Prairie View A&M President Dr. George Wright officially announced Ashley Robinson as the incoming Athletic Director for the University on Tuesday in the A.I. Thomas Administration Building. Robinson is the currently the Mississippi Valley State Athletic Director and is no stranger to Prairie View A&M. He served as the Assistant Vice President of Athletic Compliance & Academic Advising for three years before his nine-month stint as the MVSU Athletic Director.
The selection of Robinson as the Athletic Director concludes a nationwide search which spanned nearly three months after former PVAMU Athletic Director Fred Washington announced he would be stepping down to focus on his role as the Vice President of Auxiliary Services.
Mississippi Valley State won Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships in Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Soccer and Softball since Robinson assumed command as the Athletic Director on Sept. 17, 2012. He will take over a Prairie View A&M Athletics Department that has claimed its second-consecutive SWAC Commissioners Cup, which is awarded to the most successful University in terms of athletic achievement each season.
In the 2012-13 athletic season, Prairie View A&M won championships in men’s indoor track, women’s basketball, bowling and men’s tennis. The Panthers were also runners-up in several sports including: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s indoor track & field, women’s outdoor track & field, men’s outdoor track & field and men’s cross country.
Robinson said that providing Prairie View A&M with the coaches and resources necessary to continue winning is one of his goals as an athletic director. He will have a solid foundation of recent success to build on.
A native of Jackson, Miss., Robinson was a four-year letterman in basketball and is the single season and career record-holder in assists after playing point guard for the Mississippi Valley State University basketball team. Robinson also was named MVSU Athlete of the Year in 2002, receiving the President’s Scholar Award in that same year.
In August of 2006, Robinson left Mississippi Valley to begin a career in athletic administration as an academic coordinator at Delaware State University in Dover, Del. Robinson helped implement a comprehensive academic support system for the department’s 300 student-athletes and was the department’s liaison to DSU’s faculty, campus academic offices and support services. He also assisted with the CHAMPS / Life Skills and Student-Athlete Advisory (SAAC) Board.
After eight months in Delaware, Robinson received the opportunity to return home as he accepted the position of assistant compliance director at Jackson State University. His duties included assisting the compliance director in eligibility, student-athlete certification and reinstatement and enforcing the compliance bylaws of the NCAA, SWAC and Jackson State. Robinson continued to advance up the compliance ranks by returning to his alma mater of Mississippi Valley State as the athletic department’s compliance director in August of 2007.
In July of 2008, Robinson was named the SWAC’S Assistant Commissioner for Compliance. As the SWAC’s Assistant Commissioner, Robinson supervised a NCAA Division I Collegiate Conference Compliance and Academic Service department, the National Letter of Intent (NLI) program and was a liaison between the conference and the NCAA for rules, interpretations and appeals. He served as liaison to faculty athletic representatives, athletic directors and compliance directors. He also served as the conference office sport administrator for men’s and women’s basketball, track & field and volleyball in addition to event management assistance in terms of staffing, budgeting and coordinating.
Robinson is an active member of the NCAA Division I Legislative Council, NCAA DI External Advisory Group and the National Association for Athletic Compliance (NAAC). He also is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., the Black Coaches Association (BCA) the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA) and the Mo Williams Foundation.
Courtesy: PVAMU Sports Information
