Keshia Campbell Will Become Hampton’s First Female Athletic Director

When Keshia Campbell took the job of athletic director at Hampton this week, she joined a small, privileged class of women. She became one of six women to lead NCAA Division I athletic programs.

When she takes the reins of the Pirates, she will be one of three female athletic directors in

the Mideastern Athletic Conference, along with Charlene Johnson at South Carolina State and Dr. Ingrid Wicker-McCree at North Carolina Central. Unfortunately, Campbell is also the numerical replacement for Marilyn Suggs, who was mysteriously let go from Savannah State last week.

The other Division I female AD’s at predominantly or historically black colleges and universities are Betty Kelly Austin (Alabama A&M), Teresa Phillips (Tennessee State) and Sonja Clayton-Pederson (Chicago State).

Overall, female athletic directors are a premium in the entire NCAA Division I, occupying a mere 9.5 percent of the spots (33 of 347 programs, as of March 2010). For the 120 Division I schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the percentage is four (5 of 120), as of March 2011.

[list type=”clip”] [li] Full article at: Black College Sports Examiner [/li] [/list]