College Sports Information Directors of America

Related Content
• 2021 Special Awards Announcements and Features
• #CoSIDA21 Virtual Convention Home
• Past 25-Year Award Recipients

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Liza David – UCLA, Assistant Athletic Director, Athletic Communications

CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Barb Kowal – CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Affairs

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. This spring, she is honored with a CoSIDA 25-Year Award for her long-time service and commitment to the athletic communications profession – at one institution.

David moved through the SID ranks as an intern, assistant SID, director of new media, athletic communications director before assuming her current Assistant AD of Athletic Communications position. Now, she oversees seven full-time staff members while serving as the main contact for the women’s gymnastics and women’s soccer teams.
 

During our 2021 CoSIDA Recognition Week, Liza was one of the members spotlighted with a feature story and a photo gallery. To read the February Q&A where David discussed her career path, thoughts on diversity, equity and inclusion in college sports leadership roles, her favorite UCLA moments, and much more, please click here.

Recently, we caught back up with her to ask a few other questions about her 25-Year Award, and she offers those answers below. 

In another update, David was recognized on April 17 by College Gym News as the Sports Information Director of the Year for the 2021 NCAA Gymnastics season. In making the announcement, the media outlet noted “UCLA’s Liza David goes the extra mile every single week when it comes to providing access to her team. She not only kills the social media game (how many floor routines went viral this year?!), but she is responsive and forthcoming with information as well, making our jobs easier.”

This is just the recent of many honors and significant achievements for David in her quarter century of service to UCLA. Here are more of her thoughts. When UCLA posted this announcement on its Twitter account, David said she was “shocked” the tweet got over 25 retweets and 300 likes, and noted “I think it says a lot about the UCLA Gymnastics brand, but it’s also nice to see that people do have appreciation for SIDs!”

In a quick review of your quarter-century of service in athletic communications, who are people who have had the most influence on you? 
I’ve learned a lot from everyone I’ve worked with through the years. I was fortunate to basically grow up in an office with long-time respected SIDs like Marc Dellins, Bill Bennett, Steve Rourke, and Rich Bertolucci. And across town, Tim Tessalone at USC is a legend and always shows everyone how to do things first-class. But the person who really had the most influence on me is my mom. She is a retired colonel and doctor in the Air Force and taught me a long time ago that women can do anything and be a leader in a male-dominated field.

What has kept you going, persevering and continuing in your athletic communications career all these years?
What keeps me going are the people. The student-athletes and coaches – you get so invested in how they do and want to do whatever you can to help them succeed, whether it’s telling or sharing their stories, or elevating their social media footprint, or even writing a kick-*** nomination that helps them win an award. There’s so much satisfaction in sharing their successes. And I’ll be honest, I’m almost as competitive as the student-athletes are, so it’s easy for me to stay motivated.