SAN ANTONIO – UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos has been named a recipient of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Athletics Director of the Year honor, the Cleveland-based organization announced Monday.
Campos was one of four recipients from the Football Bowl Subdivision, including Joe Castiglione (Oklahoma), Scott Dolson (Indiana) and Dan Radakovich (Miami).
"NACDA is once again proud to recognize an impressive class of Athletics Directors of the Year who are strong, inspiring and innovative in the way they lead and serve others,” said Pat Manak, NACDA Chief Executive Officer. “For an award that spans almost three decades, we continue to honor both rising stars and industry veterans who make an impact across an ever-changing industry.”
The award has 28 winners across seven divisions (NCAA FBS, FCS, Division I-AAA, II, III, NAIA/Other Four-Year Institutions and Junior College/Community Colleges). The recipients will be recognized in conjunction with the 61st-annual NACDA & Affiliates Convention at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nev., on Tuesday, June 9.
“I’m incredibly honored to be recognized by NACDA and my peers, and I’m grateful to lead and serve all of our student-athletes, coaches and staff at UTSA,” Campos said. “This recognition reflects the commitment and championship culture of our Roadrunner family. I’m thankful for the support of Dr. Eighmy and our university leadership. I’m proud of the continued momentum of UTSA Athletics as we work to provide a first-class experience for our student-athletes as San Antonio’s nationally recognized NCAA Division I athletics program.”
Campos, who was named UTSA’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics on November 17, 2017, has made a transformative impact on the UTSA Athletics program. In 2022, she was named one of five finalists for the Sports Business Journal’s Athletic Director of the Year accolade. In 2024, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, as part of its Tribute to Women Business Leaders, honored Campos with its Promise Award, which recognizes an exceptional leader who has made a significant impact on business and the community in a short span of time in San Antonio.
Campos led UTSA Athletics into the American Conference on July 1, 2023 and the Roadrunners have excelled since joining the league. In the past year, UTSA has won regular-season conference championships in baseball and women’s basketball, as well as the conference tournament championship in soccer. The 2025 edition of the baseball team won a school-record 47 games, advanced to the NCAA Super Regional and became the first program in school history to record a top-10 NCAA finish (T9th).
During Campos’ time leading the department, UTSA’s sports programs have produced 36 All-Americans, more than 250 all-conference certificates, nearly 50 individual conference crowns, and nine team league championships.
Campos has hired 11 head coaches as UTSA’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, including Jeff Traylor, who has taken the 15-year-old Roadrunners’ football program to incredible heights. Under Traylor’s direction, UTSA has turned in six consecutive seven-plus win seasons, including a school-record 12 wins in 2021. Traylor led the Roadrunners to a pair of Conference USA Championships in 2021 and 2022. UTSA has made six consecutive bowl appearances and won three straight bowl games. The Roadrunners have won 53 games over Traylor’s tenure, averaging nearly nine victories per season, including a 33-5 home record within the Alamodome. UTSA has cracked the national top-25 in all three national polls during Traylor’s tenure and earned the program’s first victory against a top-25 team.
In 2021, Campos hired former Texas head coach Karen Aston, one of four finalists for the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year honor, to lead its women’s basketball program. Aston inherited a program that won just two games the previous season. She has directed a steady ascent of the program, including the program’s first postseason win in 2024, a school-record 25 victories in 2024-25 and the American Conference regular-season championship in 2025. Just this week, Aston led the Roadrunners to the 2026 American Conference Tournament Championship and the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2009. For the first time in program history, UTSA has made three consecutive postseason appearances. Aston was named the 2025 American Conference Coach of the Year. She coached Jordyn Jenkins to two Conference Player of the Year accolades. During Aston’s tenure, the Roadrunners have set school records for single-season attendance (1,182) and single-game attendance (2,250).
Campos, in the summer of 2019, hired Pat Hallmark to lead the UTSA Baseball program. Now in his seventh season at the helm of the Roadrunners, Hallmark has won more than 200 games. UTSA has won 30 or more games in four consecutive season, including an average of nearly 39 wins per season over the last four years. The Roadrunners have finished in the top-two of their conference standings each year, including the American Conference regular-season championship in 2025. The 47 wins last season were the most in program history and the NCAA Super Regional appearance marked the first top-10 NCAA finish in any sport at UTSA. Hallmark has led UTSA to its first-ever national rankings. He was the 2025 American Conference Coach of the Year.
Campos’ first coaching hire in May 2018 was Derek Pittman to lead the UTSA Soccer program. The Roadrunners have won league championships both in Conference USA (2022) and The American (2025), making NCAA Tournament appearances in both years. UTSA Soccer achieved its best-ever RPI rating (No. 58) this past season and set a single-season attendance record (7,045) in 2025).
Campos has spearheaded a transformational change to the athletics facilities, opening the $40.4 million Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence to serve as the hub for all of UTSA Athletics, as well as a practice facility for UTSA Football, in 2021. In 2023, the Roadrunners opened the Park West Field House to serve UTSA’s soccer and track & field student-athletes. This fall, the $35 million state-of-the-art Basketball and Volleyball Training Center will debut.
Academically, UTSA Athletics has recorded an NCAA Division I Graduation Success Rate of better than 80 percent each year of Campos’ tenure, including a department-record 92 percent GSR in the latest report. In the latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate report, UTSA Athletics achieved a 980 APR department-wide and eight teams posted a perfect 1,000 APR for the 2023-24 academic year. UTSA teams have achieved 25 single-year APR rates of 1,000 over the past three years combined.
In the fall of 2025, eight UTSA teams set grade-point-average records, while recording a departmental GPA of 3.21 for the fall semester. Of the 357 student-athletes enrolled, nearly 75 percent achieved at least a 3.0 GPA for the Fall 2025 semester, including 39 who logged a perfect 4.0 semester GPA.
Campos, herself a first-generation college graduate, has led a national model for serving first-generation student-athletes. This year, UTSA became the first school in the nation to provide first-generation jersey patches for student-athletes who are the first in their families to attend college.
Also in 2025, UTSA Athletics launched the Rowdy Creative Agency to enhance the department’s brand visibility, directly support student-athlete brand building, drive storytelling and expand the fan experience. UTSA became the first Group of 5 school to bring together all of its brand related units into an agency model to support its student-athletes.
In the summer of 2024, UTSA Athletics launched the McCombs Society, its official leadership giving society to support Roadrunners student-athletes. Roadrunner Athletic Fund members can join the McCombs Society with a minimum pledge of $25,000 over a five-year period or by contributing an annual cash gift of $25,000 or more.
Under Campos’ direction, UTSA Athletics launched the UTSA Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2023 to honor its legendary student-athletes, coaches and administrators who have shaped its history. Three classes of the UTSA Athletics Hall of Fame have now been inducted.
Campos is currently serving a four-year term on the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee. She has represented UTSA on a number of national committees, including a recent term on the NCAA Division I Council, a high-level group responsible for the day-to-day decisions that impact NCAA Division I athletics. She also served as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and on the board of the LEAD1 Association, a membership organization that represents the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Athletics Directors.
In her career, Campos also has served as chair of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Committee and has been a member of the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and the NCAA Rifle Committee.
Campos was instrumental in UTSA’s role as a host institution for the 2018 and 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Fours and the 2021 Women’s Final Four, as well as the city landing the 2026 NCAA Volleyball Championships and the 2029 Women’s Final Four.
Campos came to UTSA after five years as the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Northern Arizona University. During her time at NAU, the men’s programs won the Big Sky All-Sports Trophy four times and the women’s programs claimed the All-Sports Trophy twice. In the spring of 2017, she was recognized by the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.
Prior to her time at NAU, Campos was an associate athletics director (2003-06) and senior associate athletics director (2006-12) at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Campos earned both her bachelor’s degree in business administration and her master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Colorado State. She holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership from UTEP.
2025-26 NACDA Athletics Directors of the Year
- John Ashaolu, Lewis University (Division II)
- Keri Becker, Grand Valley State University (Division II)
- Dan Blair, Northern Essex Community College (JC/CC)
- Jamie Boggs, Grand Canyon University (DI-AAA)
- Chad Briscoe, Grace College (NAIA)
- Donnie Brooks, Macalester College (Division III)
- Lisa Campos, University of Texas at San Antonio (Division I FBS)
- Monique Carroll, Chicago State University (DI-AAA)
- Joe Castiglione, University of Oklahoma (Division I FBS)
- Chasse Conque, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Division I FCS)
- Brent Davis, College of the Sequoias (JC/CC)
- Rocko DeLuca, UC Davis (Division I FCS)
- Scott Dolson, Indiana University (Division I FBS)
- Ryan Erwin, East Texas Baptist University (Division III)
- Jesse Godding, Nelson University (NAIA)
- Anthony Grant, MIT (Division III)
- Brian Hardin, Drake University (Division I FCS)
- Curtis Janz, University of Arkansas - Fort Smith (Division II)
- Josh Looney, University of North Alabama (Division I FCS)
- Ron Pavan, Cumberland University (NAIA)
- Dan Radakovich, University of Miami (Division I FBS)
- Reagan Rossi, College of Idaho (NAIA)
- Reginald Ruffin, Tuskegee University (Division II)
- John Scarpino, Palm Beach State College (JC/CC)
- Jacqueline Schuman, University of Massachusetts Boston (Division III)
- Tony Tompkins, Johnson County Community College (JC/CC)
- Steve Waterfield, Oakland University (DI-AAA)
- Alanna Wren, University of Pennsylvania (Division I FCS)