School of Recreation and Sport Sciences
Assistant Professor, Sports Administration

Office: Grover Center E180
Phone: (740) 597-1520
E-mail: lawrench@ohio.edu

Heather Lawrence, originally from Issaquah (WA), earned her Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Florida, and also received bachelor and master's degrees in sport administration from Florida. She is currently a visiting professor in the College of Business at IE University in Madrid where she teaches a graduate event management course for sport management students. Beginning in 2010, Dr. Lawrence also assumed the role of Director of the OHIO Sports Business Academy. In 2007-08, Dr. Lawrence was named a University Professor Award recipient, which is awarded to five Ohio University faculty annually in recognition of outstanding teaching. Prior to beginning her academic career, Dr. Lawrence worked in various administrative positions within intercollegiate athletics. At the University of Florida, she worked in NCAA compliance, was responsible for select facility renovation projects, provided administrative support to the swimming and diving teams, and assisted with football, baseball, and basketball game operations.

The experiences at Florida allowed her to step into her next role at Southeastern Louisiana University as Associate Director of Athletics/Senior Woman Administrator. At Southeastern, Dr. Lawrence was instrumental in the launch of a Division IAA football team for the school. Her football responsibilities included; facility upgrades, game day operations, budgeting, staffing, community preparation, and communication with university administrators. She was also responsible for ten sport programs, event/facility operations for all sports, the strength and conditioning program, academic services, and CHAMPS/Lifeskills.

In 2009, her first textbook was published, “Event Management Blueprint: Creating and Managing Successful Sports Events” which she co-edited with Michelle Wells (’97). Dr. Lawrence also completed the three-year NCAA CHOICES grant in 2009 which was geared towards curbing heavy drinking among college students and specifically student-athletes. Other recent research projects have focused on the student-athlete recruiting experience, legal aspects of the official visit, luxury suite ownership in professional sports, and how to provide quality compliance internships for students. She has previously served as the Chief Report Writer for the NCAA Athletics Certification Process at Ohio University and is a Peer Reviewer for the NCAA Division I Athletics Certification Program.

As a student-athlete, Dr. Lawrence was a NCAA All-American diver, U.S. National Team member, and Southeastern Conference Champion.

The following list includes a selection of Dr. Lawrence’s recent scholarly work:

Titlebaum, P. & Lawrence, H. J. (2010). Inside the world of suite administrators/coordinators. SEAT.

Lawrence, H.J. & Wells, M. (Eds.). (2009). Event management blueprint: Creating and managing successful sports events. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

Titlebaum, P. & Lawrence, H. J. (2009). Luxury suite sales in professional sport: Obtaining and retaining clients. Journal of Contemporary Athletics. 4(3), 169-181.

Lawrence, H. J., Mullin, C., & Horton, D. (2009). Considerations for community college athletic programs. In L. S. Hagedorn & D. Horton (Eds.), New Directions for Community Colleges. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 149.

Kaburakis, A., Pierce, D. A., Fleming, O. M., Clavio, G. E., Lawrence, H. J., & Dziuba, D. A. (2009). “It’s in the likeness”. NCAA student-athletes’ rights of publicity, EA Sports, and the video-game industry. Entertainment & Sports Lawyer. 27(2), 1, 14-34.

Lawrence, H. J. & Wright, A., (2009). A Four-year plan: Preparing your athletes for college recruiting. Interscholastic Athletic Administration. 36(1), 8-11.

Lawrence, H. J., & Moberg, C. R. (2009). Luxury suites and team selling in professional sport. Team Performance Management.15(3/4). 185-201.

Lawrence, H. J., Kahler, J., & Contorno, R. (2009). An examination of luxury suite ownership in professional sports. The Journal of Venue and Event Management. 1(1). 1-18.

Lawrence, H. J., Merckx, C., & Hebert, E. (2009). The official visit experience of NCAA division I recruited student-athletes. The SMART Journal. 5(1). 69-83.

Ridpath, B., Galles, K., Yiamouyiannis, A., & Lawrence, H. J. (2008). Changing sides: The failure of the wrestling community’s challenges to Title IX and new strategies for saving NCAA sport teams. Journal of IntercollegiateSport, 1(2), 255-283.

Lawrence, H. J., Kaburakis, A., & Merckx, C. (2008).  NCAA Division I Recruiting: Identifying and mitigating institutional risk associated with the official visit. The Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, 18(1), 89-125.