Douglas Bakker
Visit the Masters of Arts in Sports Administration faculty page to read Bakker's full bio.
Leslie Cervantes McGreevy
Email Leslie Cervantes McGreevy
Currently teaching:
Introduction to Sports Analytics
Leslie is currently the Director of Analytics Operations at Excel Sports Management. She has 7+ years of experience in the Sports Industry and has an extensive background in working and finding insights with large data sets. She also works heavily with Fortune 500 companies, global media organizations, and major professional sports properties in analyzing cross-channel valuation of sponsorships.
Leslie is on the DEI advisory board for Excel Sports Management. She is also on the Committee for WISE Chicago(Women In Sports and Entertainment).
Leslie earned a Masters in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University in 2012. She also successfully ran her own health care business for 10 years and sold it in 2017. On top of selling her own company, Leslie also has 15+ years in Business Development background. Lastly, she was an integral piece in the acquisition of Block Six Analytics.
Brice Clinton is a senior sales engineer for CSG International, a global interactive media company. He is responsible for international business development, technical evangelism, and translating technical capabilities into tangible business outcomes. In addition, Clinton serves asthe primary media liaison through writing and speaking. Since joining CSG International he has been responsible for client engagements across media, sports, and retail in North American, Europe, Asia, India, and Australia. Clinton received a bachelor of the arts in Organizational Communication from Purdue University, and a master’s degree in Sports Administration from Northwestern University.
Adam Cook is an experienced program director and educator whose career has spanned a wide range of roles from strength and conditioning, collegiate coaching, and international program coordination. With work in more than 20 countries across North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa, Cook has gained extensive experience in developing sport programs and initiatives within an international context. This has afforded him unique insight into the growing impact of sport on a global scale with first-hand experience from the highest levels of competition down to local community development initiatives. As part of his passion for growing global opportunities, Cook has developed curriculum for cross-cultural communication that has been used in training program participants in more than 40 different countries.
In addition, Cook has been an adjunct faculty member at California Baptist University teaching a variety of courses in sport, recreation, and fitness. Cook received his B.S. and M.S. in Kinesiology from California Baptist University.
David DeVries
David DeVries is a marketing manager and public relations professional with more than 15 years of experience. He now is a marketing manager at NAVTEQ, the world’s leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data-enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising. DeVries was national sports marketing public relations manager at Sprint, supporting the company’s NFL, NHL and venue sponsorships. He has been an adjunct faculty member for DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago since 2004, teaching a variety of public relations courses. His paper, “Defining the characteristics of a lingering crisis: lessons from the National Zoo,” which examined the emergence of a new crisis communication category defined as the “lingering crisis,” was published by Public Relations Review. He has a master’s degree in public relations and advertising from DePaul University.
Adam Grossman is the Founder and President of the sports marketing and sponsorship firm Block Six Analytics (B6A). His company focuses on how to apply quantitative approaches and technology to help sports organizations grow revenues and better engage with target audiences. His company's clients have included the Minnesota Timberwolves, SMG @ Soldier Field, the Washington Capitals, the Minnesota United FC, and the University of Hartford. He launched this business after working as a marketing analyst for the Washington Capitals and while receiving his Master of Business Administration degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2010. Adam is also the co-author of The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High Performance Industry published by Oxford University Press in 2015. He has also published pieces for the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and The Washington Post. Adam completed his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University where he both was a goalkeeper for the men's varsity soccer team and a sports reporter for The Daily Northwestern.
Ben Gutman
Ben Gutman joined DePaul University as Assistant Director of Athletic Academic Advising in July of 2016. His main duties include advising the Men's Basketball and Women's Tennis teams as well as being the director of the tutoring program. Ben is also responsible for staffing and management of more than 40 student and part time employees in the AAA. His advising and tutoring work helps to ensure that all student-athletes at DePaul are able to maximize their student-athlete experience using resources provided by AAA, the university as a whole, and opportunities within the city of Chicago. Ben created and continues to grow DePaul Athletics Service Immersion Trip and Program. Each year, student-athletes apply and are selected to go on a trip to learn and serve in communities throughout Central America and the Caribbean. The program continues back on campus as the trip participants are charged with service leadership in providing opportunities for all DePaul student-athletes to get involved in the Chicago community. Ben also works directly with other tutoring programs on campus and he serves on the DePaul Athletics Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee as the chair of the education subcommittee and DePaul's Student-Affairs Division Assessment Committee.
Prior to working at DePaul, Ben worked as a teacher and coach at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV for nine years. He attended the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Puget Sound as a baseball student-athlete. He also obtained his Master's in Sports Administration at Northwestern University and his MBA in Finance and Sports Management from DePaul University.
Kristin Kane Herbison
Kristin Kane Herbison joined the MSA faculty in the spring of 2021. Kane Herbison has spent all of her career in college athletics and higher education. Most recently, Kane served as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Academic Services and Student Development at Northwestern from the spring of 2013 to the fall of 2021. In that role, she oversaw operations of the department's academic services and student development programs, managing a team of seven full-time staff members and an intern. The Academic Services and Student Development office works to ensure that student-athletes on all 19 of Northwestern's varsity teams receive a full range of support in academic advising, time management, and life skills, goal setting, financial aid, and various other academic and developmental services needed in their pursuit of excellence on and off the field. Kane served as the main liaison from the athletics department to the academic community on campus and served on the university’s Undergraduate Council. Kane was also a member of the Department of Athletics and Recreation’s senior staff and worked as a sports administrator for the cross country and women’s tennis programs.
Prior to joining Northwestern, Kane worked at the University of Illinois for 15 years, most recently as Director of Academic Services where she managed 12 full-time counselors and two graduate assistants. She started her career as a graduate assistant in 1999 at Illinois' Irwin Academic Center before being hired as a full-time academic counselor in 2001. Throughout her time at Illinois, she had various duties including oversight of study hall and tutor programming for all teams as well as academic counseling for a variety of sports including cross country and track, softball, gymnastics, football, and men's basketball. Before her promotion to director of academic services, Kane spent eight years as the lead academic counselor for the Illinois football program.
Kane Herbison graduated magna cum laude with double majors in sociology and physical education from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1998, where she was a member of the women’s basketball team. She obtained her master's degree in kinesiology in 2001 from Illinois, where she also worked as a teaching assistant for the Department of Kinesiology.
Kieran Kelliher
Kieran Kelliher leads the finance and retail operations of the Chicago Bulls, the business operations of the Windy City Bulls G League franchise, and is the Treasurer of Chicago Bulls Charities; he is also a member of the NBA’s Risk Management Advisory Council, and previously the NBA All-Star 2020 operating committee.
Kieran serves on the faculty of Northwestern University as an Adjunct Lecturer, teaching "Sports Business: Finance, Accounting & Economics" for the Master’s in Sports Administration program, and is co-chair of the program’s admissions committee.
A licensed CPA in the state of Illinois and a member of the AICPA and Illinois CPA Society, Kieran graduated with Bachelors in both Accounting and Corporate Finance and a Masters in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In his previous role as a Senior Manager in Deloitte's Chicago audit practice, Kieran supported clients across a broad range of industries, including construction, retail & distribution, professional sports entertainment, and software & emerging technology clients. Kieran also participated in Deloitte’s national advisory council on private client matters, as well as local office committees focusing on talent performance reviews and internal technology/software projects.
Kieran is also serving on the national board of directors, the executive committee, and the local Chicago council for Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). FMSC's approach is simple: children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children; the meals are sent to approximately 70 countries each year where they are used to operate orphanages, schools, clinics, and other building blocks of healthy communities.
Alex Kerr, Head of Strategy & Operations at Shop Your Way, brings a blend of quantitative, strategy, and marketing expertise to his present role. In his current role at Shop Your Way, Alex oversees four major marketing departments, including Marketing Strategy (product, partner, and program strategy), Growth Marketing (social media, influencer & networks, local activations, digital communities, behavioral science/ gamification), Brand, and Business Intelligence (strategy & research, data analytics & reporting). As Head of Strategy & Operations, Alex launched marketing campaigns for his organization contributing to annual point issuances of over $193M, and over $1B in total sales.
Prior to joining Shop Your Way, Alex helped build both a marketing analytics and business intelligence department at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the largest integrated sports and entertainment company in the country – owns and operates the NHL Capitals, NBA Wizards, WNBA Mystics, AFL Valor, AFL Brigade, eSports Team Liquid, Capital One Arena, EagleBank Arena, Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
Alex earned a B.A. in Economics from Kenyon College and an M.B.A. from Duke University’s, The Fuqua School of Business. It was there he discovered the importance of effectively building teams and operational efficiencies.
Scott Kirkpatrick
Scott Kirkpatrick, currently of Chicago Sports & Entertainment Partners, has more than 20 years of experience in the sports marketing industry. He was a senior vice president and director of Hill & Knowlton’s sports marketing practice, where he worked with Allstate, NASCAR and BCS sponsorships; the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid; the Pittsburgh Pirates; the Tampa Bay Rays; Allianz; Adidas; and others. Prior to joining H&K, Scott was at Draft Worldwide and at Kemper Sports Marketing, where he worked on major golf tournaments, built a premier college basketball tournament and developed sports marketing programs for NutraSweet, Equal Sweetener, Fresh Look Contact Lenses, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Frontier Communications and Glenlivet. Kirkpatrick earned his MBA at Northwestern.
LaKeisha Marsh
LaKeisha Marsh, a partner at Akerman, LLP. serves as the chair of Akerman’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Practice Group, leading a bipartisan team of professionals providing strategic counsel on policy and regulatory issues in the United States. With a comprehensive legal background serving the higher education sector, including as an NCAA staff member, LaKeisha also serves as the chair of Akerman's Higher Education and Collegiate Athletics Practice. She represents colleges, universities, and related institutions on federal and state regulatory compliance, accreditation, state licensure, institutional governance, and collegiate sports and NCAA compliance-related matters. She has structured and executed a broad range of transactional, restructuring, finance, and corporate governance matters for educational institutions. She holds numerous leadership positions at the firm, including a member of the firm's Board of Directors and Co-Chair of its Women Initiative Network. LaKeisha received her Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University and her law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Kurt Melcher
Kurt Melcher is the Executive Director of Esports at Intersport and Robert Morris University in Chicago, IL. For nearly two years, Kurt and the Intersport Esports Group have served as the NCAA’s strategic esports advisor, leading the governing body’s research of the collegiate esports community and developing frameworks for how esports could be incorporated into the NCAA model. Additionally, Kurt and the Intersport team work with NCAA member conferences to develop esports programming as well as individual universities to build their competitive esports programs, including areas such as administrative staffing and player recruitment, facility design and co-curricular initiatives.
Melcher’s work for the Intersport Esports Group delivers bold marketing solutions, business strategy, investment intelligence and original production services to brands, publishers, leagues, teams, universities and investors. The Intersport Esports Group is the driving force behind notable work for clients that include the NCAA, Warner Bros., Rocket Mortgage, Samsung, Capcom, Red Bull and Kraft Heinz.
Kurt rose to prominence in 2014, when he made Robert Morris University the first college to recognize esports as part of the athletic department and offer athletic scholarships to gamers, helping legitimize the world of collegiate esports. An athletic administrator and coach for more than 15 years, Melcher recognized the core educational elements involved in traditional sports and believes the same holds true in esports.
Kurt’s visionary program has been highlighted in a number of prominent news outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, ESPN, NPR, HBO Real Sports, and in the documentary film “All Work All Play.” Kurt also became a TED speaker when he presented the TED Talk “Gamers, The Rising Star of Collegiate Athletics” in 2016.
Daniel O'Leary
Currently teaching:
Sports Public Relations and Crisis Communication
In nearly two decades, Mr. O'Leary has become an accomplished business development and integrated marketing professional, having worked for some of the industry’s leading and award winning agencies and thought leaders, including IMG, Intersport and IEG Consulting. This experience prepared him to lead the United States Polo Association’s marketing and corporate partnership interests. While there, he led a number of USPA marketing and business milestones, including an enhanced broadcast and digital distribution approach that would lay the foundation for USPA's Global Polo VOB network. He also established an enhanced and measurable social media presence, refined brand strategy, more impactful PR and communications outreach, and developed a successful foundation for its sponsorship program. In 2017, Mr. O'Leary founded Laoghaire Partners. A parent organization that manages a portfolio of sports marketing, event properties and humanitarian businesses that emulate the Founder's passion work. This led to the creation of Outside The Boards™. An agency dedicated to the advancement of polo through insights, trends and consulting. After five years, Mr. O’Leary is involved with the sport at every level. He oversees the historic Oak Brook Polo Club and is chairman of the Chicago Polo Association, hosts an industry podcast, represents the commercial and marketing interests of some of the world’s top polo players as well as other forthcoming projects. Mr. O’Leary resides in Park Ridge, Illinois with his wife Taylor and two kids Kennedy and Finnegan.
Drew Russell is the vice president of sports properties at Intersport – an industry leading sports and entertainment marketing company based in Chicago. He possesses more than 16 years of experience in property development, sponsorship and event marketing. He is currently responsible for overseeing the growth and development of Intersport’s Sports Properties Division which features seven premier owned-and-operated events that are televised nationally. Russell is tasked with managing the strategic direction of the entire division and a staff that oversees corporate sales and marketing, ticketing, event operations, broadcast operations and communications. He was recently named to Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Class of 2013 honoring the most promising young executives in sports business under the age of 40. Prior to joining Intersport in 2008, Russell spent more than eight years in the experiential marketing division of WPP’s Wunderman, managing the sponsorship marketing portfolios of client’s like Sears Holdings and Goodyear. Russell began his career in the programming department at ESPN in Bristol, CN. He is a 1996 graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a 2011 graduate of Northwestern University’s Masters in Sports Administration program.
Chris Russo is a recognized industry leader and innovator in digital sports media and technology. He currently serves as a Managing Director at investment bank Houlihan Lokey, focusing on sports and media transactions. Prior to Houlihan Lokey, Russo served as Senior Vice President, New Media and Publishing, for the National Football League. In that role, he had broad P&L responsibility for the digital media and publishing business units and oversaw all day-to-day operations, including content, advertising sales, marketing, and business development. Russo began his media career in television, first serving as Vice President, Marketing for NBC and later as Executive Vice President, Franchise Programming & Marketing for Time Warner's New Line Television. Russo is a member of the SportsBusiness Journal 40 under 40 Hall of Fame. He received his B.A. from Northwestern University and his M.B.A. from Harvard University.