Princeton Athletics Announces Major Departmental Reorganization

The Princeton University Department of Athletics has undergone a major structural reorganization, Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan announced today.

The reorganization seeks to streamline two critical areas within the department – advancement and external relations – and to provide the personnel and leadership needed to continue to provide the best student-athlete experience possible within today's changing landscape of college athletics. The re-organization includes shifting of responsibilities for two senior administrators; hiring of a new senior level administrator, internal promotions, addition of new positions and updated reporting lines.

"We could not be more excited about our recent reorganization as we believe that our first-rate team of professionals new and old are positioned to reach new heights and to, most importantly, continue to provide our student-athletes with the best possible experience within the changing landscape of college athletics," Marcoux Samaan said. "This re-organization is a great example of what can be achieved with teamwork, creativity and collaboration and with a firm commitment to getting better as an organization every day. I want to thank all of our internal and external partners who helped make this possible and for our team's steadfast commitment to excellence throughout the process."

Kellie Staples has moved from Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Relations to Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Advancement, and she becomes the first person in the department to have that title. In her new role, she continues to have oversight of the Princeton Varsity Club while also assuming responsibility for the Athletic Friends Groups. Kellie is working directly with Marcoux Samaan and University Advancement on strategic planning for Athletics Advancement, including helping to develop strategy on all athletics endowment funding and capital fundraising. She has direct oversight of athletics annual fundraising, which includes Athletics Friends Groups, Princeton Varsity Club and Tiger Athletics Give Day. Additionally, Staples oversees athletics alumni engagement and programming including working directly with athletic leadership volunteers and the University's Alumni Engagement team to continue to build community through athletics.

Staples' team includes Brendan Van Ackeren, who was recently promoted to Associate Director of Athletics/Advancement and the Princeton Varsity Club; Jeff Ballen, Assistant Director of Athletics/Advancement and Athletic Friends' Groups and former Princeton football player Mason Darrow '17, Assistant Manager/Athletics Advancement.

Staples, a Colgate graduate who played women's soccer for the Raiders, is in her 15th year of working at Princeton in the Department of Athletics. She has a Master's Degree in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts.

Another key component of this reorganization includes the development of a newly structured external relations team.

In order to advance a strategic, innovative and comprehensive external strategy across the department, four units will be brought together and led by new Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Relations Stacey Bunting-Thompson. Her areas of oversight at Princeton will include marketing/brand management, ticketing, athletic communications and multimedia. Bunting-Thompson will be responsible for the development and execution of all initiatives within these areas and will serve as a member of the Athletics senior leadership team.

Bunting-Thompson joins Princeton after most recently spending 10 years at The University of Delaware, where she began as a member of the University Development team before transitioning to oversight of a newly created external relations team within the Division of Athletics and Recreation. During her time on the senior leadership team at Delaware she successfully managed and grew multiple areas including brand management, ticketing, engagement, marketing, advertising, licensing, corporate relations, multimedia and communications.

Prior to her role with the Blue Hens, she served for nine years in athletics at the University of Miami (Fla.) and was a member of the senior leadership team there. She graduated from Miami with a degree in English and a minor in Sports Management and is currently pursuing her master's degree in Organizational Leadership.

Each of the four units under Bunting-Thompson at Princeton is now led by an Assistant Athletic Director. Macall Martin has been promoted into the position of Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing, while Cody Chrusciel continues in his role as Assistant Athletics Director for Multimedia. Princeton has hired Andy Granozio as the Assistant Athletics Director for Ticketing, a new position within the department, and is currently holding a national search for an Assistant AD for Communications.

Jerry Price has moved from his former position of Senior Associate Athletics Director for Communications and Multimedia into the position of Senior Communications Advisor and Department Historian. He will continue to be a member of the senior management team, and he has added responsibility as the communications contact for football to his continuing role with the lacrosse team, with whom he has worked for the last 26 years.

Among his other responsibilities, Price will be directing content development in celebration of the upcoming 50^th anniversary of women's athletics at Princeton, developing proactive media outreach and helping develop additional creative strategic communications opportunities.

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