Supplier Voice Episode 11: Inside the CENTERS Model — Rethinking Managed Campus Recreation Operations by Campus Rec Magazine

Episode 44: Global Campus Rec Leadership with Zarko Krkeljas by Campus Rec Magazine

Episode 43: Campus Recreation Hiring and Onboarding with Larry Mellinger by Campus Rec Magazine

Supplier Voice Episode 10: Powering Change — SportsArt Turns Campus Workouts into Sustainable Action by Campus Rec Magazine

It’s time to go behind the curtain of the director role and have honest discussions with leaders in the campus recreation industry.

In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, sits down with Dr. Iisha Voltz, the executive director of Recreation and Well-Being at Texas Southern University.

Voltz shares her incredible journey from student fitness attendant to executive director at one of the nation’s largest HBCUs — all within the same campus. With over 20 years of service and 15 as a director, her story highlights the power of consistency, student impact, and leading with clarity and heart. She also opens up about her role in Project COURAGE, her passion for student leadership and what it means to lead at an HBCU.

It’s time to go behind the curtain of the director role and have honest discussions with leaders in the campus recreation industry.

In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, chats with Eric Barron, director of University Recreation and Fitness & Wellness at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

Barron’s journey is anything but ordinary — from a start in tactical strength and conditioning to years as an assistant director, to suddenly stepping into the director role in the middle of leadership transitions. His story highlights resilience, strategic thinking, and the importance of focusing on progress over perfection.

As one of only four directors in UMB Campus Rec’s history, Barron has embraced leading a small but mighty team serving a unique professional-school population. He shares how he’s building trust, shaping vision and leveraging wellness as a unifying message across a campus filled with future doctors, dentists and social workers.

It’s time to go behind the curtain of the director role and have honest discussions with leaders in the campus recreation industry.

In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, chats with Yvette Kell, the director of Campus Recreation at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

With nearly three decades of experience in the field, Kell brings both humor and hard-won wisdom to the director chair. From managing a groundbreaking wellness facility at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to teaching English in Korea after a career setback, her story is one of grit, growth and grit again. She opens up about the mental toll of leadership, the importance of reframing failure and why embracing lifelong learning has been key to her success.

It’s time to go behind the curtain of the director role and have honest discussions with leaders in the campus recreation industry.  

 

In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, chats with Jerrod Jackson, the director of MizzouRec Services and Facilities at the University of Missouri.

Jerrod Jackson’s leadership journey has taken him across some of the most well-known programs in collegiate recreation — including Texas A&M, LSU, and Nebraska — before stepping into his current role at Mizzou. With a career built on loyalty, humility, and a willingness to grow through every challenge, Jackson brings a refreshing level of honesty to the realities of campus rec leadership.

Jackson and Sheffield discuss everything from what it really takes to be ready for a director role to how to build relationships that move your department forward. With humor, passion, and vulnerability, Jackson offers a candid look at the highs and lows of leading one of the nation’s most iconic recreation centers.

In this episode, Jerrod Jackson discusses:

• Why years of experience alone don’t make you ready to be a director.

• How mentors and missed opportunities shaped his path to Mizzou.

• The lessons he learned from stints at LSU and Nebraska, and how they prepared him for success.

• How transparency with staff fosters trust, ownership, and a shared vision.

• The loneliness of leadership and why building a peer network is critical.

• What he misses about direct student engagement — and where he finds joy now.

• The importance of balancing self-critique with grace, and learning to say “I don’t know.”

• His biggest wins at Mizzou, from rebuilding org charts to securing new food service options.

Whether you’re new to the profession or eyeing your next leadership move, this episode offers practical lessons and heartfelt reflection on what it means to grow — and lead — in campus recreation.

In this episode, host Grady Sheffield, the director of Campus Recreation at Towson University and senior advisor to Campus Rec Magazine, chats with John MacDonald, the director of Campus Recreation Services at the University of Utah.

MacDonald didn’t follow the traditional path into campus rec. With roots in outdoor retail and no undergraduate experience in recreation, he stepped into the field by building an outdoor program from the ground up. Since then, his career has been defined by authenticity, humility and a passion for connecting people — both on campus and beyond.

Sheffield and MacDonald dive into the nuances of team development, the role of data in storytelling and what it really means to be a connector on campus. MacDonald’s leadership philosophy is a masterclass in meeting people where they are while never losing sight of the mission.

Episode 37: What They Don’t Tell You About Becoming a Director with Eric Hawkes and Dax Kuykendall by Campus Rec Magazine