NCAA President to Speak at Rockhurst University on College Athletics in the 21st Century

Mark Emmert, Ph.D., president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association, will be the guest of Rockhurst University’s Visiting Scholar Lecture Series Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Emmert’s talk in the Convocation Center on the Rockhurst University campus, “The Collegiate Model for the 21st Century,” will provide a look at what is driving the Association’s decision-making in a time of big ideas and defining moments.

Each NCAA division is facing important decisions about its future. As with many membership organizations, groups within the organization hold diverse opinions and seek to conduct their business in different ways. In his lecture, he will address the Association’s core values and focus on the lifelong well-being and success of the nation’s more than 460,000 student-athletes.

Emmert began his NCAA presidency in October 2010. Before assuming his current role, Emmert was president at his alma mater, University of Washington, starting in 2004. Prior to that, he was the chancellor at Louisiana State University.  He has also held positions at the University of Connecticut, Montana State University, and the University of Colorado.

Emmert is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Higher Education Working Group on Global Issues. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and was previously an American Council on Education Fellow, and a J. W. Fulbright Administrative Fellow.  He has written extensively on higher education and public administration over a career that spans the last 30 years.

A Washington native, Emmert earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Washington and has both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University.

Rockhurst University’s Visiting Scholar Lecture Series invites the public to attend this free lecture, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, in the Convocation Center on the Rockhurst University campus. To register your attendance for the event, call the Center for Arts and Letters at 816-501-4828.