People don’t dedicate their entire careers to one place like they used to. And in the early 90s, it was even more uncommon for a woman to do so in intercollegiate athletics.
Lisa Kelleher has been one-of-a-kind in many of the rooms and positions she has held in her over 30 years of service to UNLV. “Perseverance over persistence” has driven her forward, she said.
Now, as she prepares for retirement for a second time, her impact will continue to be felt by students who receive the Lisa Kelleher Intercollegiate Professional Sport Management (IPSM) Legacy Scholarship.
The scholarship honors her remarkable career in UNLV Athletics and the College of Education’s IPSM program. Kelleher has been an advocate for women’s sports, helping restore NCAA volleyball at UNLV and adding women’s soccer and golf. She also played a vital role on UNLV’s Women’s Council and numerous campus committees, giving a voice to female athletes and members of the university community.
Here, she reflects on how she overcame gender stereotypes to build a career in athletics and her hopes for the IPSM program.
How did growing up in your family’s clothing and sporting goods store influence your passion for athletics?
"[The store] was where everyone gathered on Monday to rehash the previous Friday night football game. When I was put out on the sales floor to work with my brothers, I didn’t know any differently. We all worked, played basketball, softball, baseball — whatever. I was included right away."
Throughout your career, you’ve held the titles of deputy and associate athletic director, senior woman administrator (SWA), part-time instructor, and now visiting associate professor. What role shaped you the most?
“First and foremost was my role as senior woman administrator,” Kelleher said.
Within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), only four people get a seat at the table: the president, the athletic director, the faculty athletic representative, and the senior woman administrator.
“[Senior woman administrator] is kind of a misnomer and glass ceiling position because it assumes that the senior woman will never be the athletic director,” she said. “But I always teach my students, you've got to get access to the table — get in the room. So, while being a SWA may be self-limiting, it was the pivotal and beneficial role for me because I got to go to all the NCAA conventions and Mountain West Conference meetings and was even on the Football Bowl Selection Committee.”
What do you consider your proudest achievement?
“The establishment of three of our women's programs — volleyball, soccer, and golf,” she said.
In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, UNLV faced a problem. The university’s sports program numbers were unbalanced, violating Title IX compliance. Knowing that cutting back men’s programs would be a tough sell, Kelleher worked hard to advocate for new and improved opportunities for women.
“The intention was not to cut the guy's sports in half. It was to go double. Volleyball was brought back, and we added two new programs,” she explained.
This doubling up was easier said than done. Some employees in the men’s programs were worried that their money would be taken, that they would lose access to training facilities, or worse, that they'd have to share practice and playing space with women’s programs, she said.
Kelleher recounted tapping into her tactful negotiation skills and a kill-them-with-kindness strategy. “We will work it out,” she repeatedly assured them, and work it out she did.
“I worked with coaches saying, ‘If you're currently getting three hours of tee time, I'm going to ask for six. If you get $50,000 from this group, I'm not going to ask them to split it, I'm going to ask them to donate $50,000 more.’ When they asked how they were going to share a space, I said, ‘We're going to build new men's and women's practice fields.’”
The IPSM program was born out of a need to develop the next generation of professionals to lead the rapidly growing sports landscape in Las Vegas. What drew you to get involved in its continued development?
“When [Nancy Lough] started to develop the program, I had already retired from athletics and was teaching first- and second-year seminars.” The college previously had a sports educational leadership Ph.D. program that was dissolved in the early 2000s.
Back then, Lough and Kelleher were colleagues, respectively bridging the academic and administrative aspects of sport on campus. As the IPSM program was developing, the two talked regularly about different opportunities, including Kelleher coming on board to teach.
What is the most memorable course you taught?
“I taught several courses but my favorite was eSports. I’m most proud of that,” she said with a chuckle. “Dr. Lough came to me one semester and said, ‘You know, we want to start teaching eSports — it seems like a big thing out here.’ I'm like, ‘eSports? I don't even play video games.”
She asked Lough to give her a week or two to do some research to consider what the curriculum might look like. Kelleher called up her daughter’s friends, asking them to bring their gaming consoles and computers to her house and teach her more about gaming. “Tell me what I'm doing. Tell me why you're doing it and what the interest is, and then what would you like to learn?” she asked them. “I listened to them, and a week and a half later, agreed to teach the class.”
You’ve praised the local sports community for offering student growth, learning, and employment opportunities through internships and more. How can they continue to contribute to the program's success?
“I always say, it’s about access and funding. Before anything else, we need the money to grow the program.”
Scholarships are one way that financial support improves access for students. “We want our students to be able to get in the door so the next generation can start driving decisions.” Committed to opening doors for her students, just as her own advocates did throughout her career, the College of Education seeks to honor Kelleher’s legacy through this new scholarship.
