College Sports Information Directors of America

This feature is one of the many profiles we are doing to showcase our diverse CoSIDA membership during 2016 CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week. To see all the feature stories leading up to - and during - CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week, please click HERE.

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Marlene Navor Q&A
College of Charleston Director of Athletics Communications
CoSIDA Job Seekers Committee member

by Chevonne Mansfield, American Athletic Conference Director of Communications/CoSIDA Week Committee member

Navor currently serves as Charleston's Director of Athletics Communications for the seventh year and in her 20th year overall in the athletic communications field - counting four years as a student assistant at her alma mater (Washington State) where she worked for CoSIDA Hall of Famer and former CoSIDA president Rod Commons.

Navor is only the third sports information directors in CofC Athletics history and is one of only a few female head athletic communications directors at a NCAA Division I institution in the country.The Olympia, Wash., native is an active member of the CoSIDA Job Seekers committee. Prior to serving at CofC, she was an assistant at Texas A&M University (2006-10), working on the staff of another CoSIDA Hall of Famer and former CoSIDA president - Alan Cannon.

Navor's goal is to continue to position the College of Charleston among one of the most-recognizable Division I mid-major programs. As CofC Director of Athletics Joe Hull attests, "Marlene is a gifted, creative person. She understands how to tell a story through pictures and words in a way that makes the story come alive.”

Here is a Q&A with Navor.

Looking back on your career, what drew you to athletics communications? How did you get your start?
 
Navor: Growing up, I had several dream jobs. First, I wanted to be a teacher, a fashion designer, FBI agent, and then finally, a sports writer. I chose Washington State University for its top-ranked Edward R. Murrow School of Communication and majored in communication with an emphasis in print journalism. I also chose WSU for the chance to cover big-time collegiate athletics in the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) Conference.

In high school, I got an early start in sports journalism by working for the student newspaper and completing a graduation project that entailed shadowing women sportswriters as well as local sportcasters/writers in the Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) media market. Theresa Smith, who was the beat writer covering the Seattle SuperSonics for the Tacoma News-Tribune, was one of my early mentors as was Laura Vecsey with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. During my first semester of my freshman year of college, I covered club and Olympic sports for the student newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, and had a great upperclassman mentor and role model in Janie McCauley, who now works for The Associated Press. From there, I was recruited by former Washington State SID graduate assistant Janay Leddy to work in the sports information office.

Those four years as an undergrad led to a current 20-year journey in this profession. While a SID student assistant, I covered baseball, women’s swimming, women’s tennis and men’s and women’s golf. I thank CoSIDA past president and Hall of Famer Rod Commons, Wes Werner, Linda Chalich, Greg Walker and Craig Lawson for giving us student assistants the experience, tools and responsibilities of a full-time assistant early, which only helped me to get a full-time job after college and a great athletics communications internship opportunity at the University of Connecticut. Looking back, making the move to sports information was the best decision I ever made, because of the current cutbacks in the newspaper business.
 
What is the best advice you’ve received for career development?
 
Navor: I am thankful to have worked for bosses who believed in me more than I did of myself as well as administrators who believed it was important for our office to attend our annual CoSIDA convention for career development. While working at UNLV, Kansas State and Texas A&M, I also shadowed our graphic designer, photographer and videographer to learn new tricks of the trade. Those components all shaped my career and helped me develop into a better SID.

Career development also came from not being afraid to move to different parts of the country to work at different schools. Growing up as a military brat, I was used to moving every couple of years. In order to grow, I believe it is best to learn how people do things at different places. I can say I am a more well-rounded SID having worked at a mid-major school than when I was at a Power 5 school.

I also have to give a big shout out to Lawrence Fan (San Jose State), who was very instrumental in my career development. I will never forget attending my first CoSIDA Convention in San Diego and looking for a full-time job at the Job Seekers session in 2001. I would encourage younger people in our profession to attend our convention and soak in all of the knowledge they can from seminars, workshops and meeting and networking with veterans in our profession.
 
What is the biggest challenge you face working in sports, and in particular, athletics communications, being one of the few female head SIDs at an NCAA Division I institution?
 
Navor: I believe all SIDs, male and female, face challenges in college athletics, because our profession is very misunderstood and undervalued at times. We are an essential component to the operations of an athletics department, because we work with every department within the department and every sports team, every coach and every student-athlete. While our main focus and mission is to promote our program, coaches and student-athletes, sometimes we do not promote ourselves enough of how important our role is. We are the front line of our program and university, and while we may not generate physical dollars, we generate publicity dollars that can’t always be seen in comparison.

I appreciate our organization promoting a CoSIDA Recognition Week, because there are a lot of great SIDs out there that need to be recognized. Many are doing great work for their colleges and universities behind-the-scenes and across all divisions. I can tell you this, the joy I get from attending a CoSIDA Convention is because of one reason – it is the one place I know that people truly understand me and what I do and vice versa.

We continue to make strides for advancement. We need more former SIDs like (Florida AD) Scott Strickland’s in the administration ranks. As far as being a woman in this profession, we continue to inch closer to obtaining director positions, but I would like to see more women at the Power 5 level like Shelly Poe at Auburn and Bernadette Cafarelli formerly at Notre Dame (now American Athletic Conference). Those are the women, along with Tammy Boclair at Vanderbilt, Chris Anderson at Nebraska, Debby Jennings at Tennessee and Barb Kowal at Texas, who made me believe I could do the same.
 
Q: Can you share a networking tip you’ve learned?
 
Navor: If you’re attending a CoSIDA Convention don’t hangout with the same people every day of the convention. Venture off from your group and sit down at a table where you don’t know anyone and introduce yourself. Now that our conventions are combined with NACDA, NACMA, etc., there are more opportunities to network with more people in different fields. Get out of your comfort zone and be social, but professional. Get involved with groups like Young CoSIDA, AWESOME, FAME, etc. Volunteer at different NCAA events around the country or in your area. If you live in a city with pro sports teams, reach out and volunteer with those franchises.

Expand your network to outside of collegiate athletics by volunteering in your community and getting people to come to your games. Be an ambassador for your school or organization at all times.
 
Q: What is a cause/group you support?  

 
Navor: The #ChadEffect and Chad’s Hope – an extension of Charleston Hope – is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to serving Charleston’s lowest-resourced Title 1 schools. The organization seeks to inspire students, support teachers and empower schools and communities through relationships, resources and opportunities. Co-founder Emily Hoisington is a College of Charleston graduate and the girlfriend of Chad Cooke, who was one of my men’s basketball student-athletes, who passed away on Dec. 23, 2014.

Back in the summer of 2013, I served on a mission trip to Haiti with Chad and his fellow teammates through Seacoast Church and the 410 Bridge organization. The people of Haiti weren’t the only people he touched in his young life. He left a lasting impact on others including myself to do more good in this world, live life intentionally and be more involved within our communities.

Charleston Hope annually hosts an Adopt-A-Classroom program and a Christmas gift-wrapping party that our men’s basketball players and student-athletes take part in every year in memory of Chad. Burns Elementary was one of his favorite schools to visit in the Charleston Lowcountry and every year I continue to gather and donate school supplies to the school in his memory. Donations to Charleston Hope can be made at: www.charlestonhope.com.