AT H L E T I C S LEADERSHIP
san antonio embraces the roadrunners as its hometown team, but new athletics director lisa campos knows she can overcome hurdles to make the bond even stronger
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BY SHEA CONNER ollege athletics directors often throw around the same talking points when explaining why they accepted a new job: “growth” or “opportunity” or “potential.” While Lisa Campos has already used such terms as UTSA’s
new athletics director and vice president for intercollegiate athletics, her journey to San Antonio was motivated by something much more personal than a few buzzwords. ¶ Raised in Las Animas, Colorado, Campos earned her bachelor’s degree at leadership, and administration at The University of Texas at El Paso. Campos is a first-generation college graduate and says she saw herself in many of the young faces she encountered as she toured the campus at UTSA, a proud Hispanic-majority institution that also enrolls about 14,000 first-generation students. “That vision really aligns with who I am,” says Campos, who served as the VP for intercollegiate athletics at Northern Arizona University from 2012 to 2017 and as senior associate athletics director at UTEP from 2006 to 2012.
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UTSA
While UTSA was a perfect fit for her personality, Campos says she quickly made it clear she was an outstanding fit for the university. She hit the ground running the weekend her hiring was announced in November 2017, meeting with influential San Antonio business leaders and attending the UTSA-Marshall football game. She chatted with blue-and-orange–clad supporters at the Alamodome, posed for every photo request with tailgaters, and went out of her way to high-five El Gran Beak (the die-hard ’Runner fan who
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Colorado State University before pursuing a doctorate in education, educational
