Amy (Privette) Perko, noted intercollegiate athletics executive and member of the
Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame, will address the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) membership as keynote speaker at the upcoming 2011 CoSIDA national convention. The Convention is slated for Sunday-Wednesday, June 26-30 in Marco Island, Florida at the Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort.
Perko, a former standout collegiate basketball scholar-athlete who has spent her career working in the field of collegiate and professional athletics, has served as executive director of the
Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics since 2005.
Perko will address CoSIDA Convention attendees at the Kickoff luncheon on Monday, June 27. The Kickoff luncheon keynote address will be followed by featured Convention presenter Lou Holtz, the legendary Notre Dame head coach and ESPN personality, who will discuss his game plan for successfully gaining influence and success. The June 27th workshop programming revolves around the theme of gaining influence within the intercollegiate community.
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is an independent group of university presidents, trustees, faculty and former student-athletes who advocate for governance and policy changes in college athletics to ensure that athletics programs operate within the educational mission of their universities and with academic and fiscal integrity. The Commission is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
As the Knight Commission’s spokesperson, Perko frequently presents the Commission’s work and recommendations at various meetings including the NCAA’s Scholarly Colloquium, Sport Research Institute’s Annual Conference and Street and Smith’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. In June 2010, the commission released its third major report – “Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values and the Future of College Sports.” The report’s financial reform recommendations resulted from a nearly two-year examination that included research and a series of public meetings.?
Perko will be the most recent of an impressive line of notable and distinguished CoSIDA Convention keynote speakers. At last year’s Convention, Ari Fleisher, former White House Press Secretary (2001-03) and the chief executive and principal employee of Ari Fleischer Communications and Ari Fleischer Sports Communications, gave the opening address and then participated in a standing-room only panel on strategic messaging and crisis communications. In 2009, Kevin Sullivan, Assistant to the President for Communications in the White House from July of 2006 who began his PR career as a Purdue University sports information student, addressed the attendees. In 2007, the late NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand spoke at the Convention.
“CoSIDA is honored to have such a distinguished athletics leader and administrator as Amy Perko address our 2011 Convention,” noted current CoSIDA President Larry Dougherty of Temple University. “We also are thrilled to welcome an Academic All-American and Academic All-America Hall of Famer as our keynote speaker. As Executive Director of the Knight Commission, Amy has been on the forefront of athletics reform, advocating for policy change and better governance. We know her message to the CoSIDA membership will be relevant to the pressures and demands in leadership and communication strategies that we all face as professionals in intercollegiate athletics.”
CoSIDA is pleased to continue its impressive lineup of keynote convention speakers over the past few years, and to also welcome Lou Holtz as a,” Dougherty concluded. “Having Amy Perko address our organization is a wonderful testament to CoSIDA, our Convention focus and the work our members do on our campuses and at our conferences.”
Perko joined the Knight Commission as associate director in 2003 after previously serving at the National Basketball Association (NBA), the University of Kansas and the NCAA. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wake Forest University, she also is a member of the WFU Hall of Fame in addition to her Academic All-America® Hall of Fame honors.
In 2008, Perko was inducted into
CoSIDA’s Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame after gaining Academic All-America honors as a sophomore, junior and senior at Wake Forest. The Academic All-America® Hall of Fame is a highly-selective Hall which recognizes Academic All-America® honorees who have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers and who are committed to philanthropic causes in the communities where they reside. Perko is the first Wake Forest graduate to be inducted into the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame.
At Wake Forest, she earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) honors twice and was a three-time selection to the Academic All-America® team, gaining First Team honors as a junior and senior in 1986 and 1987 after named to the third team in 1985. A William Louis Poteat scholar, she graduated summa cum laude in 1987 with a degree in history, earning Phi Beta Kappa honors as well. As a senior, she also received a prestigious 1987 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and the university’s award for excellence in history. After graduating from Wake Forest, Perko earned a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Richmond.
Perko was inducted into the Wake Forest Hall of Fame in 2000, and was honored as a Legend of ACC Women’s Basketball in 2005.
Perko began her professional career at the NCAA, starting as a legislative assistant before working as an enforcement representative during her six-year tenure. She then served at the University of Kansas as the Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator. Perko left Kansas in 2001 to return to North Carolina when she was the first Team President named by the NBA for one of its men’s basketball development teams, the Fayetteville Patriots.
An active member of the Fayetteville, NC community, Perko serves on the community’s Child Advocacy Center Board of Directors and is a girls basketball coach. She has previously served as President of the Board of Directors for the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County, an organization that administers grants for early childhood development and education.
Perko is married to Rick Perko and they have two daughters: Anna and Kate.