Director of athletics Cheryl L. Levick completed her second year at Saint Louis University by receiving the 2005-06 General Sports TURF Systems Athletic Director of the Year Award for the NCAA Division I Central Region. After leading the department through an eventful 2004-05 season, she received the honor at the annual National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention in June.
Levick has successfully led the department through its transition from Conference USA into the Atlantic 10 Conference, spearheaded fundraising for the on-campus Arena Project and the design for the adjacent practice facility and athletic offices and served on the executive committee for the 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four. She also reorganized the SLU athletic department by hiring three new associate directors of athletics and hired three new head coaches. She partnered with the St. Louis Sports Commission to successfully bid to serve as host for the 2006 NCAA Men's Soccer College Cup and established the inaugural "Get in the Game" luncheon to raise scholarship funds for female athletes. She recently concluded her tenure as the president of the NCAA Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association. Levick serves as a board member of DePaul Hospital and is a member of the Missouri Athletic Club Athletics Committee.
Before being named at Saint Louis in June 2004, Levick spent four years as the director of athletics and recreation at Santa Clara University. She was the first female athletic director to be appointed at both Santa Clara and within the West Coast Conference, entering a position in which fewer than 10 percent of Division I athletic directors nationwide are women. During her four-year tenure at SCU, Levick oversaw a time of significant growth in athletics. She reorganized the department's administrative staff, spearheaded a major renovation of its 5,000-seat basketball arena, opened a new administrative office suite, designed and broke ground on a new 1,500-seat baseball stadium, received a $42.75 million commitment from the University's capital campaign and developed a five-year strategic plan.
During her time at SCU, the department also added nine new athletic scholarships, sold out and managed the 2002 NCAA Men's Basketball West Regional and won the school's first women's NCAA title when the women's soccer team claimed the 2001 national championship.
Prior to Santa Clara, she spent 12 years at Stanford as the senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator. She served as the department's chief operating officer, overseeing the internal operations of the department and served as the primary administrator for 33 varsity sports programs that for more than a decade were considered the best in the country. She also oversaw student services, NCAA compliance and eligibility, sports medicine and strength programs, postseason championships and personnel.
During Levick's tenure at Stanford, the Cardinal won 44 national championships and six straight Sears Cup titles. She added three sports to the Cardinal program, and increased participation from 600 to 800 student-athletes, in part by the 20 scholarships she added. Administratively, Levick implemented an extensive coaches' housing assistance program, developed Stanford's own integral academic advising program and created almost two dozen positions in departments such as weight training and conditioning, compliance, athletic training and administrative support.
She was the WCC representative to the NCAA Management Council and completed a term as the chair of the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics. Levick also has served on the board of directors for the San Jose Sports Authority, the organizing committee for the Bay Area's bid for the 2012 Olympics and has been a member of the Pacific-10 Conference Council as well as several other league committees. She chaired the Local Organizing Committee for the 1999 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four, which was hosted by Stanford and held at the San Jose Arena.
The National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) honored Levick as the 2000 Division I Athletic Administrator of the Year. In 1998 and 1999, she was named one of the nation's Top 25 Female Sports Executives by Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal. In the spring of 2001, she was honored with a Bay Area Woman Achievement Award. Levick also is an active speaker on issues of sport and leadership, student-athlete welfare and gender equity. She is currently one of seven administrators nationally who serve as an executive mentor in the NCAA Fellowship Leadership Development Program.
Prior to her stint at Stanford in 1988, Levick was an assistant commissioner of the Pac-10 Conference, an assistant director of communications and women's programs at the NCAA, the women's gymnastics coach and associate athletic director at Slippery Rock University, and the assistant gymnastics coach and synchronized swim coach at Indiana University. Levick began her career at Pattonville Senior High School in St. Louis, Mo., where she coached gymnastics and assisted in coaching the women's track team.
Levick is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri, and holds a master's degree in athletic administration from Indiana University. Levick has two daughters, Heather and Melissa, and son-in-law Michael Klass.
