Last Word with Julie Cromer

In the past three years, Ohio University Athletic Director Julie Cromer has been recognized by Sports Illustrated (College Football’s 25 Most Intriguing People in Suits in 2022), Women Leaders in College Sports (NCAA Division I FBS Nike Executive of the Year) and the Sports Business Journal (Game Changers) for her achievements at OHIO. Most recently, she was named the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Athletics Director of the Year for 2024, and it’s easy to see why: Under Cromer’s leadership, OHIO Athletics has flourished both on and off the field.

“I think Athens has such a unique personality and culture. It’s a special place,” Cromer says, adding that she’s most fond of the people that she gets to work and connect with through her role. Cromer’s special relationship with OHIO and its students is evident in what she has accomplished, though she knows the work is never done.

What is your favorite spot on campus?

I would say anywhere within the Athletics Department. It’s hard to pick favorites among 16 different programs.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I don’t have a lot of time outside of work, but I’m a reader. I love to travel and spend time with my family.

What is your personal relationship to sports?

I grew up in a sports family and participated in sports growing up myself. I'm married to somebody who also grew up as and continues to be a lifelong sports person. So for me, it's been embedded in every phase of my life. Particularly now, I appreciate having the opportunity to use sports as a professional platform to build leaders and communities through that shared culture.

When did you realize that you wanted to pursue a career in sports administration?

The truth is, I think it's all just an exploration. I don't know if there was one big breakthrough moment. I worked in a college athletics department as an undergrad, and that's when I first realized that there were opportunities like this. I don't think I understood the career paths in college sports before being on a campus myself.

How did your formal education—a bachelor’s degree in communications and master’s degree in policy analysis—inform your work now?

I use the communication skills every day, in crafting and in delivering messages to a variety of audiences, both internal and external. That one's a little bit more obvious, I think.

The policy analysis degree is really just decision-making with numbers and facts, and then developing applied practices connected to those data and evidence-based decisions. That’s something we do on a daily basis throughout the department and beyond.

How did your past work in sports administration prepare you for your work at OHIO?

The OHIO opportunity is really just a culmination of all the steps along the way. Unlike some others, I've only ever worked in this field and industry, so it was a pretty linear path for me. But each place is unique and different and has its own challenges. With what we're trying to do here at OHIO, I think I rely every day on an experience or skill I gained in my 25 years of career experience. 

How did serving on the Division I Transformation Committee shape your view on what college sports should be like?

That experience was really instrumental in helping me understand the critical challenges that are facing the college sports industry today. In many ways, it was a review of a lot of the regulatory changes that are happening in our industry right now. It gave me a head start to be able to think about and imagine the strategies going forward that will help us preserve the best parts of the collegiate athletics experience for our student-athletes and our communities, while also addressing the challenges at hand.

I think specifically for Ohio University, to have a seat at the table in that process and have a voice, not just for our student-athletes, but also for the student-athletes and campuses throughout the Mid-American Conference, was really a unique position of strength for us and for our conference colleagues.

What would you consider the most rewarding part of working with student-athletes?

It's the moments that happen throughout the year when our students understand that they are able to actually do the thing that they imagined or dreamed for themselves. I would say in our department, it's our student-athletes, but that extends to the students who work with us via experiential opportunities that prepare them for their careers. We have about 435 or so student-athletes in a typical year, and we add to that upwards of 200 students who are not athletes but are really embedded and engaged in our department and experiential opportunities.

What I love to do is go out to a practice and see a student-athlete meet a mark that he or she hasn't been able to meet yet, but they get it on that day. Just as enjoyable for me is to see the students who circle up at the end of a broadcast, who have been behind the cameras and in the TV production throughout our event. They're describing the things they learned and the challenges they have in a live sports production that they realize they themselves will be able to handle.

Overcoming our fear in those moments and moving toward our potential is just a really special thing, no matter what the setting is. The really cool part about my job is, I get to be around that every day.

What are you most proud of from your work as athletic director for OHIO?

The culture we’re building in athletics. We've had a lot of competitive success, and even more academic success across our student-athletes and the students who are engaged with us for experiential opportunities. Those outcomes are to be celebrated. But really, it's the culture that our people within the department are building and fostering. To me, that is what sets the stage for those successful outcomes.

You’ve already accomplished so much in your time here. What are your goals for the future?

Well, of course, we just have to keep doing more. We have to graduate more student-athletes, provide more experiential opportunities to students who want to work with sports, and continue to amplify OHIO through the positive exposure we bring to the university. You can always do more, and we want to continue to grow in that way. In a broader sense, my goal is to ensure that OHIO continues to have a voice in the direction of college athletics.

Why do you think college sports are so important, both for the student-athletes who play them and the fans who enjoy them?

For all of us, collectively, the power of sports in American culture is undeniable. To be able to use that cultural force to build leadership in young people and to bring communities together is, I think, the most powerful contribution that we can make through sports in general, but particularly through sports at the collegiate level.

Feature photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02