Though McIntire’s Carrie Heilman has been teaching at UVA for 16 years, she’s officially been the current UVA faculty athletics representative for 10 months. A recent article by Virginia Athletics caught up with her to find out how she’s settling into her new role.
The “Promotions” class Professor who led McIntire’s team to a second-place finish at this year’s American Advertising Federations’ National Student Advertising Competition Finals, and a victorious showing in 2016, is now also responsible for giving a voice to both the University’s academic concerns and its student-athletes while representing them within the ACC and the NCAA.
Succeeding Curry School of Education Professor Carolyn M. Callahan, who held the position since 1997, Heilman shadowed her predecessor to the first meeting of ACC representatives and admitted that the experience made her feel as if she “had been dropped in a foreign country and had to learn a completely new culture. The lingo, the personnel, the rules, everything was new.”
Though being a faculty athletics representative comes with many challenges, including getting to know as many people as possible in UVA athletics to create the most impact, Heilman is drawing on the knowledge of her colleagues as she diligently endeavors to improve the overall student-athlete experience.
Read more about how Heilman is building relationships across Grounds at Virginia Sports.