Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Meeting Bios

John J. Cheslock, Associate Professor,

Center for the Study of Higher Education,

University of Arizona

Dr. John J. Cheslock is an Associate Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. Receiving his Ph.D. in Labor Economics from Cornell University, Dr. Cheslock’s area of research focuses on the economics of higher education with a special interest in tuition and financial aid policy, faculty labor markets, the role of Title IX in intercollegiate athletics, and revenue stratification across institutions. His scholarly research, along with his work for the Women’s Sports Foundation, has been instrumental in the policy decisions around sport participation and sponsorship. His research includes Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Determinants of Title IX Compliance and Institutional Strategies to Achieve Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Does Title IX Harm Male Athletes?

Tim Curley, Director of Athletics,

Pennsylvania State University

After receiving both of his degrees from Penn State, Tim Curley is currently serving in his sixteenth year as the Athletic Director for the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to running one of the most successful athletic departments in the country, Mr. Curley is a member of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) and on the Board of Directors of the Honda Collegiate Women Sports Awards. He has also served as the former president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in 2005-06 and is appointed to a special NCAA task force on Division I recruiting bylaws and to the NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee, a group which he chaired. He previously was a member of the NCAA Division I Championships / Competition Cabinet and served as chair of the NCAA Postseason Bowl Certification Subcommittee.

John Colombo, Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professor, University of Illinois College of Law;

Author, “The NCAA, Tax Exemption, and College Athletics,” University of Illinois Law Review (forthcoming)

Professor Colombo received his J.D. degree summa cum laude from the University of Illinois. He is an expert in tax law and his major research interest and writing are in the area of tax-exempt organizations. He has written numerous articles on tax exemption theory, on the exemption standards for nonprofit hospitals and on commercial activity by nonprofit organizations.  His article, “The NCAA, Tax Exemption, and College Athletics,” will be published by the University of Illinois Law Review.  In 2005, Professor Colombo twice testified before the full House Ways and Means Committee in Washington, D.C., providing overviews of the legal rules for tax exemption under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code and the rules for exemption of nonprofit hospitals. He is a member of the American Law Institute, Georgia State Bar Association and American Bar Association.

Andy Geiger, Former athletics director,

Ohio State University; University of Maryland; and Stanford University

Robert Zemsky, Chair, The Learning Alliance for Higher Education;

Founding director of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research on Higher Education; Co-author of Remaking the American University: Market-Smart & Mission-Centered

Dr. Zemsky received his Ph.D. in History from Yale University and is the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education. Dr. Zemsky is an expert in the fields of higher education policy analysis and reform along with the college choice process. The research for which he is best known has centered on how colleges and universities, in a world increasingly dominated by market forces, can be both mission-centered and market-smart. His writings have regularly appeared in Policy Perspectives and in a series of pioneering articles and analyses in Change. Dr. Zemsky currently serves as chair of The Learning Alliance for Higher Education, a major experiment in bringing just-in-time strategic expertise to college and university presidents. In 1998, Change named him as one of higher education’s top 40 leaders for his role as an agenda-setter.