SEAN E. CARTELL

Work History

Chief of Staff for Intercollegiate Athletics and Senior Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Initiatives and Brand Advancement

UT San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas

10.2023 - Current

Oversight of key strategic projects - including the Roadrunner Game Plan, brand positioning and cross-departmental initiatives - designed to strengthen UTSA Athletics' local, regional and national visibility for long-term success.
Serve as Chief of Staff to Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos. Led cross-functional teams in strategic planning initiatives to enhance organizational effectiveness.
Chief Communications Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for UTSA Athletics, overseeing the brand engagement, broadcast, communications, creative, marketing and fan engagement areas.
Lead Game Operations for all UTSA home Football games at the Alamodome and serve as secondary sport administrator for Softball.
Direct reports include the Associate AD for Brand Engagement, Associate AD for Communications and Director of Sports Production. Full team includes 14 full-time members, two graduate assistants and a student team of more than 40 individuals across all areas.
A member of the UTSA Athletics Senior Staff and Leadership Team.
Manage nearly $1 Million annually in budgets across assigned departments.
Hiring manager for the Associate AD for Fan Experience and Director of Sports Production roles. A member of the hiring committee for the Assistant AD for Annual Giving, Graphic Designer II, Sports Production Assistant and Assistant Softball Coach.
Head up UTSA Athletics' ambitious storytelling unit which told approximately 120 written and video feature stories during the 2024-25 academic year.
Responsible for all email marketing efforts for UTSA Athletics, authoring and sending communications for Athletics, Dr. Lisa Campos, Ticket Office and the Roadrunner Athletic Fund. The full send database includes more than 65,000 accounts.
Serve as the point of contact for all the department's State of Texas Public Information Requests.
Author and send all public communications for the Roadrunner Athletic Fund, the fundraising arm of UTSA Athletics, including a monthly e-newsletter.
Serve as the departmental contact, editor and approver with Sport and Story for the thrice-weekly Brew-1-0, an email newsletter that goes to UTSA fans.
Chair of the UTSA Athletics Awards Committee, which works cross-departmentally to select and nominate student-athletes for awards related to academics, performance and community service.
Nominated in 2024 for the Extra Mile Award. as part of UTSA's University Excellence Awards, recognizing those who have taken the initiative to contribute to the success of UTSA through their outstanding contributions at work.
Assisted with the media coordination operations for the 2025 NCAA Men's Final Four, co-hosted locally by UTSA Athletics.
Oversight of the fan engagement area has produced all-time single-game attendance records in both women's basketball and baseball, and all-time season attendance records in volleyball, soccer and women's basketball.
Responsible for creating and maintaining the Visiting Team Guides for all sports.
Manage the UTSA Athletics (@UTSAAthletics) main social media accounts. Since September 1, 2024, the UTSA Athletics Instagram account has grown by 251.3% followers, 1,200% link clicks and the account reach has increased 54.5%.
Vice Chair of the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Advocacy Committee.

Associate Commissioner for Communications & Branding

Sun Belt Conference

New Orleans, La.

08.2021 - 10.2023

Leadership role on a communications, marketing and branding that increased social media engagements by 232 percent over a two-year span across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Ideated and strategized the Sun Belt's billboard presence in New York's Times Square in September 2022, which - along with an appearance on ESPN's College Gameday - was part of the Sun Belt's generation of more than 155,000 social media engagements.
Primary media and public relations contact for assigned sports - men's basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, men's & women's golf, and secondary football.
Counseled and assisted Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill on his work with the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee.
Coordinated the strategy and launch around the addition of two new sports to the conference, which included announcement communications and marketing assets, collaboration with participating institutions and virtual press conferences with media.
Directed media operations for multiple championship events that included overseeing up to 10 staff and volunteers.
Managed all relationships with photography vendors, coordinating contracts, shot sheets and payment.
Coordinate the publicity of all of the conference's academic honors and Vic Bubas Cup [all-sports trophy].
Launched the Sun Belt's first podcast 'Around the Sun,' which appears on all major podcast platforms through Libsyn.
Launched the Sun Belt's weekly e-newsletter 'Around the Sun' through Mailchimp, which went to an audience of more than 2,000 members working within the Sun Belt Conference.

Brand Strategist

Frankel Agency

Gainesville, Fla.

11.2020 - 08.2021

Delivered ideas, concepts and campaigns to help set assigned clients apart from their competitors. Took the lead in developing strategic marketing and advertising plans for clients and ensured campaign execution.
Served as the primary point of contact for clients, including several of the agency's top clients.
The primary marketing and strategy contact for a local law firm that generated more than $1M annually in business. Work included digital advertising, traditional advertising, website management, social media management, and public relations.
Devised a digital recruitment strategy for an online master's degree program in urban and regional planning at a Tier 1 University that included spotlighting successful alumni who have succeeded in careers in a variety of fields.
Worked collaboratively with project managers, creatives, and public relations representatives to enhance the branding of products and services for assigned clients, conducting market analysis research.

Associate Media Relations Director

University of Texas Athletics

Austin, Texas

11.2015 - 11.2020

Coordinated all media and public relations efforts for the University of Texas' nationally ranked women's basketball, women's golf and rowing teams. Successfully promoted the No. 1 pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft, Charli Collier, and three additional current WNBA players [Ariel Atkins, Joyner Holmes, Sug Sutton].
Built relationships and regularly facilitated interviews with the Austin American-Statesman and five local TV stations, in addition to national outlets ESPN, Fox Sports, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and the Associated Press.
Served as a liaison between sport programs and Longhorn Network, which provided daily coverage through game broadcasts and a weekly TV show, Game Plan with Karen Aston.
Managed the social media channels [Twitter, Instagram, Facebook] for assigned sport programs.
Served as the host media coordinator for the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by the University of Texas, overseeing a contingent of nearly 300 credentialed media members, photographers and institutional communications personnel.
Oversaw the UT media relations student assistant program and was responsible for 20-25 media relations student assistants and part-time workers annually. Managed all aspects of the human resources component [recruitment, onboarding, timesheets, access approvals] and event scheduling for all sports.
Completed UT's Collegiate Athletics Talent and Professional Leadership Training (CATAPLT) program.
A member of UT Athletics' Diversity and Inclusion Council, and the Gender Equity Subcommittee.
A four-year member of the UT Staff Council, a collective voice for the University of Texas' classified administrative and professional workers. Served as the Secretary [an elected officer position] during the 2019-20 year and was a two-year chair of the Professional Development Committee and the Professional Development Grant Program.
Attended the Collegiate Athletics Leadership Symposium [CALS] in 2019.

Director of Strategic Communications

National Collegiate Equestrian Association

06.2014 - 11.2015

Directed all strategic communications for the national governing body and coaches association for collegiate equestrian. Devised communications strategy, advised leadership and authored all press releases.
A member of the NCEA Selection Committee.
Acted as an ex-officio member of the NCEA's Board of Directors and Executive Committee.
Served as the editor of the NCEA's Web site - www.collegiateequestrian.com - overseeing a Web site redesign in the summer of 2014, and served as the NCEA's liaison with internet provider Streamline Technologies.
Helped facilitate the NCEA Web site's move to SIDEARM in the summer of 2019.
Managed the NCEA's social media properties [Twitter, Facebook].
Also served as the Communications Director for the United Equestrian Conference, an equestrian-specific conference for independents. Duties included coordinating the United Equestrian Conference's Athlete of the Month and awards programs.

Media Relations Contact

SEC Academic Relations

09.2012 - 11.2015

Served as the first-ever primary and media relations contact for SEC Academic Relations, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference, which sponsors, supports and promotes collaborative higher education programs and activities involving administrators, faculty and students at its 14 member universities.
Coordinated all media relations activities for the annual SEC Symposium, an academic-style conference addressing a single big-picture academic topic. Handled credentialing, authored and disseminated all press releases and generated positive publicity about the conference's academic initiative.

Assistant Director

Southeastern Conference

Birmingham, Ala.

07.2011 - 11.2015

The 2015 recipient of the College Sports Information Directors of America's Rising Star Award, recognizing the top athletics communications professional with fewer than 10 years of full-time experience in the field.
The secondary media relations contact for SEC Football, serving as primary editor of the SEC Football Media Guide, the SEC Football Championship Game Program and contributing to the weekly release. Responsible for the Preseason and Postseason All-SEC process and moderated weekly teleconferences.
The primary media and communications contact for baseball, track & field, cross country and equestrian.
Served as the sport administrator and championship director for the sport of equestrian, managing the administrative duties of its integration as the SEC's 21st sport in 2012-13 and serving as the primary point of contact for the SEC's equestrian coaches.
Acted as the day-to-day SEC Web site content liaison to ESPN and XOS Digital, the SEC's digital-rights providers on written and video editorial content and content strategy. Worked to coordinate the SEC office's day-to-day content and editorial direction.
Acted as the primary feature story writer for SECSports.com and directed the conference's social media platforms, including @SEC, the primary league account with the most followers in collegiate athletics among conferences.

Assistant Director, Communications

University Athletic Association

Gainesville, Fla.

06.2008 - 06.2011

Served as the primary communications contact for the University of Florida's nationally ranked women's volleyball and men's and women's track & field teams. The men's track & field team won two NCAA Championships during this time.
Wrote press releases, prepared media kits and media guides, hosted press conferences and advised head coaches and student-athletes. Launched from scratch and managed the program's social media accounts [Twitter, Facebook].
Acted as a liaison between assigned sport programs, and The Gainesville Sun, The Independent Florida Alligator, WCJB-TV 20, as well as national media outlets.
Managed the day-to-day responsibilities for 10 sub-account budgets for assigned sports, totaling $41,500.

Assistant Director of Athletics Communications

University of Central Florida Athletics Association

Orlando, Fla.

01.2008 - 06.2008

The primary media relations contact for UCF's women's basketball, track & field, cross country and men's soccer programs.
Worked to increase the visibility of assigned teams by creating daily notebooks, feature articles and posting photo galleries on the athletics department's official Web site - www.UCFAthletics.com.

Media Relations Assistant

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Ky.

08.2004 - 01.2008

Promoted to Media Relations Assistant [full-time intern] after more than three years as a student assistant in the media relations office. Served as the assistant women's basketball contact during entire tenure.
Was the primary media relations contact for a variety of sports as an undergraduate, including volleyball, gymnastics, women's tennis, women's golf, track & field, and cross country. Worked all home men's basketball and football games.
Assisted the publications department and administration in providing copy for both the department's quarterly magazine, 'The Blueprint,' and the athletics director's annual report.

Sports Information Specialist

Santa Fe College

Gainesville, Fla.

06.2003 - 08.2004

As a high school senior, coordinated all media and public relations activities for women's basketball, softball and baseball for an NJCAA Division-I program, facilitating 93 articles published in three local newspapers and regular television coverage.
Helped develop a Student-Athlete Guide, a comprehensive publication addressing all issues impacting student-athletes at SFCC, to include athletic and academic expectations, the campus academic and housing services, insurance, injury issues and eligibility.

Summary

Overview

Work History

Chief of Staff for Intercollegiate Athletics and Senior Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Initiatives and Brand Advancement

Associate Commissioner for Communications & Branding

Brand Strategist

Associate Media Relations Director

Director of Strategic Communications

Media Relations Contact

Assistant Director

Assistant Director, Communications

Assistant Director of Athletics Communications

Media Relations Assistant

Sports Information Specialist

Education

MASTER OF SCIENCE - SPORT STUDIES

BACHELOR OF ARTS - INTEGRATED STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Skills

Websites

Certification

Personal Information

Awards

Work Preference

Work Type

Location Preference

Timeline

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