CAST LIVE: My Leadership Journey with Dr. Lisa Campos

Dr. Lisa Campos, UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, shares her leadership journey with students from CAST Teach High School in Northside ISD.

Introduced as UTSA’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletics Director on Nov. 17, 2017, Dr. Lisa Campos has made an immediate and positive impact on the athletics department, university and community during her time in San Antonio.

One of Campos’ first tasks upon her hiring was to develop and implement a new strategic plan for the future of UTSA Athletics and align with UTSA President Taylor Eighmy’s vision and strategic initiatives for the university. Less than one year later, she introduced the Roadrunner Game Plan, which utilizes three winning values — Excellence, Integrity and Unity — to focus on developing and enhancing the student-athlete experience, creating a culture of excellence, developing resources and uniting the community. The plan’s emphasis to develop champions in the classroom, in competition and in life has been evident during her tenure.

In the last three years, UTSA student-athletes have set numerous department records for academic success including achieving an 82% graduation success rate in the most recent report and currently boasting an average team GPA of 3.24 as of the Spring 2022 semester. Additionally, student-athletes have collected more than 200 Conference USA Commissioner’s academic medals and over 800 C-USA Honor Roll certificates during her tenure.

Under her leadership, UTSA’s sport programs have produced 13 All-Americans, earned more than 150 all-conference honors and captured 24 individual conference titles and a trio of team conference crowns in the last three years including the 2021 C-USA Football Championship.

In her second year at the helm, Campos led a campus-wide collaboration with Brenda Tracy, a sexual assault survivor, public speaker and founder of the national campaign and nonprofit, Set The Expectation. Their work led to UTSA becoming the first university in the nation to implement the Tracy Rule, the most comprehensive Serious Misconduct rule in the NCAA.

Campos also has overseen the implementation of the Roadrunner Leadership and Professional Development Academy, which offers personal wellness, freshman transition and career development workshops to UTSA’s 350-plus student-athletes. She also introduced UTSA Athletics Diversity & Inclusion Excellence, an initiative that seeks to foster a diverse and inclusive culture for the entire campus.

In June 2021, Campos helped UTSA become one of the first Conference USA institutions to introduce an educational and life skills program in anticipation of NCAA and state legislation related to name, image and likeness (NIL) activities. Runners Go Bold is a comprehensive program providing Roadrunner student-athletes with the knowledge and skills to build their personal brands and financial acumen.

Campos also worked closely with the Roadrunner Foundation and colleagues on campus to guide one of the most ambitious projects in the history of UTSA Athletics — the development of the new state-of-the-art Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence, which opened in August 2021. The $40.8 million, 94,700-square-foot facility serves as the central hub for UTSA Athletics and promotes the academic success, health, wellness and performance of student-athletes.

Campos has overseen the highest fundraising year in UTSA Athletics history, while also achieving the highest back-to-back fundraising years in department history. She also engineered a balanced 2020 fiscal year budget despite a major loss of revenue resulting from the pandemic.

Under Campos’ leadership, UTSA Athletics has increased its brand presence and awareness in San Antonio and has extended its community outreach initiatives, including Operation Defend the Dome, a ticket donation program for area active-duty and veteran military members and their families. As a result, 42,071 fans — the second-largest home crowd in UTSA football history — packed the Alamodome against Baylor on Sept. 8, 2018. Additionally, UTSA led Conference USA in average home attendance during her first full football season in the Alamo City and again in 2021, drawing 41,148 fans to the conference championship game, the third-largest crowd in program history, and an average of 26,643 for seven home games.

Campos also served as a panelist for the 2018 Greater San Antonio Women in Leadership Symposium, and she was instrumental in UTSA’s role as host institution for the 2018 Men’s Final Four and 2021 Women’s Final Four and in the city landing the 2025 Men’s Final Four.

Nationally, Campos currently sits on the NCAA Division I Council, a high-level group responsible for the day-to-day decisions that impact Division I athletics. She also serves as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and on the board of the LEAD1 Association, a membership organization that represents the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision athletics directors.

Campos also has served as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and NCAA Women’s Soccer Committee, and has been a member of the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee, NCAA Division I Championships/ Competition Cabinet and NCAA Rifle Committee.

Campos came to UTSA after five years as the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Northern Arizona University (NAU), where she led the athletics department through a rebrand and transformed it into one of the Big Sky Conference’s premier programs.

During her time in Flagstaff, NAU captured 32 Big Sky and Western Athletic Conference championships and nine teams advanced to NCAA postseason competition, including the first NCAA Division I Championship in school history by the men’s cross country team in 2016.

Under her leadership, the Lumberjacks collected two Big Sky Conference Presidents’ Cup trophies for overall excellence in competition and in the classroom. The Lumberjacks’ athletic achievements led to the men’s programs winning the Big Sky All-Sports Trophy four consecutive times from 2014-17. The women’s teams captured the trophy in 2014 and 2017.

In the 2016-17 academic year, NAU won eight conference championships and swept the Big Sky All-Sports Trophies for the second time under Campos’ guidance.

When Campos was named Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at NAU, she became one of 26 females and the youngest in the country to lead a Division I program at the time of her hire. In Spring 2017, she was recognized by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.

Prior to her time at NAU, Campos was an associate athletics director (2003-06) and senior associate athletics director (2006-12) at UTEP after serving as the university’s assistant dean of students from 2001-03.

During her time in El Paso, she cultivated several significant gifts to the program and oversaw a multimillion-dollar budget. Campos also served as sport administrator for the men’s and women’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s basketball and men’s and women’s track & field programs. Campos also was the primary administrator for compliance, CHAMPS/Life Skills, strength and conditioning, sports medicine and cheerleading.

Besides serving on a number of NCAA committees while at UTEP, Campos also was a member of the Conference USA Joint Group and served on the Senior Woman Administrator administrative group. In 2005-06, when UTEP joined Conference USA, she served on the C-USA Strategic Planning Committee and assisted in the development of the realigned Conference USA’s vision, core values, mission and strategic objectives. She also represented UTEP on conference committees, including the budget subcommittee, legislative committee, championships selection committee and various sport committees.

Campos earned both her bachelor’s degree in business administration and her master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Colorado State. She holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership from UTEP.

She and her husband, Darren D’Attilio, have a son, Christopher.