ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is once again excited to begin Leadership Academy sessions for the Fall 2020 semester. The initial relaunch meeting for this academic school year will be held Thursday evening, September 17 at 8 p.m. via Zoom conference call. All Leadership Academy meetings for the fall semester will be held on Thursday nights.
 
Associate Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreational Sports, Susan Bassett '79, will commence the Leadership Academy meeting with greetings and opening remarks, as well as discuss resiliency and responsibility of the current student-athletes at IC. Bassett will then introduce Thursday evening's keynote speaker of the evening, Dr. Sean Reid.
 
"There is no more important time for Bomber Leadership than now," said Bassett. "We are compelled to continue our important work of equipping our student-athletes with excellent decision-making abilities along with the skill to hold themselves and others accountable. While our format will be different in the remote environment, the work will be the same high-quality program."
 
Reid, the former dean of Ithaca's School of Business, is now the Provost and Senior Vice President at Providence College. During his time on South Hill, Reid was a tremendous IC athletics supporter and was a true ambassador of the College.
 
After Reid's remarks, Associate Director of Athletics and SAAC advisor, Erienne Roberts, will outline the initiatives of this year's committee and introduce SAAC co-chairs junior Warren Watson from the football program and junior Victoria Sestito from field hockey.
 
The evening will conclude with plans for the 2020 Fall Leadership Academy as laid out Dr. Greg Shelley, the director of the Leadership Academy. Shelley will convert our programming to a comprehensive virtual experience for the Fall 2020. The approach this fall will be to continue delivering elite leadership curriculum as prepared by Shelley, with the coaching staff serving as team facilitators in our discussions.
 
After the relaunch meeting tomorrow evening, student-athletes will engage in six additional Leadership Academy gatherings, which will all last one hour and fifteen minutes. Within those sessions, student-athletes with the fall, winter, and spring sport will mix in the large group/class sessions, with break-out sessions by team with discussions led by the coaches.
 
Four-hundred student-athletes are members of the Leadership Academy this fall. The sophomore class makes us the largest constituency with 161 student-athletes, while the junior cohort is represented by 136 members, and the senior class is represented by 103 students.
 
"Every year, we look forward to launching the Leadership Academy," continued Bassett. "We have 400 student-athletes enrolled in the Academy this fall. I am confident we will continue to build a culture of leadership within the IC Athletics family. I am grateful to Dr. Greg Shelley for his work as the director of the academy.  Tonight will be special as well because we will get to acknowledge our 12th man, Dr. Sean Reid, former Dean of the School of Business, now Senior VP and Provost at Providence College. I look forward to hearing his message on leadership."