China Jude Is Building an Inclusive Community in VP Role with the Broncos

The vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion is the first woman of color to hold a role of that level in the Denver Broncos organization.

Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are putting the spotlight on the diverse journeys of Black women across sports—from the veteran athletes, to up-and-coming stars, coaches, executives and more—in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women in Sports.

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China Jude has several cherished professional accomplishments, but being the first woman of color to fill a vice president position with the Denver Broncos isn’t one of them. The team’s vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion also holds a spot on USA Today’s 2022 list of the 50 Most Influential Black People in Sports, is part of CORE’s 2022 100 Most Influential Blacks Today and was named a Sports Business Journal Game Changer in 2020—but those don’t make the list either. Instead, Jude is most proud of herself for sticking with her passions, especially after enduring a lot of criticism in her career prior to joining the Broncos, when she served as a college athletic director.

“In the collegiate industry, I wasn’t even fit to be an athletic director. I was passed up. Rejected for so many athletic director jobs in the Division I level. … [I] started questioning myself,” Jude says. “I’m very proud that I didn’t let the collegiate level defeat me.”

Jude’s campaign with collegiate athletics started at Alabama State, where she played volleyball. She then went on to coach at both North Carolina at Wilmington and Coppin State, where she rose through the ranks to get her first administrative position: assistant athletic director. From there she worked as an AD at Division II’s University of the District of Columbia and Cheyney University, in addition to working as the assistant vice president for athletics at Queens College. 

Eventually, despite greatly appreciating her time at those institutions, Jude wanted to go somewhere with a prominent football program where she could truly demonstrate her love for the sport. That place ended up being Wyoming, where she stayed for three years while serving as the senior associate athletic director, the athletics diversity and inclusion designee, and as a member of the university’s DEI council.

“I needed football in my portfolio. I loved it so much. I left my affiliate director role to take a position cut and a pay cut to go,” Jude says. “[Wyoming] gave me the opportunity to learn about an environment that you really don’t see a lot of people of color there, and it had great football.”

Jude’s love for football started in high school but was cemented in her years as editor of the student newspaper at Alabama State. She wrote about the team and spent time with the players and coaches for interviews, and her appreciation and investment into the game grew from there.

From then on, she stayed connected to the game and waited patiently for her opportunity to work with it on a larger scale. But it’s not like that opportunity came to her easily.

“I always wanted to be involved with football in a professional sense, but the opportunities weren’t always present … [and] I did not make it public because there were not a lot of women,” Jude explains.

The first 15 years of her career, she says, were met with a lot of sexism and regular stereotyping. Additionally, her time as an athletic director was spent with her qualifications and intentions constantly questioned.

Wyoming's China Leigh Jude on diversity education and mentorship: "We have to step outside of our comfort zone." #sbjiaf pic.twitter.com/uJy2JUMFno

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) December 11, 2019

In early 2021 Jude connected with a search firm about some of its DEI content, and the firm told Jude about the Broncos position. Initially Jude told them that she would look for some applicants to refer for the job, but in the end she decided to apply for it herself. She was hired in April 2021.

But what may seem like a happy coincidence to others was instead a manifestation of Jude’s persistence.

“[I] realized that that maybe all these rejections were God’s way of saying that He has something bigger for you. Get out of that space. There’s something on the other side you haven’t seen yet. … I didn’t pray for a job. I prayed for patience,” she says.

Jude’s role as VP of DEI is a newly created post within the league—she works with the heads of football, community and business branches on incorporating different DEI strategies and plans to impact the culture, learning and external community of the organization. Jude implements those strategies through five different frameworks: awareness, education, processes, policies and finances. Her engagement spans across the whole corporation, from making the shareholders aware of new federal statutes like the CROWN Act (which prohibits discrimination based on hair texture or style) to helping judge the dance team interviews to make sure the team is inclusive and diverse. She has goals to implement positive change to every level to the Broncos establishment while utilizing all her resources to work for underrepresented populations.

“I truly believe that when we’re working in any industry, DEI should be incorporated in every aspect of a company or organization. … [This position] combines my love for football and my passion for diversity, equity and inclusion together. It’s just a true blessing,” Jude says.

Joining and helping to form communities for underrepresented groups is something that Jude does outside of the workplace as well: she was one of the top three people recognized by the Broncos for having the most service hours. Especially after spending time in the U.S. Naval Reserves, her favorite initiative was the gun buyback program that she brought to the Broncos after a successful implementation in locales she worked with in the past. Jude remembers the event fondly: “It was the most empowering experience. We took, I think, 1,000 guns off the street for the various buyback programs that we had in the community.”

Another part of Jude’s career and outreach highlights her ties to those in the sports arena: She supports youth and minorities who are trying to break through in the sports industry. Acknowledging her own trials she faced, Jude does her best to help those she could avoid those same hurdles. She served on the board as president of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (a nonprofit also known as MOAA) and established her own Women of Color Athletic Director network in 2015 when she realized there were only 30 women of color (out of more than 1,000 institutions) holding the position at the time.

“I keep trying to find all different communities so I can connect. I think that’s important. … If I can’t find it, I can just be a part of building it,” Jude says. 

Nyala Pendergrass is a contributor for Empower Onyx, a diverse multi-channel platform celebrating the stories and transformative power of sports for Black women and girls.