Ketra Armstrong, professor and associate dean in the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology, was appointed as the university’s faculty athletics representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Big Ten conference.
The three-year appointment, effective Sept. 1, was made by President Mark Schlissel.
The faculty athletics representative reports directly to the president and serves as a senior adviser outside of the athletics department to the president on matters related to intercollegiate athletics.
NCAA bylaws call for each member institution to designate a faculty member as a liaison between the institution and the athletics department, and also as a representative of the institution in conference and NCAA affairs.
“Professor Armstrong is an exceptional scholar and understands the institutional aspects of college sports and the culture that drives them,” Schlissel said. “She is deeply committed to social justice, academic integrity and the balance between the university’s educational mission and athletics.”
Before coming to U-M in 2011, Armstrong served as director and professor of the graduate program in sport management at California State University, Long Beach (2003-11).
From 1996-2003, she served as an assistant and associate professor of sport management at The Ohio State University.
Armstrong is a former NCAA Division I scholarship basketball player, women’s basketball coach, and athletic administrator. She is a former member of the NCAA Gender Equity Task Force, the former vice-president for the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium, and the former president of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport.
Her scholarship converges on the topics of race, gender and the social psychology of sport/leisure participation and consumption, and the management thereof.
Armstrong holds a bachelor degree and a master of education degree from Mississippi State University. She earned her doctorate degree from The Ohio State University.
Armstrong succeeds Anne Curzan, professor of English, who served as the university’s faculty athletics representative since 2012.
“I thank Professor Curzan for her dedication and leadership over the last four years,” Schlissel adds. “She served as a great partner and was deeply committed to the integrity of intercollegiate athletics and the welfare of student-athletes.”
