Penn State University President Dr. Eric Barron

2020-21 PENN STATE WOMEN'S HOCKEY SANDY BARBOUR

Barbour was selected as one of the inaugural members of the United States Olympic Committee’s (USOC) Collegiate Advisory Council. The CAC is charged with bridging the gap between high-contributing collegiate stakeholders and the Olympic Movement.

Recognized by Forbes Among Top Executives in Sports

Forbes has recognized Barbour twice in recent years among the top executives in sports. In 2018, Barbour was selected No. 13 among the Most Powerful Women in Sports. She was among four executives listed who work primarily in intercollegiate athletics and was the highest ranked Athletic Director -- No. 2 overall in college sports.

In 2015, Forbes named Barbour one of the Top 25 Most Powerful People in College Sports, ranking among six Athletic Directors and two female administrators on the list. Forbes said that Barbour "has developed a reputation for being one of the most forward-thinking administrators in all of college sports."

Prior to Penn State

The Director of Athletics at Cal from 2004-14, Barbour guided the Golden Bears through one of the most successful periods in school history as the athletic department became one of the consistently elite programs in the country. Barbour’s 10-year term as AD was the longest for the department since men’s and women’s athletics merged into a single entity in 1992.

During her tenure overseeing Cal’s 30-sport program, the Golden Bears won 20 team national championships, 97 individual national titles, finished in the top 10 in the annual Learfield Directors’ Cup standings six times, including a program-best third in 2011, and reached record levels in ticket sales, sponsorships and fundraising. . Prior to her tenure at Berkeley, Barbour was the deputy director of athletics at Notre Dame, serving as the university's senior athletic administrator from July 2002 to September 2004. She previously held an associate athletic director position there starting in 2000. DR. ERIC J. BARRON

PRESIDENT OF PENN STATE

Florida State, ’72 (B.S.) Miami, '76 (M.S.), '80 (Ph.D.) Eric J. Barron took the helm of Pennsylvania’s flagship public university on May 12, 2014, arriving from Florida State University, where he had been president for four years. No stranger to Happy Valley, he had previously spent 20 years of his career at Penn State, serving on the faculty of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and as dean of the college. Barron has nearly 40 years of leadership experience in academic administration, education, research and public service, and a track record as a talented manager of fiscal policy within large and complex institutions. In recognition of his expertise and leadership in higher education, he was named chairman of the Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) for the Association of Public Land grant Universities (APLU) in fall 2017. In 1996, Barbour was appointed Tulane's director of athletics at age 36, and during her three years overseeing the program, Green Wave teams won 12 conference championships.

Born in Annapolis, Md., Barbour grew up in a military family. Her father was a career aviator in the U.S. Navy, and her family lived in various U.S. locations as well as in Western Europe during her childhood.

Barbour graduated cum laude in 1981 with a B.S. degree in physical education from Wake Forest University, where she was a four-year letterwinner and served as captain of the field hockey team. She also played two seasons of women's basketball for the Demon Deacons.

Barbour earned advanced degrees at the University of Massachusetts (an M.S. in sports management in 1983) and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management (an MBA in 1991). Barbour's career in intercollegiate athletics began as a field hockey assistant coach and lacrosse administrative assistant at Massachusetts in 1981.

Between master's programs, Barbour served as assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach at Northwestern from 1982-84. She also held the position of director of recruiting services during that period, before being promoted to assistant athletic director for intercollegiate programs in 1984, a position she held until 1989.

Prior to joining Tulane, Barbour worked in programming and production

PENN STATE PRESIDENT

for FOX Sports Net in Chicago during the summer of 1990. As leader of Penn State, Barron oversees a research enterprise of more than $968 million and 24 campus locations. His responsibilities include oversight of two law schools, the internationally recognized online educational enterprise known as the Penn State World Campus, and a nearly $2 billion health enterprise, including the Penn State College of Medicine, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and the Penn State Health network, which extends throughout Central Pennsylvania. Penn State’s current enrollment is approximately 97,000 students, and the University boasts the world’s largest dues-paying alumni association in the world.

During his tenure as president of Penn State, Barron has prioritized access and affordability; diversity and inclusion; student engagement; economic development; job creation and student career success; and technology.

Under Barron’s leadership, Penn State has achieved record-setting results in the University’s fundraising campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence. Penn State has now raised more than $1 billion of the $2.1 billion goal.

Barron’s Invent Penn State initiative supports investment in entrepreneurship and innovation programs, tools and resources that accelerate the movement of great ideas to the marketplace and make a substantial economic development impact in Pennsylvania and beyond. Since its inception in 2015, Invent Penn State has partnered with the University’s campuses across the Commonwealth to open 21 innovation hubs available to the surrounding communities. These hubs have provided resources to more than 2,500 entrepreneurs, engaged more than 7,100 students in entrepreneurial thinking and startups, graduated 224 startup teams from accelerator programs, resourced 208 product development projects, and created more than 145 new jobs.