Technology and New Media: Reshaping the Future of Sports, Journalism and Advocacy    [Print This Page] Time: Part One: 2-3:15 p.m. Part Two: 3:45-5 p.m. Date: Thursday, Sept. 11 Place: Neff Auditorium Some of the foremost issues facing our country - compromise, conflicts of interest, wealth/poverty distribution - all intersect with sports. Join sports journalists, current and former athletes, fans, sports business representatives, sports officials, and a diverse contingent of guests as we look beyond the game hype and the highlights and explore this topic. The discussion will include two sessions that will complement each other, allowing for a full, in-depth discussion of the issues. This session is co-sponsored by ESPN. Moderator: John Anderson Anchor SportsCenter on ESPN John Anderson, BJ '87, is the award-winning anchor of ESPN's flagship program, SportsCenter. Anderson came to ESPN in 1999 from KPHO-TV in Phoenix, where he was a weekend sports anchor from 1996 to 1999. He had worked previously as a sports reporter and weekend anchor at KOTV in Tulsa, Okla., and as a sports photographer and reporter at KTUL-TV, also in Tulsa. He began his career after graduation at NBC-affiliate KOMU, the only university-owned commercial television station that uses its newsroom as a working laboratory for journalism students. While at Missouri, Anderson was a four-year member of the men's track team, serving as captain his senior season. A native of Green Bay, Wis., Anderson received The Associated Press Television Award in Arizona for outstanding performance in broadcast journalism in 1997 and the Outstanding Sports Feature Reporting Award from the Oklahoma Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1994 and 1995. Discussion Leaders: Mike Alden Director of Athletics University of Missouri Entering his 11th year as chief executive for the Mizzou Nation, Mike Alden has taken a lead-by-example approach to his core principles of academic integrity, social responsibility and competitive excellence, and has guided Missouri's 20-sport program to one of its most successful all-around performances in school history. In his 24th year as an athletics administrator, Alden has grown from being a special assistant to the director of athletics at Arizona State University in 1985, to earning his first director of athletics role at Texas State in 1996. Alden took over the Tiger program on July 16, 1998, and has led a department renaissance that has included facility upgrades for nearly every athletics program, a tripling of the department's annual operating budget, record-setting and Big 12 Conference-leading academic success and across-the-board athletics achievement like never seen before in Columbia. Highly-regarded among his peers, Alden's success at Missouri has earned him national notoriety amongst the NCAA hierarchy and garnered him the prestigious Athletics Director of the Year Award for the Central Region presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics in 2008. A member of numerous NCAA committees, Alden has helped to drive policy that has not only shaped the current landscape of intercollegiate athletics, but has paved the way for the future growth of college sports as a whole. Phil Bradley Special Assistant to the Executive Director Major League Baseball Players Association Phil Bradley, BS '82, is a special assistant to Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Bradley is one of the most decorated athletes ever to play at Missouri. A two-sport legend, Bradley's many baseball honors include being named All-Big Eight, All-District, All-America and Big Eight Tournament Most Valuable Player. He held five school records when he graduated, including those for career walks and on-base percentage. On the gridiron Bradley quarterbacked the Tigers to three bowl games. He was a three-time Big Eight Conference Offensive Player of the Year and set the conference total offense record. Bradley holds eight Missouri football records for passing and total offense. After graduation Bradley played eight seasons of major league baseball for Seattle, Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Chicago White Sox. In addition, he played one season in Japan for the Tokyo Giants. Bradley was on the 1985 American League All-Star Team and elected into the inaugural class of the University of Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. Myles Brand President National Collegiate Athletic Association Myles Brand assumed his duties as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Jan. 1, 2003. He is the fourth chief executive officer of the Association. During his first five years, Brand has presided over passage of the most comprehensive academic reform package for intercollegiate athletics in recent history, a package that refocuses the attention of student-athletes, coaches and administrators on the education of student-athletes. Brand has also changed the national dialogue on college sports to emphasize the educational value of athletics participation and the integration of intercollegiate athletics with the academic mission of higher education. His tenure has helped re-establish the indispensable role of university presidents in the governance of college sports. Brand was himself president of two major universities. From 1994 through 2002, he was president of Indiana University, an eight-campus institution of higher education with nearly 100,000 students, 17,000 employees and a budget of $3.4 billion. Brand also served as president at the University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994. Brand earned a Bachelor of Science degree in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964, and a doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Rochester in 1967. Jamie Butcher Vice President, Sponsorships & Employee Communications AT&T Jamie Butcher, BA '88, is responsible for AT&T's employee communications and corporate sponsorships program, which consists of 75-plus properties including the San Francisco Giants, San Antonio Spurs and NASCAR. The organization manages the contractual aspects of sponsorships as well as property activation and consumer engagement. Butcher started her career with Southwestern Bell Telephone in 1990 in Longview, Texas. She held a variety of mass-market sales, service and network positions prior to joining Industry Markets in 1998 and subsequently, the BCS-Southwest sales organization in 2002. In 2005 Butcher and her family moved to San Antonio where she held assistant vice president positions in consumer marketing and telecom operations. In addition to her bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri, Butcher earned a master's in business administration in 1990. T.J. Quinn Investigative Reporter ESPN T.J. Quinn, BJ '91, is an investigative reporter for ESPN television and has reported extensively on performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Before joining ESPN in 2007, he was an investigative sportswriter for the New York Daily News for five years and previously spent seven seasons as a Major League Baseball beat writer. Quinn covered the Chicago White Sox for the Daily Southtown, then located in Chicago, and the New York Mets for the Bergen (N.J.) Record and the Daily News in New York. He is a former chairman of the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and is a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame. Quinn began his journalism career as a news reporter for the Daily Southtown and then the Salt Lake Tribune in Salt Lake City, Utah, covering growth issues, transportation and local politics. Quinn also serves as an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. Sonja Steptoe O'Melveny & Myers LLP Los Angeles Sonja Steptoe, BJ '82 and BA '82, develops and executes strategic marketing and communications initiatives at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, and was recently appointed to the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Before joining the law firm, she served as TIME Magazine's senior correspondent and deputy Los Angeles bureau chief. She began her career at The Wall Street Journal and has been a correspondent for Sports Illustrated, People, HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Court TV and CNN/SI. Steptoe has interviewed prominent newsmakers such as evangelist Billy Graham, prosecutor Kenneth Starr, activist Gloria Steinem and Pastor Rick Warren; has covered the Sept. 11 tragedy, the Mike Tyson rape trial, and basketball point shaving at Arizona State. Steptoe co-authored Olympic champion Jackie Joyner Kersee's autobiography, A Kind of Grace. She also wrote A Guide to Women's Golf with Ladies Professional Golf Association's Hall of Fame winner Carol Mann. Her work has been honored with numerous awards, including an Emmy, two National Magazine Awards and a National Headliner Award. Wright Thompson Senior Writer ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine Wright Thompson, BJ '01, is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He has traveled to five continents and Last Chance, Okla., on assignment. Thompson has also written for the Boulevard Brewery Magazine, for which he was paid in beer. He lives in Oxford, Miss., with wife (and fellow J-School grad) Sonia, BJ '02, whose father is longtime faculty member Steve Weinberg. About the Futures Forum Top journalists, advertisers and thought leaders will lead numerous interactive sessions during the Sept. 11 Futures Forum, a day of cutting-edge discussions about the next century of journalism. Ethics, convergence and politics are just a few of the many hot topics that will be explored in this diverse program dedicated to challenging industry thinking and visualizing possibilities for the future. Sessions will be 75 minutes long and held concurrently with others on the schedule. Full schedules will be available during on-site check in during the Sept. 10-12 celebration. Close Window