Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.
Today’s guest on the “Leaders Growing Leaders” series is Mark DeMichael, the VP of Student Life and Athletics at Indiana Wesleyan University.
During the “Leaders Growing Leaders” series on the Success is a Choice Podcast Network, Jamy Bechler talks with leaders on how they are growing and developing other leaders.
The series tries to examine how various leaders are making the people around them better and building a stronger, healthier culture.
Bob Vecchione is the Executive Director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. NACDA is THE professional association for individuals working in college athletics. Nearly 16,000 individuals and 1,700 institutions belong to NACDA.
During his tenure, NACDA has initiated a multitude of programs that provide value-added benefits to the ever increasing membership. Programs such as the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, NCAA Football, the Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year Award, the NACDA Daily Review, the Disney Institute and the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) are examples of those value added membership benefits created under his tutelage. Vecchione was honored with the Tony Snow Award from the WWP in 2013.
Vecchione is also a member of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame National Board of Directors, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission Board and is on the advisory Board of the College Sports Video Summit. He previously chaired the NCAA Football Youth Initiatives Committee.
Jim Carr is the president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The NAIA provides opportunities for more than 65,000 student-athletes to play sports at the collegiate level. The NAIA is headquartered in Kansas City. The men’s basketball tournament is the longest running basketball tournament in the nation. Under Carr’s leadership, the NAIA has grown a great deal and has been at the forefront of innovative programs such as the “Champions of Character” and the “Return on Athletics”.
Carr joined the NAIA in July 1998 as Managing Director and General Counsel and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, while retaining the title of General Counsel, in 2000. In September 2006, Carr became the seventh President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAIA. He is a graduate of Millsaps College, has an M.S. in sports management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a J.D. from Duke University. He serves on various boards and councils, including USA Basketball, the Kansas City Life, Baptist Trinity Lutheran Foundation, the Police Athletic League of Kansas City, Missouri Bank and Trust and the Downtown Council of Kansas City.
Greg Tonagel is the head men’s basketball coach at Indiana Wesleyan University. Tonagel and the Wildcats have won three NAIA Division II National Championships in a five year spans with titles in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Since Tonagel took over the program in 2005, he has become the winningest coach in program history both in total wins and winning percentage. Prior to coming to IWU, Tonagel served as Director of Basketball Operations at Valparaiso University, where he also played for legendary Homer Drew and appeared in four NCAA Tournaments as the starting point guard. He also led his LaPorte High School team to the last single class state finals in 1997. Much of the unprecedented success of the Wildcats can be attributed to the culture Tonagel built at IWU. The IWU culture is built around two Biblically transforming principles; I am Third and Fearless. This has helped the influence of IWU basketball to extend far beyond the court. Tonagel and his staff have been committed to using basketball as a platform for discipleship.
Tracie Hitz is a personal and professional branding strategist with more than 20 years of branding, marketing and sales experience in the sports industry. She launched Hitz & Branding, LLC in June 2018 after twenty years in the sports industry. In this new endeavor she helps people set goals, tell a story, land a date, land a job, or land anything they want.
Immediately before founding Hitz & Branding, LLC., Tracie was the Director of Championships & Alliances at the NCAA. In her first year, she oversaw the 2014 Women’s Final Four sales efforts that led to a sold-out arena in a first-time host city, and the following year she led the charge to record the largest attendance at a Women’s Final Four since 2010. Tracie came to the national office after working in the C-Suite as the Chief Marketing Officer at Old Hat Creative for 3.5 years where she doubled its annual revenue each year working with over 80 professional and collegiate sports organizations.
She was named to the C-Suite for the NACMA Board of Directors in 2008 and was the Board advisor from 2010-2013. She has been a member of the UNC Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics Board of Advisors and the IUPUI Tourism, Conventions and Event Management Advisory Board since 2015. She received her bachelorʼs degree in Communication (Journalism) from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri in 1997 and her masterʼs degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University in 2003.
Tim Hall is the Director of Athletics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He was also appointed President of the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association (ADA) in the summer of 2017 and has served as the chairman of the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics. During the 2018 NCAA Tournament, the UMBC Retrievers Men’s Basketball team made history when they became the first ever No. 16 seed to beat the No. 1 seed when they beat Virginia by 20 points, 74-54. Tim has previously served as the Athletic Director at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Before heading up his own departments, he was the assistant A.D. at Eastern Kentucky University, Saint Xavier University, Youngstown State University, and Kent State University.
Mark Fauser has been a television and movie actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He had parts in such shows as Jag, Evening Shade, Coach, SeaQuest, and Quantum Leap. He moved from Hollywood to Marion, Indiana in the early 2000’s and proceeded to help build up the Community School of the Arts as the Executive Director. He has continued to add value to the Marion community as the Director of Marketing for the City and currently serves as a Creative Development Consultant for Marion Community Schools. He has a love and passion for helping the community and has a desire to give back. His relationships with such stars as Jim Caviezel, Kelly Ripa, Billy Bob Thornton, and his mentor Burt Reynolds were key as he was able to get them to help the Community School of the Arts in various ways. In 2006 he won the Marion Grant County Chamber of Commerce Chairman’s Award. In 2007 he won the Indiana University Public Service Award and the Grant County Community Achievement Award. He was presented with the 2011 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award for his work as a writer, actor and his leadership for the Community School of the Arts. He lives with his wife and three children in Marion, Indiana and works out of a home office that is decorated from wall-to-wall with action figures.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
Dan Wood is the Executive Director of the National Christian College Athletic Association. He joined the NCCAA national office staff in 2000. Dan was the recipient of the 2016 Professional Excellence Award from Southern Wesleyan University’s (SWU) School of Education. He serves on the Advisory Board of Sports Spectrum Magazine, is a member of Greenville Connect Ministry, and as a member of ALIVE Wesleyan he has provided leadership in building and capital campaigns and youth ministry. Prior to his time with the NCCAA, he was involved in Christian Higher Education, beginning in 1987 as a professor, coach, and Athletic Director at Christian universities. Dan was awarded NCCAA and NAIA Coach of the Year in Men’s Soccer and Men’s Golf; received the NCCAA Meritorious Service Award; and was inducted into SWU and Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
Mike Hamilton is the Executive Director of Show Hope, a position that he has held since December 2014. Show Hope is an orphan care and adoption ministry started by Christian music entertainer Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth. A man of deep faith, Mike has extensive experience in leadership and development, serving 26 years in intercollegiate athletics at Clemson University, Wake Forest University. Most notably, he was the athletic director at the University of Tennessee and their $105 million budget. Mike also served on the board for Show Hope, as well as other local, regional, and national nonprofits. Mike is also the CEO and Founder of Winfred-Henry Partners, LLC, which provides athletic consulting. Mike and his wife, Beth, live in the Nashville area and have five children through adoption.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
Dr. Brent Ellis became the 30th president of Spring Arbor University when he took over the top position in 2013. During his presidency SAU has been ranked by The Economist as the No. 1 in economic value among Christian universities in Michigan and No 2. among all universities in Michigan. Dr. Ellis has also played a pivotal role in key growth initiatives including the accreditation received by the Master of Social Work program and growing expectancies for the SAU Endowment from $30 million to $60 million. Before becoming President, Dr. Ellis served as a vice president at Spring Arbor University. He also worked at LeTourneau University where he served as dean for the Center for the Development of Christian Leadership. Prior to working at LeTourneau, Dr. Ellis spent four years as the director of leadership development and student programs at Taylor University (Ind.).
In today’s episode, we discuss: