The University has announced the 11-person search committee that will conduct a national search for the new director of athletics.
Associate Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and Comparative Literature Luiz Valente Ph.D. '83 will head the committee. Valente currently is the chair of the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. He has served as the faculty advisor for the men's ice hockey team since 1990 and is a member of the executive committee of the Brown Hockey Association.
Valente has experience heading search committees; last year he chaired the search for the new vice president for campus life and student services.
"The idea of the committee is that it is representative of various constituencies: coaching staff, student body, faculty and alumni," Valente said.
The previous athletic director, Dave Roach, left Brown this summer for the equivalent position at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. Joan Taylor, senior associate athletic director, is serving as the interim director.
In addition to Valente, the committee is composed of Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Faculty Committee on Athletics and Physical Education Nancy Barnett, Graduate Student Representative on the Faculty Committee on Athletics Bethany Bradley GS, co-chairs of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee Will Burroughs '05 and Elvina Kung '05, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Huidekoper, Advisory Council on Athletics Chair Kevin Mundt '76, Women's Hockey Head Coach Digit Murphy, Men's soccer Head Coach Mike Noonan and Ken O'Keefe '76, president of the Brown Sports Foundation board of directors and University trustee.
The committee will be working with Baker Parker and Associates, Inc., an Atlanta-based executive search firm that Valente said will assist in identifying and providing profiles of candidates. Greene and Valente will meet with representatives of the firm today, Valente said.
"It is not a just a director of varsity sports, but athletics and physical education," Valente said. "We need to take into account intramurals, club sports and physical education."
The committee will meet next week, and Valente said he hopes to recommend a candidate by the winter.
