Hocutt Announces Executive Staff Changes

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt announced Wednesday changes to his executive staff as Andrea Tirey has been named Senior Associate Athletics Director for Development and Amy Heard has been named Senior Associate Athletics Director for Leadership Development.

Jennifer Brashear, who has overseen Texas Tech's compliance office since 2005, will gain additional responsibility as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Strategic Initiatives.

FUNDRAISING
In order to provide unified and consistent stewardship of donors at all levels and capitalize on the philanthropic momentum of The Campaign for Fearless Champions, Texas Tech Athletics will integrate all fundraising efforts into the Red Raider Club under the direction of Andrea Tirey.

The expanded program includes the athletics department's annual fund, donor based seating and major gift fundraising operations that have previously operated separately. Consolidating fundraising efforts under the Red Raider Club will realize operations efficacies and enable the department to better serve donors and increase philanthropic support to student-athletes across all 17 university sports.

"Andrea is one of the premier fundraisers in the nation," Hocutt said. "Her leadership has been vital to the success of The Campaign for Fearless Champions. I am excited about the future growth of all aspects of the Red Raider Club under her direction."

Tirey joined the Texas Tech University System's Office of Institutional Advancement in 2007 as a development professional focused on academic fundraising. Building on her experience, she led fundraising efforts for the Rawls College of Business and in 2009 joined the athletics department as Senior Director of Development where she was responsible for the major gift fundraising efforts to secure major gifts supporting athletics facilities and student-athlete scholarship endowments.

During this time, Hocutt launched The Campaign for Fearless Champions. Under Tirey's leadership the Campaign has secured funding for 22 of the 25 facilities projects, doubled the department's scholarship and program endowments and established an endowment to secure the future of the J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy, a first-in-the-nation program to prepare student-athletes for success after graduation.

Tirey will continue to represent athletics as the Chief Advancement Officer for the Texas Tech University System Office of Institutional Advancement where, previously, she oversaw the fundraising operations for the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts, the Museum of Texas Tech University, the National Ranching Heritage Center, university scholarships, and the Vietnam Center and Archives.

TALKINGTON LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
A top priority for Texas Tech Athletics, The J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy is dedicated to providing comprehensive leadership programing and curriculum opportunities. Created by Hocutt and Hall of Fame Coach Marsha Sharp, the academy is designed to prepare all individuals within the athletics department team, including student-athletes, coaches and staff to best serve, compete and lead at the highest levels.

Amy Heard will now oversee the continued development of the academy, which focuses on eight pillars: career education, character development, community relations, leadership, a lectureship series, life skills, professional development and wellness. The academy and its curriculum are led through the athletics department by leadership that understands the needs of Texas Tech student-athletes.

"I am so excited that Amy is going to be closely involved with the J.T. and Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy," Sharp said. "She has a passion for leadership and shares a clear vision with Kirby Hocutt about all of the possibilities for Tech Athletics around this initiative. Our student-athletes are very fortunate that she will be involved. She is a great leader and will inspire them in many ways."

"I am excited about the future opportunities of the Leadership Academy under Amy's direction," Hocutt said. "Her service-minded leadership approach is perfect as we seek to differentiate our athletic department and provide our student-athletes with incremental advantages in sports and life."

As a Texas Tech University graduate, Heard joined the Texas Tech Athletics staff in 2002, was named Associate Athletics Director of the Red Raider Club in 2011 and Senior Associate Athletics Director in 2016. Under Heard's leadership, the Red Raider Club has achieved multiple record-setting years, including in 2013 when, for the first time in school history, all of Texas Tech's student-athlete scholarship needs were met by annual Red Raider Club funds.

Heard's tenure also included growth within the membership rolls, including a record membership year in 2014 surpassing 11,000 members. Heard was also responsible for implementing the initial priority point systems in 2003 and the 2016 program "Committed" which impacted Red Raider Club membership by combining annual seat and premium seat contributions for the first time in the department's history.

In addition to her role developing the Talkington Leadership Academy, Heard will remain the sport administrator for both the men's and women's golf teams and has increased sports supervision responsibilities with the addition of the nationally-ranked baseball program.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Jennifer Brashear will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the compliance office while also advancing strategic initiatives designed to further Texas Tech Athletics. In this new role, she has overseen Texas Tech's mobile-technology initiatives, which included the implementation of Teamworks software across the department and iPad Pros for all student-athletes.

Brashear and her staff are responsible for rules education and interpretations of NCAA legislation, continued development of policies and procedures for NCAA rules compliance, the establishment, evaluation and assessment of monitoring systems and enforcement of institutional, conference and NCAA policies.

"Jennifer has provided tremendous leadership in important areas that impact the entire athletic department," Hocutt said. "This role will position her to continue to utilize her talents in priority areas as identified to grow Texas Tech Athletics."

Brashear joined the Texas Tech compliance office in August 1997 and then was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director in 2001 and Associate Athletics Director in 2005. She assumed her current role in 2013.

In addition to these changes, Hocutt added two new members to his executive staff in early June as Tony Hernandez joined the department as Deputy Athletics Director while Greg Glaus arrived as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Academic Services.

Hocutt Announces Executive Staff Changes

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