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Doug Vance – CoSIDA, Executive Director

CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award

Devotion to people and a talent for relationships mark CoSIDA Executive Director Doug Vance’s lifetime of achievements

by Laurie Bollig – CoSIDA, Director of Membership Engagement

“We would never in our lifetime have a better boss.”

To understand what a lifetime of achievements look like, you need only look at the people whose lives have intersected with Doug Vance during his four-decade career in college athletics communication. From student assistants and conference peers to interns and full-timers, Vance’s trajectory started modestly enough in his home state of Kentucky and has reached a pinnacle as the face of a 3,000-member national association.

CoSIDA Hall of Famer and Louisville senior associate director of athletics Kenny Klein may be the original transfer portal product. As a college student, he transferred from Austin Peay to Murray State to follow his sports information director - none other than Vance.

“I was working for the campus newspaper as a freshman pre-med student at Austin Peay and asked Doug if I could help with football. By the spring, he had me handling baseball and talked me into transferring to Murray State when he moved to that position. We shared an office initially there, basically allowing me to set up on the back portion of his desk, until we moved to new offices.

“I’d say the basics of everything I do, I learned from Doug, as I considered myself more of an apprentice than a college student under him when I decided sports information was the direction I wanted to go. Simple things like building strong relationships internally and externally.  Making sure to return phone calls as soon as possible, which are now not only calls, but texts and emails. Treating people with respect. Staying calm when others around you may not be. Have fun. Embrace new methods — while the top technology at the time was an electric typewriter, he was always looking for fresh ways to adjust what we had,” Klein said.
 

Paul Just, another CoSIDA Hall of Famer, and Vance go way back. As conference colleagues in the Ohio Valley Conference, Just promoted a Big Mac (Jim McDaniel) at Western Kentucky while Vance coined the phrase “The Fly is open. Let’s go, Peay!” for his Governors superstar Fly Williams.

“Doug and I have been great friends for more than 50 years – we have traveled together and been roommates at annual CoSIDA meetings on a number of occasions.  He is a class act – always has been and always will be! He represents the best that our profession has to offer!

“I have been a loyal member of CoSIDA for many decades and am so proud of the manner in which Doug has served our organization through the years. He has represented CoSIDA with the same loyalty and dedication that he exhibited at his previous schools as their SID – Austin Peay, Murray State and Kansas,” Just said.

Packing his family up and moving to the middle of the country meant Vance had more opportunities to impact a new generation of athletics communicators — specifically his full-time assistants Janay Haggerty and Dean Buchan.

“Doug can’t possibly imagine the countless number of people he’s had an impact on throughout his career and I’m honored to be included on that list,” Haggerty said. “The one thing Doug immediately taught me when I started working for him at the University of Kansas, and what I still try to implement each day, is that your connection and relationships with people is what matters. Of course, he encouraged everyone to do a great job, but he stressed that building that connection is what people will always remember. It’s safe to say Doug has lived by his words throughout his career.”

Buchan concurs.

“Doug Vance spoiled us all. For all the assistant SIDs, interns, secretaries and countless student assistants, we may not have realized it then, but we would never in our lifetime have a better boss. In the SID office at Kansas — and I’m sure at other places he’s worked — he created a family atmosphere by leading us with love, respect and a lot of humor, too. I am forever grateful for the opportunity he gave me.”

Vance’s short time away from the profession gave him the experience he needed in association management to return to lead CoSIDA as its second executive director, where he has worked with a rotating board of directors and nine different presidents.

“His adaptability to working with a different president every year and his guidance while letting us all be ourselves has really helped me,” current CoSIDA president Cindy Potter said.

Lifetime achievement is about connection and relationships. Doug Vance excels in both. Just ask the current staff he guides.

"Doug has helped me appreciate the balance of serving the complexities of a 3,000-member association with the personal touch to make each of our members feel they're important and valued,” Will Roleson, CoSIDA associate executive director, said.

“Doug is the definition of a compassionate leader, excelling at how to do the hard things and make hard decisions in a human way,” noted Barb Kowal, CoSIDA director of professional development and external affairs. “Doug’s biggest influence is leading by collaboration, by encouragement, and with empathy. As he did in all his positions, Doug has led CoSIDA by acknowledging, guiding, and supporting our members and staffers, while leaning on everyone’s efforts, passion, skills and insights to work together for the greater good.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the quiet self-depracating and wit-wordplay sense of humor that Doug delivers. His play on words and his puns … might be second to none! He knows exactly when to insert them into staff meetings and conversations to add some levity, too. He understands the art of communications at all levels; and that is a gift.”

“When I was graduating college and applying for internships, my number one priority was to work with and for the most respected person in CoSIDA who would hire me,” noted Beau White, CoSIDA director of creative services. “That person was Doug and learning from him is the best opportunity I ever could have asked for. Having worked with him at Kansas, on a freelance basis at KRPA and CoSIDA, and now being on his staff again, one thing that has always been constant is the teamwork and community that his leadership encourages. When you work with Doug, you’re much more than coworkers — you’re friends for life.”

Doug has been part of some of the most important parts of my life and my husband, Jeff’s, life. We were exceedingly blessed to work for him and have maintained a life-long friendship. 

• He was our first full-time boss.
• He supported our relationship outside work.
• He encouraged us to make career moves for our professional growth even though it meant leaving his department.

Professionalism, interpersonal skills and integrity left an impression on Jeff.

"I am fortunate to have had Doug Vance as a mentor for my entire professional work life," Bollig said. "I hate to think where I would be without his guidance and encouragement -- not only in my career, but in other aspects of my life. Doug was my first boss and I relied on him heavily to help teach me how to be a professional.  He is an outstanding teacher, clear communicator and has a collaborative focus. The qualities not only made him successful, but elevated the performance of those who worked for and with him.

In addition to his work skills, Doug is a man of great character and integrity. Watching him deal with people was of great value to me. Lastly, Doug has a wonderful sense of humor. He mixed that in his work each day, which helped to create a fun, positive and productive work environment."

As a human being, Doug models kindness, friendship and devotion. While I learned much from him about leadership and athletics communication, I learned more from watching his example as a devoted husband to Sue, father to Cory and Stuart and grandfather of eight.

That’s a lifetime of achievement!