Northwest Assistance Ministries. She also taught Sunday School for John Wesley United Methodist Church. In 2009, Nancy and Jed were honored as “Most Loyal Alumni Mountaineers” during Mountaineer Week. She also received the WVU Alumni Association’s James R. McCartney Award in 2004 in recognition of her unwavering commitment to WVU. While a student at WVU, DiPaolo was a member of the WVU cheerleading squad and served as president of Chi Omega Sorority. She was also a member of Mortar Board.
Lonnie Galloway
Assistant Coach, Wide Receivers
Football
A native of Eden, N.C., Galloway earned his bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University in 1994. During his playing career at Western Carolina, he was a four-year letter winner and the school’s all-time leader in total offense. Galloway still ranks in the top 10 in seven more offensive categories for the Catamounts. He played one season for the Charlotte Rage (1995) of the Arena Football League. Galloway began his coaching career at Elon in 1996, going to East Carolina in 2003. He joined the staff at Appalachian State in 2005, where the school won three-straight NCAA I-AA national championships. Galloway came to WVU in 2008 as the wide receiver’s coach.
Patrick Hairston
WVU Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance
Hairston manages the daily operations of the Athletic Compliance Office. Prior to employment with WVU, Hairston was employed at the National Collegiate Athletic Association as the assistant director for championships, responsible for managing championships and their sports committees. Before joining the NCAA, Hairston worked at Delaware State University as the associate athletic director for internal operations where his responsibilities were to manage the daily compliance responsibilities, supervise sport teams and work with the University’s administration on athletic and institutional issues. Hairston previously worked at the Western Athletic Conference where he was assistant commissioner for compliance and governance. His responsibilities were to work with the WAC’s membership’s athletic administrations, faculty athletics representatives and student-athletes on matters of NCAA compliance. Early in his career he was compliance coordinator at Texas A&M University/Corpus Christi, where he assisted the university in establishing its athletics program and to become a NCAA member institution.
Nikki Izzo-Brown
Head Coach
Women’s Soccer
In 14 seasons as the only coach in the history of Mountaineer women’s soccer, Izzo-Brown has built a one-time infant program into one of the nation’s elite, with 10 straight NCAA tournament appearances, the country’s ninth-best streak. Entering the 2010 season, she ranks 20th among NCAA Division I coaches all-time with a .691 winning percentage. As a player, Izzo-Brown attained All-America status at Rochester, where she was a four-year starter from 1989-92 and earned all-East, all-region and all-league honors. Following her senior campaign, she won the prestigious Meryle Spurrier Award, which recognizes Rochester’s top female athlete based on leadership, academics and athletics. Izzo-Brown graduated from Rochester in the spring of 1993 with a degree in psychology. That fall, she was named assistant coach at West Virginia Wesleyan, then elevated to head coach in 1994 and took Wesleyan to a 13-5 mark and a spot in the NAIA national tournament. While coaching at the Buckhannon school, Izzo-Brown earned her master’s of business administration degree in 1994. Izzo-Brown was named the first head coach of West Virginia’s women’s soccer team in August 1995. In addition to her duties at WVU, Izzo-Brown is certified as an advanced national level coach by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, has her United States Soccer Federation “B” license and is a region I senior staff Olympic Development member. She has also served on several regional and national ranking committees for the NSCAA.
R. Wayne King
President & CEO, WVU Foundation
King has served as president and CEO of the WVU Foundation since July 2007. He came to the Foundation from Des Moines, Iowa, where he served as president of the Mercy Foundation, an organization which provided philanthropic support for Mercy Medical Center, a 917-bed regional medical center and five subsidiary organizations. Prior to that he served as senior vice president for development with the Oklahoma State University Foundation, which conducted a $206 million Bringing Dreams to Life Campaign and raised $261 million. A Certified Fund Raising Executive since 1986, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Asbury College and masters degrees from Indiana University and the University of Oklahoma.
Shirley Robinson (‘06)
Administrative Assistant to the WVU Associate Provost
for Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Robinson is a native of Morgantown and a 2006 graduate of WVU. She has been employed at WVU for 20� years. An avid singer, Robinson is the 2009 Faculty/Staff “Idol” Winner, WVU’s version of the popular American Idol television show. She also has been head judge for the Mountaineer Idol student singing competition at WVU for the past several years. A former student-athlete, Robinson’s accomplishments are described on WVU’s “History of the Integration of Sports” website, where it notes she was the first African American to play women’s tennis at the University. Besides tennis and singing, Robinson also enjoys church activities, making assorted chocolates and gourmet apples and volunteering for Morgantown Hospice.
-WVU-
bl/04/28/10
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