Staff Directory
- Title:
- Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs
- Email:
Jessica Dorsey was named Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs at Stephen F. Austin State University in July 2024. In her role, she leads the department’s integrated external affairs strategy, overseeing brand management, marketing, fan experience, strategic communications, creative services, licensing and merchandise, digital platforms, and revenue-generating external operations. She also serves as the sport administrator for women’s basketball and cheer.
As a member of the department’s senior leadership team, Dorsey has helped drive transformational growth across revenue generation, brand development, and fan engagement. Her leadership has focused on modernizing the department’s external operations, strengthening campus and community partnerships, and building a more cohesive and marketable brand presence across all fan-facing platforms.
Under her leadership, Stephen F. Austin Athletics has made significant progress through initiatives such as:
- Attendance Growth: Led SFA to the No. 1 year-over-year attendance growth ranking in the Southland Conference across comparable ticketed-sport averages, increasing overall average attendance by 55%.
- Ticket Sales Revenue: Helped grow ticket sales revenue by 28%, through strategic pricing, sales planning, promotional execution, and targeted marketing.
- Football Revenue Impact: Delivered the department’s largest ticket sales revenue gain through football, increasing football ticket sales by 40% through stronger season-ticket revenue, single-game sales strategy, targeted advertising, and FCS Playoff ticket sales.
- Sport-by-Sport Growth: Drove significant attendance growth across key ticketed sports, including baseball at +126.4 percent, football at +78.1 percent, and men’s basketball at +59.1 percent, with all three ranking No. 1 in Southland attendance growth.
- Student Engagement: Grew football student attendance by 72 percent through strategic partnerships with campus stakeholders including Student Affairs, Greek Life, Residence Life, and other student-facing groups.
- Digital Innovation: Led the transformation of the department’s digital ecosystem through the launch of a redesigned athletics website, a new mobile app, and a comprehensive digital advertising strategy supporting football and men’s and women’s basketball.
- Brand Governance: Directed department-wide brand governance and licensing strategy in partnership with CLC, ensuring consistency and compliance across fan-facing, internal, and commercial touchpoints.
- Brand Modernization: Spearheaded the rollout of the “Jacks Script” marks and standardized usage across venues, creative assets, and merchandise to strengthen brand identity and elevate market presence.
- Licensing & Merchandise Partnerships: Activated strategic merchandise and licensing partnerships, including True Brvnd, Homefield, Concho, and additional brand partners, generating more than six figures in total sales and five figures in royalty revenue.
- Fan Experience Strategy: Guided game-day promotions and fan experience efforts by aligning in-venue pacing, sponsor activations, entertainment elements, student engagement, and social integration to elevate atmosphere and fan satisfaction.
- Strategic External Partnerships: Manages strategic relationships with Learfield and Paciolan to optimize multimedia rights assets, sponsorship visibility, ticketing strategy, advertising execution, and revenue generation.
Prior to Stephen F. Austin, Dorsey served as Associate Athletic Director for Marketing at DePaul University, where she oversaw advertising and game-day promotions while helping produce record-setting revenue results for women’s basketball. Before DePaul, she held positions at the University of Arizona, University of Texas, Cal State East Bay, and University of Illinois Springfield, building a career defined by revenue generation, fan development, brand strategy, and external operations leadership.
She holds a master’s degree in Sports Media from Valparaiso University and a bachelor’s degree in Sports Administration from the University of Louisville.
