News

Professor Steve McKelvey has been appointed the new chair of the McCormack Department of Sport Management, housed in the Isenberg School of Management. McKelvey replaces Janet Fink, who served in the role for the past six years and will become Isenberg’s Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. 

McKelvey has served as the department’s Associate Department Chair for External Engagement since 2015 with a focus on fundraising and development to generate financial support for scholarships and other department initiatives, including the move of the annual McCormack Sport Leaders Forum to New York City. Additionally, since 2007, he has served as Graduate Program Director for the MBA/MS (dual) and MS Sport Management program, currently the top-ranked graduate program in the world.

“As an alumnus of the sport management program, I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to serve as department chair and build on the successes of our program,” says McKelvey, who earned his MS in sport management and his JD from Seton Hall School of Law. “I am fortunate to take the reins of a department that has a world-renowned faculty dedicated to our mission of educating and inspiring students for career success.”

With McKelvey moving into the chair role, Associate Professor Nicole Melton (left), who previously served as the department’s Undergraduate Program Director, will assume the role of Associate Department Chair. Assistant Professor Matt Katz (right) will replace Melton as Undergraduate Program Director.

McKelvey is a noted authority on the topic of “ambush marketing,” and his research examines issues at the nexus of sport marketing, sponsorship, and law. He has received the highest achievement award for both the Sport Marketing Association (William Sutton Award) and the Sport & Recreation Law Association (Betty Van der Smissen Leadership Award), where he has also been recognized as a Research Fellow. He is a former president of SRLA, and served for six years as a Vice President, Industry Relations for the Sport Marketing Association. 

Prior to joining the UMass Amherst faculty in 2002, McKelvey worked in the sport marketing industry in New York City for 15 years, including six in the corporate sponsorship department in Major League Baseball’s Commissioners Office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Amherst College.

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Contact: Marissa Randall, mrandall@isenberg.umass.edu, 413-577-0526