Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/727077
Vice President for Athleitcs & Recreation JAMES J. PHILLIPS, Ph.D 2014 when the Wildcats' seven-time NCAA champion women's lacrosse team defeated Southern California in the first-ever college lacrosse game at the ballpark. In November of 2010, Phillips launched the first master facility plan study in Northwestern Athletics & Recreation history and, in 2012, the Board of Trustees approved a major complex for athletic and recreational activities on the north end of NU's main Evanston campus. The first elements of the new complex opened in 2014 with a brand- new sailing center and a renovation and 30,000 square foot expansion of the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion. In 2016 Northwestern unveiled Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium, Chap and Ethel Hutcheson Field and the new Lakeside Field, and opened the new Rocky and Berenice Miller Park, one of the finest baseball facilities in the nation and In October 2015 the University broke ground on the centerpieces of the lakefront athletics facilities, Ryan Fieldhouse and the Walter Athletic Center. In July of 2016 the University announced that Welsh-Ryan Arena, home of Wildcats men's and women's basketball, volleyball and wrestling, would receive a complete, $110+ million renovation beginning in the spring of 2017 at the conclusion of the basketball season. Additionally, under Phillips, Northwestern and Under Armour began a historic and unprecedented multi-year partnership in 2012 that designates Under Armour as the official outfitter of the university's athletic program. The partnership represented Under Armour's first outfitter agreement with a Big Ten Conference athletic program. Phillips' overhaul of Northwestern's Athletics Development program created a successful partnership with University Alumni Relations and Development. Over the last four years, as part of the University's comprehensive campaign entitled "We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern.", gifts and commitments to Athletics and Recreation have totaled more than $275 million, including $75 million in fiscal year 2016. During his Northwestern tenure, Phillips has completed a two-year stint as the Athletic Director Chair of the Big Ten Conference, representing the league's A.D.'s on the Executive Committee of the B1G Joint Group, while simultaneously working as a member of the Rose Bowl Management Committee. He is an athletic mentor in the NCAA Pathway Program and has served on the NCAA Champions Forum panel, a group of football coaches and athletic directors making an effort to increase the hiring and awareness of minority football coaches. He served as the president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, a member of the NACDA Executive Committee and a mentor in the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program. Phillips also serves on the boards of World Sport Chicago and GENYOUth, and previously served on Chicago's bid committee for the 2016 Olympic Games. He is an adjunct professor of management and organizations at Northwestern's world-renowned Kellogg School of Management, where he instructs a course in Comprehensive Perspectives for Leading a Sports Entity. He has previously lectured in the Northwestern School of Continuing Studies' Master's in Sports Administration program. A 1990 graduate of the University of Illinois, Phillips started his career as a manager and student assistant in Illinois' athletic department. He earned a master's degree in education at Arizona State University while serving as a restricted earnings basketball coach during a period in which the Sun Devils reached the postseason in five-straight years. He holds a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Tennessee, where he directed a $12.4 million annual athletics giving program, and helped originate the first-ever capital campaign for athletics at UT. Following four years as associate director of athletics and senior associate director of athletics for external affairs at the University of Notre Dame, where he helped launch the first athletics annual fund that directly benefited student-athlete grant-in-aid scholarships, Phillips was named Director of Athletics at Northern Illinois University. His tenure in DeKalb was a period of consistent academic achievement, extraordinary fundraising and unprecedented athletic success for the Huskies. Phillips and his wife, Laura, have five children: Luke, Madeline, Meredith, John and James.