The NCAA is committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion across college athletics. The NCAA Leadership Collective serves as a tool to progress toward an environment of diverse representation in collegiate coaching and athletics administration. The Leadership Collective is an interactive and user-friendly platform, which highlights the vast professional accomplishments of ethnic minorities within college sports through customizable, in-depth personal profiles.
What benefit does the Leadership Collective provide?
The Leadership Collective serves to encourage membership participation and demonstrate the NCAA’s commitment to promoting cultural diversity and equity in college sports, in conjunction with the NCAA Presidential Pledge campaign. The Leadership Collective will serve to answer the commonly posed question, “Where can I find qualified minority candidates?”
Through the showcase of the achievements of its users, the NCAA Leadership Collective will help NCAA member school and athletics conference executives diversify their talent lists and be more inclusive when making personnel decisions. The resource can be used for hiring staff, making committee appointments, finding speakers and filling other related needs. By elevating the prominence of talented minority administrators and coaches across the college sports landscape, the NCAA continues to work toward its commitment to having athletics leadership reflect the student-athlete population it serves.
How does the Leadership Collective work?
The Leadership Collective will feature two designations: “candidates” who will populate the system with public profiles and “searchers” who are those with the ability to search and view profiles within the system. The “searcher” category is populated by directors of athletics, conference commissioners, member school presidents, search firm executives, senior woman administrators and athletics diversity and inclusion designees, as well as other administrators with decision-making authority or oversight of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in their departments.
Members must submit an application (in the “How to apply” section below) to gain access to the Leadership Collective. Once the application is reviewed, assessing whether the applicant meets all eligibility criteria, the applicant will receive an approval granting the ability to create a profile in the platform.
Who is eligible to apply to create a profile in the Leadership Collective?
Administrators and coaches at NCAA member schools, conference offices, or affiliate organizations who identify as ethnic minorities, regardless of experience-level or seniority, may apply to upload their information in the Leadership Collective.
How to apply
The online application to the NCAA Leadership Collective is available via the link below, by selecting “Request Access”:
https://leadershipcollective.ncaa.org
Applicants must submit a personal statement articulating their interest in creating a profile within the Leadership Collective as part of their application. This will be requested after your initial application is submitted.
LC searcher access
To access the NCAA Leadership Collective as a searcher, please go to: https://leadershipcollective.ncaa.org.
If you do not yet have an account, please submit an application to create a searcher account within the platform via the following link: https://leadershipcollective.ncaa.org. To be eligible to gain access as a searcher, you must hold a position of decision-making authority and/or oversee diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at your NCAA member institution, conference office or affiliate organization. Additionally, searchers must affirm they intend to use the platform for its articulated purpose of diversifying talent lists and encouraging inclusive practices when making personnel decisions.
Resources
Questions
Should you have additional questions about the NCAA Leadership Collective, please contact ldevelopment@ncaa.org.
