NBA SVP of Player Development Jamila Wideman, Nashville SC’s Caleb Shreve Are Latest Additions To An Elite Staff of World Class Educators and Experts In Their Field
NEW YORK – January 19, 2021 - Columbia University's Sports Management graduate program today announced the addition of two new adjunct faculty members as well as the program lineup for the spring semester, which begins in a hybrid form of both in-person and online classes this week. New to the faculty this semester will be: Jamila Wideman, a veteran litigator, a professional basketball player in the WNBA, and activist who is currently Senior Vice President of Player Development for the NBA and program alum Caleb Shreve, Data Analyst at Nashville Soccer Club. Wideman will be teaching leadership along with longtime media and former head of CBS Sports Neal Pilson, current Knight Commission co-Chair and former NBA player Len Elmore and founding Director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association Pam Wheeler. Shreve will teach Soccer Analytics.
“We learned a great deal this past fall with the challenges of teaching remotely as well as some select classes in person, and we will continue to put those best practices to use in the same manner this spring, as we welcome a group of new students as well as our returning ones,“ said Professor of Professional Practice and Academic Director for the Sports Management Program Scott Rosner. “We welcome Jamila Wideman and welcome back Caleb to our faculty along with those returning for the spring. Our roster, which includes some of the most respected decision makers in media, team and league governance and operations, innovation, events and business, continues to expand with passion and diversity of thought, and we are all looking forward not just to this semester, but to applying the lessons we are learning in real-time for years to come.”
As Senior Vice President of Player Development for the National Basketball Association (NBA), Jamila Wideman manages the league's initiatives that promote the personal, professional and social development of NBA players. She is responsible for NBA programs designed to orientate and educate rookies during their transition into the league and advises team directors on overall player development, including best practices for managing off-the-court player matters. Wideman also leads year-long programs assisting players in continuing education, financial management and career transition throughout their NBA careers and beyond.
She is a former WNBA player and was selected third overall in the 1997 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks and played four seasons in the league. A former student athlete at Stanford University where her teams competed in 3 NCAA Final Fours, she also played professionally in Israel and Spain. During her WNBA career, Wideman founded the Stanford Athletic Alliance and Hoopin’ with Jamila, a youth mentoring program. Before joining the NBA, she worked as an attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative and the Civil Division of The Legal Aid Society, providing representation to incarcerated and death sentenced individuals and low-income populations facing eviction. Wideman graduated from New York University Law School.
One of a growing number of program alums who have returned to teach or serve as a course associate in the program, Caleb Shreve is currently a Data Analyst for Nashville SC in Major League Soccer. He is a 2018 graduate of the program, and also holds a Law Degree from the University of Richmond after graduating from Robert Morris University as an undergrad.
The elite returning faculty and classes for the spring includes: Rosner (Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in Sports), full-time professors Len Elmore (Leadership, Supervised Research Project: NFL Social Justice Impact Project and Internship), and Grant Son (Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Sports, Supervised Research Project: The Future of Football - NFL), as well as adjuncts, Ray Katz (Sports Media), Michael Dittelman (Foundations of Sports Management), Michael Neuman (Sports Sponsorship & Sales), Joel Litvin and Alan Ostfield (The Business of Professional Sports Leagues and Franchises), Tom Richardson (Digital Media and Marketing in Sports), Russell Scibetti (Business Intelligence in Sports), Steven Angel (Fundamentals of Sports Analytics), Carla Varriale Barker (Sports Law and Ethics), Rob Gerbe, Adam Raiken, and Brian Friedman (Sports Accounting and Finance), and Lj Holmgren (Independent Study).
Additionally, the spring program course associates includes: Jackson Donahue, Gregory Guerman, Jordan Wetherbee, Joshua Garrison, Valisha Graves, Josh Orenstein, Ilan Bielas, John Hricay, Jacqueline Bartolomeo, Tom Cerny, Micah Day, Melissa Shulman, Daniel Girard, Meghan Roxas, Mandeep Brahmbhatt, Bill Wiswesser, Christopher Orlando and Andrea Young.
For the first time in the spring semester, the program will be welcoming a full-time student cohort that includes 21 students from 5 countries. Overall, the program will have 95 students enrolled in the spring and includes individuals from diverse backgrounds such as college coaching, sports media, consulting, content, finance, sales, law, and professional sports leagues.
Recognized as one of the top five global programs, Columbia University's master's degree program in Sports Management, available part-time and full-time, trains professionals in all sectors of the sports industry by teaching specific management skills in the areas of finance, analytics, digital media, entrepreneurship, leadership, law, marketing, sales, communications, and facility or events management. This combination of broad-based and specific skill training is a hallmark of the program and is evident in both the content and sequencing of courses. www.sps.columbia.edu/sports.
Contact: Joe Favorito, 917-566-8345, jf2512 [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu (jf2512[at]columbia[dot]edu)
