My guest today studies higher education and athletic leadership. Dr. Jennifer Lee Hoffman is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington, where she heads up the Center for Leadership in Athletics. She recently published a book called “College Sports and Institutional Values in Competition”.

We discussed the disconnect between college's recognition of promoting and rewarding student "volunteerism" and athletic department's discouragement (and, at times, outright banning) of athlete activism. It's worth exploring the dissonance that college athletes feel on this and other topics, and we do in this podcast. We also talked about the tension that exists in the environment around an institution—economics, cultural, structural and regulatory, all demonstrating that having strong internal leadership over athletics is critical to navigating these competing forces.