#162: Big Ten Senior VP of Community and Impact Omar Brown: Taking the lead with student-athlete experience and community engagement

Omar Brown is the Senior Vice President of Community and Impact at the Big Ten Conference. He has a rich history of leadership with and beyond the conference. In his current role, Omar leads the way with student-athlete experiences and with community engagement.

1.        Two big parts of Omar’s job: 1) Student-athlete experience. 2) Community work.

2.        Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Two SAAC meetings per year.

3.        CBS Championship games initiative.

4.        Big Life Series to Selma and a farm in Iowa.

5.        Reading week.

6.        Community work. In conjunction with big events. Renovating rec centers. Tours of campuses. Supporting teachers in Indianapolis. Renovating school in Indy.

7.        Adopted local school as “junior journalists.”

8.        What is the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) on each campus. Each team has one or two reps. Each campus has a small executive committee to lead their campus. Two of these individuals are chosen to represent their school at the Big Ten.

9.        Why are there typically not as many football or basketball players on SAAC?

10.  SAAC at Big Ten talks about college sports issues and brings it back to their own campuses.

11.  Variance in SAAC across the conference.

12.  The richness of student-athlete resources provided by Big Ten athletic departments.

13.  Why making campus visits is important to Omar. 

14.  Big Life Series. How and why did it come about?

15.  The Selma Big Life experience. Badgers in Selma. 

16.  The Iowa Big Life experience. 

17.  Marcus Carpenter.

18.  Future Big Life Series experience possibilities.

19.  Why community engagement around big events? “How can we make their community better?” Focus on local community residents.

20.  Omar’s regular routines. Why we wanted to get on campuses. “You really build the relationships there.”

21.  A job in Omar’s past: Organizational Transformation Consultant at Deloitte. Figuring our influential and impactful stakeholders.

22.  Leaders that Omar admired and why. Kevin Warren (preparation, presentation, perception, calmness). Tony Petitti (getting things done, avoiding “scope creep,” authenticity).

23.   “Anyone can work in sports.” Interconnectivity in college sports.