College Sports Information Directors of America

"Don't be afraid to learn something new or outside of your job scope. The more skills you have in your arsenal, the more valuable you become.

 Female SIDs tend to get typecast as a women's sport SID, and I don't think that's fair. I give a lot of credit to all of the female football and men's basketball SIDs who had to work extra hard just to be given the chance to do those sports.

With regards to opportunities for minorities, I think that right now is a prime opportunity for minority voices to break through. Not only are minorities becoming more empowered, but people are finally starting to listen. And who better to tell these stories properly than those who can naturally relate?"
- Liza David, UCLA Assistant AD, Communications

 
Liza David has known one university since her undergraduate days as a communications studies major – UCLA. She has been a fixture in UCLA Athletics since 1993 when she began her athletic communications career as a volunteer student assistant. Moving through the SID ranks as an intern, assistant SID, director of new media, athletic communications director, she is now Assistant AD of Athletic Communications, overseeing seven full-time staff members while serving as the main contact for the women's gymnastics and women's soccer teams.

In the Q&A, see more about David's career path, her thoughts on diversity, equity and inclusion in college sports leadership roles, her favorite UCLA moments, and much more.

 

In a Tweet-length of 280 characters or less, tell us who you are and how you got to where you are today.
LD: I'm a lifelong Bruin and sports fan who is living the dream as the Athletic Communications Director at my alma mater. A short stint with the Daily Bruin clued me in to what an SID is, and when an opportunity to be a student volunteer came up, I took it, and the rest is history.

Your entire adult life – as an undergraduate and then as a professional – has been spent at UCLA. Talk about the unusual path of remaining at your alma mater.
LD: When you live in Southern California, you're either a UCLA person or a USC person. I moved to SoCal when I was in the 4^th grade, and being a sports fan, I took an immediate liking to UCLA. The football team was in the Rose Bowl in 1983 and 1984. Reggie Miller was on the basketball team. The 1984 men's gymnastics Olympic team – half of them were Bruins. There was never any other college I wanted to attend. I got in, but I was pretty devastated when I was only a Winter (spring semester) admit - partially because I would miss football season. I more than made up for it throughout the rest of my life, but still …

When I finally got to UCLA Winter 1992, I explored being a reporter for the student paper the Daily Bruin. The editors told me, "Ok, you are covering golf; go talk to the SID." That was more or less the extent of their mentoring, but I'm grateful for that because I learned a lot from the SID. And when the SID office put a call-out in the Daily Bruin for a volunteer student assistant my sophomore year, I jumped at it.

I owe a lot to my former boss Marc Dellins. He really took a chance on allowing me to volunteer while still writing for the Daily Bruin. Note: I would never have allowed that. But I think he must have known where my heart was, and not long after, I stopped working at the Daily Bruin and focused on sports information. I started out just clipping newspapers, answering phones and filing. Standard office work, but I really enjoyed it. Clipping newspapers gave me the opportunity to read up on all the different sports. Passing out stats or being a photo marshal at basketball games put me up close to the action.

I volunteered at as many games as I could, and as I had some desktop publishing experience, I redesigned some of the media guides. By my junior year, I was assigned to be the sport SID for cross country and men's gymnastics. Senior year, I was assigned to men's soccer and men's and women's tennis. As a student, I had the privilege of working with Hall of Fame coaches like Bob Larsen, Art Shurlock, and the late, great Sigi Schmid. I also worked with future Olympians and World Cup players.

Tell us how you've evolved as a professional along the way and advocated to create a Director of New Media position in 2011 – which you took on.
LD: It's crazy to think that I've spent my entire adult life in the UCLA SID office. I worked my way up from a volunteer student who clipped news articles to being a sport SID for cross country and men's gymnastics. My senior year was a dream. Our basketball team won the NCAA Championship. Our football team beat USC for the fourth-straight year. The teams I worked directly with had huge success. I was offered a full-time internship after I graduated and the following year, one of our full-timers left, opening up a spot for me. I didn't have the requisite full-time experience, but Marc Dellins wanted to keep me on, and I'm forever grateful for that because there was no other place I wanted to be than UCLA.

Around the time social media first came into play, I started planting seeds that we should have someone in charge of that, and eventually they created the Director of New Media position and asked me to take that on. Initially, they didn't want me to do any sports, but I insisted. One of the most rewarding things about the job is working with our great student-athletes and coaches, and I knew that this new role would have had much less direct connections with our teams. So I was handling our social media, our website and two sports, and later, I also became interim Sports Information Director. I focused on just being an SID after administration decided to put more resources into having a dedicated social media team, and then we later added a video content team. The creative content team we have now is incredible, and I'm so happy that UCLA decided to prioritize that area. 

You are one of the very few head female SIDs at a NCAA Division I school, particularly at the Power 5 level. Additionally, as Filipino-Americans, you and Marlene Navor (College of Charleston) hold the distinction of being D1 leaders in your respective SID departments as the only Filipino-Americans to hold those positions.
LD: I'm really proud of the fact that I am one of the few female head SIDs in the Power 5 and one of just two Filipino-Americans, I believe, to hold the position of head SID. Marlene and I talked about this recently and lamented the fact that we couldn't really think of too many other Asian head SIDs, let alone any Asian females. Shout out to (San Jose State's and CoSIDA Hall of Famer) Lawrence Fan for being a pioneer for us Asian-Americans, and to recently retired Liz Abel (of Utah), among others, for paving the way for us women!
 

What are some of the challenges you've faced – and seen – along the way as an ethnic minority female and leader in college athletics? Talk about some of the opportunities – and obstacles - you also see for ethnic minorities in college sports, particularly in athletic communications.
LD: I think particularly for Asian women, there's a stereotype of being quiet and docile, and we also tend to look younger than we are, which all contributes to not always being taken seriously as an authoritative figure. And women in sports – or women in general, actually – tend to get mansplained, which I absolutely hate.

Extra challenging for me is the fact that I'm not the SID for football or men's basketball. I would guarantee that if we didn't have our job titles on the staff directory, most people would look at the sport assignments and would choose me as one of the last to call looking for the head SID.

Ignoring the fact that the two sports I cover currently are women's sports, female SIDs tend to get typecast as a women's sport SID, and I don't think that's fair. I give a lot of credit to all of the female football and men's basketball SIDs who had to work extra hard just to be given the chance to do those sports.

With regards to opportunities for minorities, I think that right now is a prime opportunity for minority voices to break through. Not only are minorities becoming more empowered, but people are finally starting to listen. And who better to tell these stories properly than those who can naturally relate?

The majority of SIDs are white men. I think for our CoSIDA organization, it's important to do more recruiting, cultivating and mentoring and keep minorities in this field, especially given how many minorities participate in collegiate athletics.  

What's the project(s) or campaign(s) that you're proudest of as a professional? Why?
LD: It's not necessarily a campaign or project, but I'm very proud of the fact that we've had six consecutive years of a UCLA gymnast going viral - including two in 2021. As Olympic sport SIDs, we are always striving for good exposure for our student-athletes. Getting six different gymnasts – none of who were on the Olympic team - as guests on nationally-televised shows is a blessing. Additionally, four of our gymnasts graced the digital cover of Essence Girls United, and they will be featured in the upcoming print edition of Essence magazine. What an amazing experience for those student-athletes!    

Your bio indicates the UCLA women's gymnastics Instagram social media following has the second-most followers of any women's sports team in the USA, only to the US Women's Soccer National Team. Is this still true? What type of content / engagement has contributed to this?
LD: As far as I know, that is still correct. We are fortunate to have the best in the business as our team videographer. Deanna Hong is a masterful storyteller, and everyone on the team trusts her implicitly, which allows them to open up and tell their story and share their vulnerability. This past year, she took on a monumental task of filming and editing a docuseries, called "The New Era", which we released episodes of on YouTube during the year. The team also has a weekly interview series, Bruin Banter, which introduces our team members to the audience.

I think that what makes so many people want to follow the team is our student-athletes' accessibility and the fact that they are fearless and not afraid at all to show personality. They have fun in competition and in practice, which makes it really easy to come up with fun and engaging content to push out in real-time. And of course, a lot of them come in with built-in audiences, as many of them were Olympians or national team members.
 

 
Might be an tough question, but since you worked with 14 different UCLA teams during your tenure and been a part of 10 NCAA national titles, what are some of your best career moments?
LD: Being here for a program's first-ever championship is probably the most special. I was fortunate enough to be with gymnastics in 1997, women's soccer in 2013, and with baseball in 2013 (as a secondary SID). The most thrilling championship was definitely the 2018 NCAA Gymnastics Championship. We seemingly had no shot, and I even laughed at Phil Pierce, the NCAA media coordinator, at the midway point when he went around telling all the SIDs about post-meet procedures. And then our team went lights out the last two rotations and won it on a perfect 10 on beam on the final routine.   

What did you/do you miss the most about college athletics during the pandemic?
LD: I missed games. I missed seeing people on a regular basis. One thing I did not miss, though, was the commute and the traffic! ?

What did your 15 year-old self imagine you'd be doing right now?
LD: I wanted to be a sportswriter covering the California Angels. And I think they should go back to that name!

What's the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn't learn from your resume alone or something you'd like people to know about you?
LD: Music is my second love after sports. I began playing the piano when I was two years old. One of my childhood dreams was to be a keyboardist for a pop band. Haha. Prior to the pandemic, going to concerts was one of my absolute favorite things to do. I once went to something like 75 shows in one year alone. I say now that I probably won't go to many concerts when things open up again, but I bet I won't be able to stay away too long.