Adam Tschuor Named New AD at Pacific
TurnkeyZRG assisted with the search.
Adam Tschuor, who helped lead University of Dayton in athletic performance and academic achievement in the highly competitive Atlantic 10 Conference as the university’s No. 2 sports executive, will be the new athletics director at University of the Pacific, officials announced today.
Tschuor joined Dayton 11 years ago as director of ticketing and rose through the organization. He has served as the senior associate athletic director for the past six years.
Like Pacific, which plays in the West Coast Conference, University of Dayton has 17 athletics programs—10 women’s teams and seven men’s teams. Dayton’s men’s basketball has been to the NCAA Tournament four times over the past decade, including a trip to the Elite 8 in 2014.
Tschuor played an integral role in creating a dynamic fan base at UD Arena, which at 13,407 seats is the largest in the Atlantic 10 Conference and more than twice the size of the Alex G. Spanos Center. The Flyers have had 48 consecutive sellouts for men’s basketball over the past three years and are on track to sell out the upcoming season. Dayton regularly ranks in the Top 25 nationally in college basketball attendance. The “Red Scare” student section makes UD Arena notoriously difficult for opponents.
Tschuor also has been a recruiter and developer of coaching talent and a key contributor to Dayton’s highly successful fundraising, ticket-revenue generation and lucrative media contracts.
Student-athletes also have excelled academically at Dayton, which is just one of 15 universities with at least three teams earning top NCAA academic recognition in each of the past 15 years, a group that includes Harvard, Duke, Princeton, Penn, Yale, Northwestern, Brown, Dartmouth and Notre Dame.
Dayton President Eric F. Spina, who worked closely with Tschuor during his presidency over the past seven years, said the athletics executive has been “a huge part of our athletic success at the University of Dayton.”
“Adam is a person of great integrity, strong values and immense talent,” the president said. “An innovative thinker, thoughtful strategist and extremely hard worker, the students, staff, alumni and fans of Pacific will enjoy getting to know Adam.”
Pacific President Christopher Callahan heralded the appointment as “the beginning of a new era for Pacific Athletics.”
“Adam brings the precise combination of experiences, skills, values and attitude we were seeking,” Callahan said. “He is a strategic innovator and big thinker who leads through equal parts relationship building and critical data analysis–the art and science of leadership. And he has an infectious enthusiasm, optimism and energy.”
Tschuor, who will start Aug. 21, said he was attracted to the university by Pacific’s “transformative and innovative path.”
“I am deeply honored to be chosen to lead Pacific Athletics,” he said. “It is a special institution that has long been known to me as a place that has an exciting brand, core values and amazing potential.”
“At Dayton we have shown that it is possible to have nationally prominent athletics programs with integrity while still excelling in the classroom and in the community. I know that Pacific can achieve the same and I am energized to engage with our students, coaches, donors, partners, alumni, fans, the city of Stockton, the Central Valley community and beyond to achieve that.”
Before joining Dayton, Tschuor worked at Ball State University for four years in charge of ticket sales. He also taught sports management as an adjunct professor at Dayton.
Tschuor received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 2005 from Creighton University, where he played on the golf team. He earned a Master of Arts in Sports Administration in 2010 from Ball State.
He succeeds Janet Lucas, the AD since 2018 who is retiring after 43 years in college athletics.
The Pacific Tigers compete in the West Coast Conference, which includes Gonzaga University, Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University, Santa Clara University, St. Mary’s College, University of Portland, University of San Diego and University of San Francisco.
WCC Commissioner Stu Jackson applauded the move.
“President Callahan’s leadership and external vision for University of the Pacific continues to elevate the profile of the institution,” Jackson said. “He is deeply invested in the success of Pacific’s athletic department and its central role in the greater campus and Stockton communities.
“The appointment of Adam Tschuor as athletics director will further advance President Callahan’s vision for the university and its athletic department. Adam enhanced Dayton’s external operations and helped grow the profile of the campus during his service on the department’s leadership team. I look forward to getting to know Adam and working closely with him as one of our campus leaders in the West Coast Conference.”
Dan Gavitt, senior vice president of basketball at the NCAA, added his praise for a “terrific hire.”
“Adam has been an integral part of the athletics success at the University of Dayton—and in particular their excellent basketball programs,” Gavitt said. “He has also been a valued partner of the NCAA as a key member of the host institution for the First Four of March Madness. Adam is an experienced administrator and talented communicator, who will bring positive leadership to the Pacific Tigers athletics community.”
Tschuor is the newest member of Pacific’s leadership team assembled by Callahan since he started as president three years ago after 15 years as dean and vice provost at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Last month, Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert, a top academic leader at Scripps College and biology professor at Scripps, Claremont McKenna College and Pitzer College, joined Pacific as provost and executive vice president. Earlier this year, Lee Skinner, dean of Newcomb-Tulane College at Tulane University and former associate dean at Claremont McKenna, joined Pacific as dean of the College of the Pacific, the university’s liberal arts and sciences school and the largest college.
Last year, James Walsh, the No. 2 financial executive at Tufts University, joined Pacific as chief financial officer. Niraj Chaudhary was promoted to dean of the William Knox Holt Memorial Library and Learning Center. Suong Ives, chief human resources officer for Providence St. Joseph Health System and former HR chief at Clarkson University, was appointed Pacific’s first chief people officer.
In 2021, UCLA Dean for Students Maria Q. Blandizzi was named vice president for student life. Liz Orwin, head of engineering at Harvey Mudd College, another one of the Claremont Colleges, was appointed dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science. Mary Lomax-Ghirarduzzi ’89, vice provost for diversity at the University of San Francisco, was appointed Pacific’s inaugural vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Scott Biedermann ’05, ’20, who co-chaired the AD search with Professor Balint Sztaray, Pacific’s faculty athletics representative, was promoted to vice president for development and alumni relations. Christopher Ferguson, an enrollment strategist from Occidental College, was the first of the new president’s leadership hires when he was named Pacific’s vice president for enrollment strategy.
Pacific is California’s first and oldest university, founded in 1851. The university, with campuses in Stockton, Sacramento and San Francisco, is ranked as the No. 19 college in the West by The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education and in the Top 100 nationally.
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