New-ish Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Leslie Shevlin discusses her return to Willamette

Leslie Shelvin. Photo courtesy of the Willamette Athletics Department.

This August, Rob Passage transitioned into a role in HR after eight years serving as Willamette’s director of intercollegiate athletics, allowing former Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Leslie Shevlin to take over the role. After a year in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Shevlin returned to Salem to fill the AD position. The Collegian got to sit down with her to talk about what this job means to her and her vision for Willamette’s athletics department. The following are excerpts of said interview.

Interviewer:. What drew you back to Willamette?

Leslie: I mean, this is where my family is, and I was here for 15 years with a strong connection to the institution and the community. I hope to grow connections with the community in this environment, very important and hopefully impactful role. … I wanted to be an athletic director where my family wants to be, in the Pacific Northwest and Salem. 

Interviewer: So how much of a role did family play in your decision to come back? 

Leslie: A lot. I’ve been wanting to be an athletic director for a while, but while I was at Williams [College], I didn’t apply for a bunch of jobs to get out. I was planning to be there for a bit. … It was [the opening of] this job specifically that brought me back. 

…

Interviewer: How are you enjoying your first month? 

Leslie: It’s good. It’s a lot. Athletics … really is going on all summer. … I came back pretty quickly because we had folks on campus starting Aug. 12. I’m just trying to balance being on board and kind of being along for the ride while asking a lot of questions and not making too many sweeping changes too quickly because that would be really hard for folks. 

And really, even though I was here before, this is a different role. Willamette has evolved and had successes and challenges the whole time I’ve been here before, so I’ve just been trying to relearn and ask a lot of questions in this first month. But it’s been fun being at some soccer games and seeing the women win on Sunday [Sept. 7 vs Warner Pacific] and being at football games trying to reconnect. I love connecting with the families and the student-athletes. It’s a little harder in this role to get to do that as much [when compared with my former role].

Interviewer: Can you briefly explain the difference between your job now and the job you had before at Willamette?

Leslie: In the associate athletic director role that I had before, I was in partnership with 

the athletic director, helping to make a lot of decisions. Ultimately, [former AD Passage] was making a lot of the decisions. But now, the big difference is I’m asking for the input and then ultimately I’m the one either making decisions or asking my boss if I can make decisions. I supervised coaches a little bit while I was here as an associate AD. It was one of the primary roles I held at Williams College, supervising 12 of their sports. And here now, I am more or less supervising all the head coaches that we have. So that’s a lot more — needing to meet with them one-on-one, needing to check in on scheduling and gear purchasing and all that kind of stuff, that’s now all going through me. And I’m still doing some of the things I did as an associate AD as it relates to the budget and finance. 

Interviewer: I know you’ve only been gone a year, but have there been any major changes at Willamette? 

Leslie: I mean luckily, I’m really grateful all the head coaches were still the same. So that’s 

nice because it’s actually allowed me to be a little bit more task-focused. Normally, it probably would have just been [just] shaking hands for the first month, so that’s been really helpful. I don’t know how much has changed, but it’s interesting how quickly you forget the processes. They seem brand new to me even though I was doing them before. 

Interviewer: The last question I have for you is, “What do you plan on doing for the future?” 

Leslie: Yeah, that is a question you should definitely come to and ask me again next fall. In all honesty, sometimes we see leaders come in, and they have such a strong vision that they start making changes without talking to people who those changes are going to affect. And I want to be really mindful …. If I see something that needs to be adjusted, and it’s critical to student-athlete health and safety, we’re going to make those changes. But outside of that, I need my coaches’ inputs. I need conversations with my boss before we make any big changes that will affect student or coach experience. So I will, again, not this January, but a year from this January, hope to have a … kind of strategic 10-year plan for the athletics department. I have my vision, but again, it’s gotta fit with the goals of the institution. Or it’ll always be a challenge.