Small College Conversations: Kelly Perry

Rocky Mountain College Director of Athletics Kelly Perry joins College.town's Kristen Eargle on this episode of Small College Conversations. Perry discusses her transition from working outside of the business as the Business Development Executive at Teamworks to leading the Battlin' Bears. They chat about the first few months, how BOSCA founder Jim Abbott impacted her growth as a leader and the most surprising gift she's received since being named AD. 00:00 - Introduction 00:37 - You are four-five months into your tenure at Rocky Mountain after a year with Teamworks. What did you learn during that year outside of an athletic department that changed how you are approaching leading a department? 02:35 - Before Teamworks, you served as the AD at UNT Dallas, which is a different athletic department in geography, number of sports, size of institution, history of the school, etc. What are the lessons you learned during that tenure that will help you at Rocky Mountain? 04:01 - Coming up in your career, you cut your teeth at Oklahoma City for nearly a decade under the great Jim Abbott. I imagine there are many, but what were the most important lessons you learned from Jim? 06:57 - One of the first things you had to do at RMC was conduct a football search, as your previous HC Chris Stutzriem left a few weeks after the announcement of your hiring. Walk us through how you ran a search while trying to learn about your institution and get to know stakeholders. 08:45 - You are four-five months into the role. Have you begun to put together a list of priorities, both short-term over your first year and long-term on a three/five-year track? 10:21 - How are you thinking about sport sponsorship, both the sports you do sponsor and potential additions? 11:47 - When it comes to the Frontier Conference, how do the Battlin’ Bears currently stack up and where are the areas where it is most pivotal to push to be more competitive in a very competitive league? 12:44 - One of your other early moves was to enter an exclusive live-streaming deal with Urban Edge Network. Why was that the right fit for your media rights? 14:22 - From an athletics perspective, how are you and your coaches thinking about differentiation and creating a unique value proposition as you try to recruit and retain the right student-athletes? 15:53 - What’s the biggest surprise to you since you’ve taken the role? 16:47 - How are you preparing to house a 600-pound bear? 17:54 - How do you maintain steadiness in your leadership style?