NORFOLK, Va., March 8, 2021 – On International Women’s Day (Monday, March 8), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) salutes the women in conference leadership roles to include university presidents, athletics directors, faculty athletics representatives (FARs) and senior woman administrators (SWAs).
The MEAC has two women who sit atop of their perspective universities: Dr. Heidi M. Anderson, President of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, President of Norfolk State University.
Dr. Anderson has been president of UMES since September 2018 and has been an inspiration for women throughout the campus. A pharmacist by trade, Dr. Anderson is overseeing the construction of a new building on campus that will house the University’s School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. Aware of the academic needs of women on campus, and the importance of role models, Dr. Anderson’s leadership team includes a female provost in Dr. Nancy Niemi. Since beginning her tenure in Princess Anne, Dr. Anderson and her administration have secured multi-million-dollar donations to start a new Entrepreneurship program, are working on new majors including Sports Management and Digital Media Studies, a renewed partnership with Perdue Farms and the largest donation in University history from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Athletically, it was recently announced the school would add Women's Beach Volleyball, which will make UMES the first HBCU to offer the sport at the NCAA level.
Dr. Adams-Gaston has over three decades of higher education experience and has been at Norfolk State since June
2019. Since her arrival, she has been an advocate for the advancement of women and demonstrated her commitment by hiring the first female AD in Norfolk State history. Dr. Adams-Gaston has always been a pioneer as she was the first female African-American Vice President for Student Life at Ohio State. Under Dr. Adams-Gaston’s leadership, the university has secured numerous major grants and partnerships, including ties with Dominion Energy, Diageo North America, IBM, the Southern Company, USAA, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix and the Sandia National Laboratory. In December 2020, the university was gifted $40 million —the largest gift in its 85-year history—by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Dr. Anderson and Dr. Adams-Gaston both have backgrounds in the healthcare field with Dr. Anderson’s background in pharmacy while Dr. Adams-Gaston has a background in counseling.
The MEAC also has two female ADs: Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree of North Carolina Central and Melody Webb of Norfolk State. Dr. Wicker McCree has been at NCCU since 1994, starting as a volleyball and softball coach and later becoming SWA and then AD in 2008. During her time as AD, McCree has led the reclassification process from Division II to Division I as a returning member of the MEAC; oversaw more than $2 million in facility improvements and renovations; celebrated multiple conference championships and NCAA postseason appearances; served on several decision-making committees, including the NCAA Division I Council since 2017; and earned numerous awards, including 2017-18 Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year (FCS) by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).
Webb is in her first year at the helm of Norfolk State athletics, where she served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration and Senior Woman Administrator for six years prior to becoming the athletics director. Webb made history by becoming the first female to hold the role. During her time at Norfolk State, she helped to provide strategies that drove revenue streams while increasing brand management and awareness to support the mission and vision of NSU athletics. Under her leadership, Webb oversaw more than $2 million in facility upgrades and renovations, including the installation of video scoreboards, locker room renovations, replacement of the original court in Joseph G Echols Hall and the installation of new artificial turf at Dick Price Stadium.
Another key component of the MEAC leadership are the faculty athletics representatives (FARs) and senior woman administrators (SWAs), who both make up a key part of the Delegate Assembly, the MEAC's governing body. The female FARs are Carla Lester (Bethune-Cookman), Dr, Deborah Johnson (Howard), Dr. Gwendolyn Highsmith-Quick (North Carolina A&T State) and Dr. Deborah Fortune (North Carolina Central). and the SWAs are Sandra Booker (Bethune-Cookman), Nichole Person (Coppin State), Alecia Shields-Gadson (Delaware State), Karai Lockley (Florida A&M), Amy Olson (Howard), Dr. Kristin Drummond (Maryland-Easton Shore), Erlease Wagner (Morgan State), Alisha Tucker (Norfolk State), Shawan Hendrix (North Carolina A&T State), Kendra Greene (North Carolina Central) and Melissa Dawson (South Carolina State).
The MEAC salutes all these women as they continue to be trendsetters in the field of college athletics and lead the MEAC to a bigger and brighter future.
About the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) celebrates its 50
th year of intercollegiate competition with the 2020-21 academic school year. Located in Norfolk, Va., the MEAC is made up of 11 outstanding historically black institutions across the Atlantic coastline: Bethune-Cookman University, Coppin State University, Delaware State University, Florida A&M University, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University and South Carolina State University.