College Sports Information Directors of America

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• 2021 Special Awards Announcements and Features
• #CoSIDA21 Virtual Convention Home
• Past Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award Recipients

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Jessica Poole – Chicago State University, Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations and Revenue Generation/Senior Woman Administrator

Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award
Presented annually to an individual who is a pioneer in the field of sports information who has mentored and helped improve the level of ethnic and gender diversity within CoSIDA. Voted on by the Special Awards Committee.

by Shelly Poe – Auburn, Assistant AD for Communications / Past CoSIDA President and 2012 CoSIDA Trailblazer Award recipient

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jessica Poole may be the 2021 winner of CoSIDA’s Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award, but this talented professional has been blazing trails much of her life.

The senior associate athletics director for external operations/revenue generation at Chicago State is being recognized by her peers as a pioneer who has mentored and helped improve the level of ethnic and gender diversity and inclusion within CoSIDA. But Poole, a member of CoSIDA’s executive board of directors who will serve as the organization’s president, the first Black female to do so, during the 2022-23 school year, considers trailblazing a duty as well as an honor.

“For me, the word responsibility keeps hitting me — I will be the first to do something and I want to make sure that I’m not the last to do it,” the Missouri graduate and new mom says. “I think there’s a responsibility and a heaviness to it and I think I’ve welcomed that my entire career.

“This award is a little bit different because it’s so visible and on a national scale. I think that is awesome but there’s also a responsibility; I have to make sure that I’m doing it in a way that makes other people want to follow in my footsteps.

“You can only be a trailblazer if people want to come behind you. If people don’t want to come behind you, then you’re just the next person in line. I won’t feel like I’m a trailblazer until there’s somebody else in the officer rotation, somebody else who throws their name into the hat.”
 

Poole, who has worked at a diverse list of institutions including Dartmouth, Denver, Florida Atlantic, Michigan, Ole Miss, UNC Greensboro and Vanderbilt along with the ATP Tour before coming to Chicago State in January, 2020, considered a different career path growing up in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“I wanted to be a lawyer. I thought I was going to journalism school at Missouri to become a really good writer because I was going to need to be a really good writer to go to law school,” Poole remembers. “But I knew after working a year in the sports information office that I was destined to work in college athletics. Chad Moeller and his crew drew me in and I fell in love with being able to write and write about sports and being around really talented people.”

Really talented people are whom Poole considers trailblazers.

“A trailblazer for me is April Emory (former CoSIDA Board member). Any time I talk about being in this position, it would not be possible without April having served on the Board, because I would have never known it was possible,” Poole explains. “Seeing April up there hit in a very different way for me and my goal in my presidential year is to make sure that I’ve done her proud. Without her, I don’t know that I would have ever taken the leap, thinking I can do this, I can make a difference.

“Another trailblazer to me in college athletics would be Langston Rogers (CoSIDA Hall of Famer and former president), who is just a voice of reason for me. I don’t have to talk to Langston every single day, but when I do, he shows up in ways that matter. Langston was at Ole Miss when I was there, but he was never my boss; he was always my sounding board and will continue to be. He gave me the confidence that I could do anything.

“And funny, because it ties back into law — Ruth Bader Ginsberg — what would RBG do? She is a role model in so many ways, somebody that excelled in a male-dominated field, somebody that doesn’t take no for an answer, who is very thoughtful and really did the work to explain why she had a differing opinion. Show why your opinion is valid and fight for your opinion. It may not always be the resounding opinion, but if you feel strongly about it and have the evidence to back it up, that’s good enough.”

Through her campus achievements and her many contributions to CoSIDA, Poole has displayed her own strong convictions.

“I’m really, really proud of our CoSIDA Diversity and Inclusion Committee. It was my first child. I’m grateful to Andy (Seeley) for asking me to head it up and it’s been a labor of love,” Poole says of the group she has chaired since its 2017 inception.

“I think our committee is truly leading the way in college athletics. It’s not always been easy — there have been a lot of difficult conversations within the committee and sometimes outside of it given the fact that our profession is so white-male dominated, yet I feel like our committee has propelled the organization forward and through those conversations we have made a difference.

“Becoming the first Black female to lead our organization will be a pinnacle for me. I’m really excited about being able to represent in that way; it’s humbling but gives me goosebumps. There are so few Black women, not just in sports information but in college athletics, and to be able to spearhead the largest NACDA affiliate group, it’s going to mean something. We may not see the impact for years, but we will see it. It’s something I don’t take lightly.

“And I am a single mom, and that’s a driving force for me,” Poole says proudly. “I want William to know that his mom might not have it together every minute of the day, but some days she has it together and I think it will be really important for him to know that his mom can do all things.

“I want to work with women leaders and moms in coaching to hone in and start those conversations so we can all work together. That’s something I’m super passionate about with my own little guy, but I think now’s the time and there’s an eye on this topic.”

An eye toward what’s possible and the energy to enact change are hallmarks of Jessica Poole’s impressive career.

The trailblazer is straightforward about who she is. 

“I am and what I stand for: I’m passionate about CoSIDA, I’m passionate about women in college athletics and I’m passionate about being a mama. I’m no better than anybody else, but I’m passionate.”