PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — During its Commencement and Reunion Weekend from May 23 to 25, Brown University will confer honorary doctorates on seven candidates who have achieved great distinction in a variety of fields. The candidates are:

• Jon Batiste — Award-winning musician
• Allyson Felix — Olympic gold medalist
• Eileen Hayes — Social services leader
• Suleika Jaouad — Author and artist
• William Kentridge — Artist
• Timothy Snyder — Historian
• Kevin Young — Award-winning poet

Recipients will receive prominent recognition at the University Ceremony on Sunday, May 25. Felix, who is a five-time Olympian and the most decorated American track and field athlete in history, will deliver the Baccalaureate address to the University’s undergraduate Class of 2025 on Saturday afternoon at the First Baptist Church in America. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Brown’s Commencement website.

Honorary degrees are awarded by the Board of Fellows of the Corporation of Brown University and are conferred by University President Christina H. Paxson during Commencement exercises.

While the Board of Fellows awards the degrees, many of the recipients were recommended by the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees, a faculty and student committee chaired this year by Professor of English Richard Rambuss. The committee offered recommendations for leaders who have demonstrated excellence in a variety of fields, including based on nominations received from Brown faculty, staff and students.

Honorary degree recipients do not serve as Commencement speakers; since its earliest days, Brown has reserved that honor for members of the graduating class. Additional details on Commencement forums and other events during the weekend will be posted on Brown’s Commencement website.

Honorary degree candidates

Jon Batiste
Doctor of Music
Award-winning musician 

Jon Batiste is a seven-time Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter and composer who is among the most prolific and accomplished contemporary musicians globally.

Born in New Orleans, Batiste is known for powerful music that draws on classical, jazz, R&B and soul. He has released eight studio albums and won, among many honors, an Academy Award for “Best Original Score” for the 2020 Disney-Pixar film “Soul.” His 2021 album “We Are” was nominated for a historic 11 Grammys Awards across seven categories. In 2024, he released his most recent studio album, “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1),” which is the first in his solo piano series, reimagining classical works through a fresh lens.

Along with his wife — author and artist Suleika Jaouad — Batiste was the subject of the Oscar and Grammy-nominated 2023 documentary “American Symphony,” which won a Grammy for “Best Music Film” along with an Oscar nomination for “Best Original Song.”

Batiste serves as a creative director for the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. From 2015 until 2022, he served as the bandleader and musical director of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. ​ 

Batiste earned a bachelor’s degree and a master of music from the Juilliard School.

Allyson Felix
Doctor of Humane Letters
Olympic gold medalist

Five-time Olympian Allyson Felix is the most decorated American track and field athlete in history.

With a record 20 world championships and 11 Olympic medals, including seven golds, Felix retired in 2022 leaving a historic legacy in competitive running. In 2024, she was elected to the International Olympic Committee, the governing body of the Olympic Games.

An influential voice in women’s athletics, Felix publicly advocated for improved maternity policies in the sports apparel industry and helped spur maternity protections for sponsored athletes. Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she led an initiative to create the first-ever family space in the Olympic Village to support parent-athletes during the games.

Felix is the founder of Saysh footwear for women, a company that challenges traditional gendered sneaker design, and co-founder of Always Alpha, a women’s sports management firm. She serves as an ambassador for Right to Play, which supports underserved children across the world, and co-founded the Power of She Fund at the Women’s Sports Foundation to help provide childcare support for athletes who are mothers.

Felix earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. She and her husband live in Los Angeles with their two children.

Eileen Hayes
Doctor of Humane Letters
Social services leader

For 24 years, Eileen Hayes has served as president and CEO of Amos House, a Rhode Island social services organization that has supported generations of individuals and families.

A compassionate visionary who began her career as a social worker, Hayes helped transform Amos House from a soup kitchen to a multifaceted organization that offers employment programs, services and housing to individuals facing poverty, hunger, homelessness and addiction.

Under her leadership, Amos House launched two social enterprises, More Than a Meal Catering and Amos House Builds, both of which employ graduates of its training programs and generate income to support the organization. Its housing portfolio has grown to house hundreds of individuals, families, children and older adults in apartments, rooming houses and shelters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization managed a warming center in Providence that served more than 200 individuals a night. 

Hayes has channeled her experience, success and dedication to serving as a mentor and trainer across her field and an adviser on program design and implementation for other organizations. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and a master of social work from New York University. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and has four children and two grandchildren.
 

Suleika Jaouad
Doctor of Letters
Author and artist 

Suleika Jaouad is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, artist, advocate and New York Times bestselling author of “Between Two Kingdoms” and “The Book of Alchemy.”

After a leukemia diagnosis at age 22, she launched her widely read New York Times column and video series “Life, Interrupted” from her hospital bed. Her essays and reporting have appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic and Vogue.

Jaouad created the Isolation Journals, a newsletter founded at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that helps 200,000 people from around the world tap into the transformative power of creativity. She and her husband, musician Jon Batiste, are the subject of the Oscar-nominated and Grammy Award-winning documentary “American Symphony,” which portrays the artists during a year of extreme highs and lows. 

An advocate for health care reform, Jaouad served on Barack Obama’s Presidential Cancer Panel and received the Inspire Award from the National Marrow Donor Program (Be the Match) for her work to expand and diversify the national bone marrow registry.

A citizen of Tunisia, Switzerland and the United States, Jaouad attended the Juilliard School’s pre-college program for the double bass. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MFA from Bennington College.

William Kentridge
Doctor of Fine Arts
Artist

William Kentridge is a leading South African artist whose works have been exhibited globally. Working across drawing, writing and film, Kentridge grounds his creations in politics, science, literature and history. He is renowned for his original works for the stage, which combine performance, projections, voice and music.

Since the 1990s, Kentridge’s art has been exhibited at major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

He has directed Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Shostakovich’s “The Nose” and Alban Berg’s operas “Lulu” and “Wozzeck” at venues including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the English National Opera in London and the Salzburg Festival. In 2023, he received an Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera for “Sibyl” in London.

Kentridge was born in Johannesburg, where in 2016 he co-founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea, an incubator for experimental performance. In 2024, he was an artist-in-residence at the Brown Arts Institute as part of a series to commemorate the inaugural year of Brown’s Lindemann Performing Arts Center.

Timothy Snyder
Doctor of Letters
Historian

Timothy Snyder is a leading historian on Ukraine, Central Europe, the Soviet Union and the Holocaust who earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Brown University in 1991.

An influential scholar and writer on authoritarianism, politics and health, Snyder offers insightful commentaries and in-depth historical analyses that have inspired artistic expressions ranging from film to rock opera. He has authored or edited 20 books that have been published in 40 languages. Those include “On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century,” “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America,” and “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin,” for which he won the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award.

A professor of history at Yale University, Snyder holds the inaugural chair in modern European history at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. 

Among many recognitions, he has received the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, and Guggenheim and Carnegie fellowships. He is a fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and head of the academic advisory council of the Ukrainian History Global Initiative. 

Snyder, who speaks five languages and reads 10 European languages, earned a Ph.D. from Oxford in addition to his degree from Brown.

Kevin Young
Doctor of Letters
Award-winning poet

Kevin Young is an acclaimed poet, essayist, poetry editor and curator who earned his master of fine arts in creative writing from Brown University in 1996. 

A prolific poet who has authored 15 books of poetry and prose and edited 11 volumes, Young is the poetry editor at the New Yorker. Among many recognitions for his books of poetry, “Stones” was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, “Book of Hours” won the 2015 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and “Jelly Roll: a blues” won the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a National Book Award finalist.

Young served as director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture from 2021 to 2025, prior to which he directed the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. From 2005 to 2016, he was Candler professor and curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University.

A recipient of Guggenheim, Stegner and MacDowell fellowships, Young was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016 and was named a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2020.

Young received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University before earning an MFA from Brown.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville track and field athlete Julia Sue-Kam-Ling was voted the ASUN Field Performer of the Week Wednesday for her long jump showing at the UNF East Coast Regionals.

The junior came in first in the long jump with a 5.97m leap. Her jump also served as a season best and was .02 longer than the second-place jumper.

On the track, Sue-Kam-Ling also competed in the 100m sprint prelims. 

Sue-Kam-Ling and the rest of the Dolphin track program next competes at the ASUN Outdoor Championships starting May 17, hosted at UNF.

Poll: What Is Katie Ledecky’s Greatest World Record? (Vote Here!)

During her spectacular career, Katie Ledecky has set 17 world records – 15 in the long-course pool. Her latest world mark was produced last weekend, when the 28-year-old covered the 800-meter freestyle in 8:04.12 at the TYR Pro Series stop in Fort Lauderdale. Ledecky’s performance arrived nearly nine years after she clocked 8:04.79 at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Is Ledecky’s effort from Fort Lauderdale the greatest world record of her career? Or, is her finest global standard another swim. Maybe her 15:20.48 in the 1500 freestyle, which is 18 seconds faster than the No. 2 performer of all-time? Perhaps her 3:56.46 outing in the 400 freestyle at the Rio Games? Do you have another of Ledecky’s world records in mind?

Cast your vote in the poll below for the greatest world record by Ledecky, a future Hall of Famer and widely considered the finest female swimmer in history.

Loading Poll…

It’s time for a look at potential winners of the Bowerman, an annual award presented to the most outstanding athletes in collegiate track and field.

Here’s the latest on some of the best in DI track and field.

THE BOWERMAN: Complete history of the track and field honor

Latest watch list

Watch list update No. 5

The fourth update to the Bowerman women’s watch list was announced on Wednesday, May 7, with the men’s watch list announced on Thursday, May 8.

*Watch list career debut

The following athletes received votes:

• Women
  • Margot Appleton, Virginia (Mid-Distance/Distance)
  • Lianna Davidson, Georgia (Javelin)
  • JaMeesia Ford, South Carolina (Sprints)
  • Lexy Halladay-Lowry, BYU (Steeple/Distance)
  • Jadin O’Brien, Notre Dame (Combined Events)
  • Manuela Rotundo, Georgia (Javelin)

PREDICTING: How the Bowerman watch lists predict the award’s final winner

2025 watch list dates

Below you’ll find all of the Bowerman watch list dates for 2025. 

All dates subject to change

Date of the winner of the Bowerman

The 2025 winners will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 18 at the 2025 USTFCCCA convention at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Past watch lists

Watch list update No. 4

The fourth update to the Bowerman women’s watch list was announced on Wednesday, April 16, with the men’s watch list announced on Thursday, April 17.

*Watch list career debut

The following athletes received votes:

• Women
  • Şilan Ayyildiz, Oregon (Mid-Distance)
  • Lianna Davidson, Georgia (Javelin)
  • JaMeesia Ford, South Carolina (Sprints)
  • Hana Moll, Washington (Pole Vault)
  • Jadin O’Brien, Notre Dame (Combined Events)
• Men
  • Jordan Anthony, Arkansas (Sprints)
  • Johnny Brackins, Jr., Southern California (Hurdles/Jumps)
  • Simen Guttormsen, Duke (Pole Vault)
  • Garrett Kaalund, Southern California (Sprints)
  • Trey Knight, CSUN (Throws)
  • Carli Makarawu, Kentucky (Sprints)
  • Gary Martin, Virginia (Mid-Distance/Distance)
  • Tinoda Matsatsa, Georgetown (Mid-Distance/Distance)
  • Chinecherem Nnamdi, Baylor (Javelin)
  • Daniel Reynolds, Wyoming (Throws)
  • Kendrick Smallwood, Texas (Sprints/Hurdles)
  • Keyshawn Strachan, Nebraska (Javelin)
  • Kostas Zaltos, Minnesota (Throws)

PAST BOWERMANS: 2024 men’s – Leo Neugebauer | 2024 women’s – Parker Valby

Watch list update No. 3

The third update to the Bowerman women’s watch list was announced on Wednesday, March 26, with the men’s watch list announced on Thursday, March 27.

*Watch list career debut

The following athletes received votes:

• Women
  • Şilan Ayyildiz, Oregon (Mid-Distance)
  • Alexis Brown, Baylor (Sprints/Jumps)
  • Dajaz Defrand, Southern California (Sprints)
  • JaMeesia Ford, South Carolina (Sprints)
  • Elena Kulichenko, Georgia (Jumps)
  • Wilma Nielsen, Oregon (Mid-Distance)
• Men
  • Jordan Anthony, Arkansas (Sprints)
  • Favour Ashe, Oregon (Sprints)
  • Johnny Brackins, Jr., Southern California (Hurdles/Jumps)
  • Nathan Green, Washington (Mid-Distance)
  • Brian Musau, Oklahoma State (Distance)
  • Chinecherem Nnamdi, Baylor (Javelin)
  • Jonathan Seremes, Missouri (Jumps)
  • JC Stevenson, Southern California (Sprints/Jumps)

PAST BOWERMANS: 2023 men’s – Jaydon Hibbert | 2023 women’s – Julien Alfred

Watch list update No. 2

The second update to the Bowerman women’s watch list was announced on Wednesday, March 5, with the men’s watch list announced on Thursday, March 6.

*Watch list career debut

The following athletes received votes:

• Women
  • Anthaya Charlton, Florida (Jumps)
  • Mya Lesnar, Colorado State (Throws)
  • Indya Mayberry, TCU (Sprints)
  • Jadin O’Brien, Notre Dame (Combined Events)
  • Hilda Olemomoi, Florida (Distance)
  • Michaela Rose, LSU (Mid-Distance)
  • Isabella Whittaker, Arkansas (Sprints)

• Men
  • Favour Ashe, Oregon (Sprints)
  • Makanakaishe Charamba, Auburn (Sprints)
  • Eli Kosiba, Grand Valley State (Jumps)
  • Tinoda Matsatsa, Georgetown (Mid-Distance/Distance)
  • Aidan McCarthy, Cal Poly (Mid-Distance)
  • Chinecherem Nnamdi, Baylor (Javelin)
  • Daniel Reynolds, Wyoming (Throws)
  • Jonathan Seremes, Missouri (Jumps)
  • Aleksandr Solovev, Texas A&M (Pole Vault)
  • Keyshawn Strachan, Nebraska (Javelin)
  • Sam Whitmarsh, Texas A&M (Mid-Distance)

PAST BOWERMANS: 2022 men’s – Trey Cunningham | 2022 women’s – Abby Steiner

Watch list update No. 1

The first update to the Bowerman women’s watch list was announced on Wednesday, Feb. 5, with the men’s watch list announced on Thursday, Feb. 6. 

*Watch list career debut

The following athletes received votes:

• Women
  • Axelina Johansson, Nebraska (Throws)
  • Pamela Kosgei, New Mexico (Distance)
  • Elena Kulichenko, Georgia (Jumps)
  • Mya Lesnar, Colorado State (Throws)
  • Indya Mayberry, TCU (Sprints)
  • Amanda Moll, Washington (Pole Vault)
  • Hana Moll, Washington (Pole Vault)
  • Wilma Nielsen, Oregon (Mid-Distance)
  • Jadin O’Brien, Notre Dame (Combined Events)
  • Michaela Rose, LSU (Mid-Distance)
  • Savannah Sutherland, Michigan (Sprints/Hurdles)
• Men
  • Favour Ashe, Oregon (Sprints)
  • Graham Blanks, Harvard (Distance)
  • Nathaniel Ezekiel, Baylor (Sprints/Hurdles)
  • Eli Kosiba, Grand Valley State (Jumps)
  • Abdullahi Hassan, Mississippi State (Mid-Distance)
  • Chinecherem Nnamdi, Baylor (Javelin)
  • Samuel Ogazi, Alabama (Sprints)
  • Tarsis Orogot, Alabama (Sprints)
  • Jonathan Seremes, Missouri (Jumps)
  • Aleksandr Solovev, Texas A&M (Pole Vault)
  • JC Stevenson, Southern California (Sprints/Jumps)
  • Keyshawn Strachan, Nebraska (Javelin)

Preseason watch list

The women’s preseason watch list was announced on Wednesday, Jan. 8, with the men’s preseason watch list announced on Thursday, Jan. 9. 

*Watch list career debut
#Returning finalist
+Returning semifinalist

The following athletes received votes:

• Women | Aaliyah Butler, Georgia (Sprints)
  • Rosey Effiong, Arkansas (Sprints)
  • Brynn King, Roberts Wesleyan (Pole Vault)
  • Pamela Kosgei, New Mexico (Distance)
  • Elena Kulichenko, Georgia (Jumps)
  • Jadin O’Brien, Notre Dame (Combined Events)
  • Savannah Sutherland, Michigan (Sprints/Hurdles)
  • Chloe Timberg, Rutgers (Pole Vault)
• Men
  • Nathan Green, Washington (Mid-Distance)
  • Kenneth Ikeji, Harvard (Throws)
  • Eli Kosiba, Grand Valley State (Jumps)
  • Rivaldo Marshall, Arkansas (Mid-Distance)
  • Tinoda Matsatsa, Georgetown (Mid-Distance/Distance)
  • Nathan Mountain, Virginia (Mid-Distance)
  • Samuel Ogazi, Alabama (Sprints)
  • Godson Oghenebrume, LSU (Sprints)
  • Colin Sahlman, Northern Arizona (Mid-Distance)

LEADING OFF 
For the first time since 2015, No. 7 Loyola Chicago (25-3, 13-3 MIVA) is in the NCAA Tournament, and at the No. 4 seed the Ramblers take on the fifth-seeded No. 6 Pepperdine Wave in the quarterfinals on Thursday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m. CT. 

QUICK HITS

• Four Ramblers earned American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American status, announced by the league’s office on Monday, May 5. For the second consectuive year, Parker Van Buren earned First Team AVCA All-American, Nicodemus Meyer and Daniel Fabikovic were named to the AVCA All-American Second Team, marking the senior’s first second team nod and the second straight for the sophomore. Ryan McElligott was awarded an AVCA All-American Honorable Mention for the first time in his career. 
• Loyola Chicago earned its first NCAA Tournament berth in 10 years after downing Ohio State, 3-0, to clinch the Ramblers’ fourth overall Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament Championship on Saturday, April 26 inside Gentile Arena. Loyola had been chasing the conference tournament title and an NCAA tournament bid since 2015. 
• The Ramblers swept the MIVA Tournament, winning nine straight sets to secure the championship, which marked the first time since 2022 that a MIVA team (Balll State) won the championship in three three-set matches. MIVA Player of the Year and All-Conference First Teamer Van Buren was named the tournament’s MVP while Fabikovic and McElligott, both All-MIVA First Team honorees as well, were named to the All-MIVA Tournament team. 
• Van Buren became just the second player in program history to be named back-to-back MIVA POTY (Thomas Jaeschke, ’14, ’15), and the third to claim four All-MIVA First Team roster spots. With Meyer, McElligott and Fabikovic also All-MIVA First Teamers, it marks the first time four Ramblers made all-conference first team since 2018 and fourth overall in program history. 
• Nationally, McElligott leads the country in assists/set (10.90), Meyer ranks second in blocks/set (1.23) and Van Buren is second in kills/set (4.42), fourth in points/set (5.25) and ninth in hitting percentage (.410). 
• As a unit, the Ramblers lead the country in kills/set (13.35) and in assists/set (12.50), and rank second in hitting percentage (.368), third in blocks/set (2.57) and fifth in aces/set (1.82). 
• Loyola finished as the league leader in 10 different categories: points/set (17.74), hitting percentage, assists, kills, blocks (2.57/set), service aces, opponent hitting percentage (.220), opponent assists (10.26/set), opponent kills (10.74/set) and opponent service aces (0.93). 
• Head coach Shane Davis remains the winningest coach in program history with a 289-91 ledger and a .761 winning percentage. 

SCOUTING REPORT
Pepperdine (20-9, 7-5 MPSF) came in as the fourth seed in the MPSF Tournament, and The Wave swept Grand Canyon (3-0) in the quarterfinals before upsetting reigning NCAA champion UCLA (3-2) in the semis then taking down USC (3-1) to clinch the program’s seventh overall conference tournament title and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. As a unit, Pepperdine ranks eighth in hitting percentage (.328), 12th in assists/set (11.68) and 16th in kills/set (12.41). 

Junior outside hitter Ryan Barnett was named the tournament MVP, notching 23 kills on .333 hitting, 11 digs and 22 perfect service receptions in the championship match. Junior libero Jacob Reilly and rookie outside hitter Cole Hartke were awarded All-Tournament Team nods. Earlier this awards season, Hartke was named the MPSF Freshman of the Year and was the only first-year named to the All-MPSF First Team. Barnett, Reilly and Gabe Dyer were awarded first-team, second-team and honorable mention respectively. 

SERIES HISTORY
Earlier this spring, Loyola defeated Pepperdine in a five-set thriller (25-15, 25-23, 19-25, 29-31, 15-12) on the road. Multiple Ramblers marked season and career highs against The Wave, including McElligott’s 59 assists and four service aces. Loyola holds a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series. It will be the first ever meeting between the two programs in the NCAA Tournament. 

FOLLOW THE ACTION

Stream the quarterfinals match on ESPN and follow men’s volleyball on Instagram and X @RamblersMVB for in-game updates. 

Fairfax, Va. — George Mason University Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics has announced the appointment of Ashton Henderson as its new Senior Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer. A highly respected national leader in college athletics and professional sports, Henderson brings nearly 15 years of experience spanning collegiate athletics and professional sports with stops at Florida State University, Clemson University, and the Detroit Pistons. 

“Ashton Henderson is a dynamic and emerging leader in intercollegiate athletics,” said Lewis. “He brings a unique blend of authenticity, strategic insight, and a deep commitment to the holistic development of student-athletes. His ability to foster collaboration across departments, cultivate meaningful relationships throughout the university, and lead in the ever-evolving NIL landscape will be an incredible asset to our program. I have full confidence that Ashton’s leadership will elevate the student-athlete experience and further strengthen the championship culture within Mason Athletics. We’re proud to welcome Ashton and his wife, Chloe, to the George Mason family!”

As a senior member of the Vice President/Director of Athletics’ leadership team, Henderson will oversee the department’s daily operations to ensure effective communication, collaboration, and consistent operational execution in support of over 500 student-athletes, 100 full-time employees, and over 200 part-time staff members. 

Henderson will champion new strategic initiatives to enhance the student-athlete experience, drive revenue, and galvanize the community. He will collaborate with campus and community partners to advance the athletics program and serve as the program administrator for men’s basketball and other varsity athletics programs, including sport supervision responsibilities.

“I am fired up and incredibly honored to join the Mason Nation family,” said Henderson. “This is a special institution rooted in excellence, and I am fully committed to serving our student-athletes, coaches, and community with energy, passion, and purpose. I look forward to building meaningful relationships and helping elevate the Patriots to even greater heights.”

A former four-year letter winner in football at Michigan State University (2006–09), Henderson most recently served as Deputy Athletic Director for Championship Resources & Culture at Michigan State University, where he provided executive leadership for nine areas: Athletic Training, Spartans Fuel (Nutrition), Athletic Performance, Student-Athlete Wellness, Sports Science & Data Analytics, EverGreen NIL Education & Strategy, Varsity S Club, Student-Athlete Development, & Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB) efforts and served as the sport administration for women’s basketball during the 2022-2023 competition season.  He also oversaw the university’s award-winning “EverGreen” NIL program, which was named the nation’s Best Institutional Program at the 2023 NIL Summit.

Before returning to Michigan State University in 2022, Henderson served as the first-ever Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion for the Detroit Pistons, transforming the franchise’s DEI framework and earning national recognition as a Sports Inclusion Conference DEI Champion in 2021.

Henderson’s collegiate leadership journey includes impactful roles at Florida State University and Clemson, where he championed academic success, leadership development, and holistic student-athlete programming. He is a Past President of the National Association for Academic & Student-Athlete Development Professionals N4A (2021-2022), the largest affiliate under the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) umbrella with over 2,000 members. Hendersonalso has won several Association (N4A) awards over the years: Professional Excellence (2020); Model Practice Award – Florida State University (LYFE Program, 2019); and the Professional Promise Award (2015). 

In addition, he received the Cheryl M. Gilliam Young Alumni Award in 2019, which was presented by the MSU Varsity “S” Club. He is also a proud graduate of the NCAA Dr. Charles Whitcomb Leadership Institute, NCAA Pathway Program, and The FBS Athletics Director (Lead 1) Diversity Fellowship Program, where these programs are designed to prepare athletic administrators to become Athletic Directors and or Conference Commissioners. He is also privileged to serve on the Board of Directors of The McLendon Foundation.

As a student-athlete on the football team, Henderson saw action as both a defensive back and on special teams. In his freshman season (2006), he returned a blocked punt 33 yards for a touchdown vs. Northwestern to help fuel the greatest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history as the Spartans rallied from a 35-point deficit for a 41-38 victory.

A two-time graduate of Michigan State, Henderson holds a B.A. in Advertising, an M.A. in Public Relations, and an M.B.A. from Florida State. In 2024, he was recognized with MSU’s Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Communication Arts & Sciences, the college’s highest honor for alumni. 

Henderson will join George Mason on May 19.

WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT ASHTON

“In my 40 years of collegiate coaching I’ve never worked with anyone who cares more for the student-athlete than Ashton. He has a tremendous ability to build consensus and unity. He’ll do amazing things at George Mason.”

Bob Braman

Florida State Track and Cross Country

2006 & 2008 NCAA Champions

“Ashton Henderson has consistently demonstrated a work style that is both diligent and innovative, bringing fresh ideas and approaches to every project he tackles. His inclusive nature fosters a collaborative environment where every team member feels valued and heard. Ashton’s ability to connect with people personally and his unwavering commitment to excellence truly sets him apart. His leadership is seen, felt and heard even after he has left our organization. A strong leader with lasting impact.”

Nicolet Lewis

Detroit Pistons, Executive Vice President/Chief People Officer

“The George Mason Athletics family is welcoming an exceptional leader in Ashton Henderson. He builds genuine, lasting relationships and is highly regarded throughout college athletics. His contagious enthusiasm will elevate Patriots athletics, positively impacting the entire Green & Gold community.” 

Vanessa Fuchs

WeCOACH CEO 

“Ashton is an incredible leader with a bright future ahead of him. While Ashton was at Clemson, I knew that he would continue to soar in his Athletics pursuit, and I am proud of all that he has accomplished over the past decade. George Mason University is fortunate to have Ashton join their team, and I wish him the best in his next chapter and continued leadership journey.” 

Dr. James Clements

Clemson University President

“I got to know Ashton as a standout football student-athlete at Michigan State. Those skills he learned have manifested into making a tremendous impact on student athletes’ lives at every place he’s been. George Mason is getting a service-oriented leader who puts students first.” 

Martin Jarmound

The Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics, University of California, Los Angeles