Commissioner Sonja Stills Championing Female Sports Leadership
It's time to consider MEAC Commissioner Sonja Stills is quickly emerging as one of the most influential leaders within collegiate sports. Stills has served as commissioner for two seasons. Her much smaller HBCU football programs have consistently dominated the teams of its Division I HBCU rival, the SWAC. Whether during the MEAC/SWAC Challenges in Week 0 or the Celebration Bowls, the MEAC squads have outperformed their SWAC opponents.
"Your MEAC teams are kicking the SWAC's b%&!s," I said. Commissioner Stills responded, "Yeah, we are." Without a hiccup, she smoothly transitioned from a support role for the previous commissioner, Dr. Dennis E. Thomas, to leading the second-most influential HBCU sports conference in 2021.
The senior leadership team at the conference is highly diverse, consisting of three African American women. "You always want to put people around you who are going to challenge you but also help you grow and learn," Commissioner Stills stated about her leadership team. "So I learned from everybody in the staff, and I have a fairly new young staff. It's very important that I stay abreast of what's going on because that's going to help the brand and keep our conference in touch with the various generations. Most importantly, getting my women [staff members] in positions where they have a seat at the table, where they have a voice as well."
Commissioner Sonja Stills; Credit: MEAC
Other college conferences and multi-billion-dollar professional leagues are fighting diversity and gender equity in sports issues. In contrast, the MEAC conference actively seeks ways to enhance its DEI programming. "The diversity in our front office should reflect the diversity of our student-athletes in the MEAC. With our Fab Five women ADs, our presidents recognize the opportunities provided to women leaders. We're here. We're ready. But all we need is the opportunity to serve. The leadership has set the tone, and we're doing great things," Stills glowingly remarked.
Three HBCU conferences currently have black female commissioners: Sonja Stills leads MEAC, Jacqie McWilliams leads CIAA, and Dr. Kiki Baker-Barnes leads GCAC. The Big South recently installed Sherika A. Montgomery as its first black female commissioner. There are both opportunities and challenges on the horizon.
"We created our strategic and long-range plan for the next five years. Of course, expansion is a part of that goal, but most importantly is strengthening the foundation of the eight-member schools." Any expansion will have a financial impact on the league. Stills spoke about the proposed transformations and the creation of the MEAC foundation.
The commissioner contemplated, "How can we generate revenue to help our member institutions? That's where the creation of the MEAC Foundation came about. Those donations come in to help strengthen the MEAC."
Commissioner Stills; Credit: MEAC
The MEAC Foundation will help bring back baseball to the conference, enhance the schools' infrastructure for better quality broadcasts, boost the brand, and attract potential students and new members. "We become palatable to other institutions who look to see what we're doing because it's a shared model. What's good for one is good for all. We talk about revenue share. Then everybody shares in the pot, which is very important because we have to grow together as a conference, not as individuals."
One challenge facing the MEAC and other HBCU conferences is the increasing number of student-athletes seeking NIL deals. "It doesn't make sense that you have a student-athlete rolling around in a Mercedes, but the facilities [on campus] are falling apart. It just doesn't make sense for us. We're not going to be able to compete with that. But what we can compete on is giving student-athletes a great academic education, and getting them out into the workforce, because being a student-athlete is not the end all, how you are going to affect the community and professionally represent yourself. What you get from an HBCU is that nurturance and assurance that you are going to succeed in corporate America surely."
The future of women leaders in sports seems promising with the leadership of Commissioner Sonja Stills. The challenge lies in navigating the conference through the intricacies of revenue sharing and NIL agreements. Commissioner Stills is fortunate to have a reliable team of up-and-coming female sports leaders who support her.