Administration
- Title:
- Director of Athletics
- Email:
- martinbran@umkc.edu
- Phone:
- 816-235-1020
Dr. Brandon E. Martin began his tenure as Kansas City Athletics Director on December 3, 2018. Martin’s leadership has helped change the culture within Kansas City Athletics, as his positive energy, passion and strategic vision have helped elevate the Roos' momentum on-and-off the field.
Martin has been a visionary, focused on comprehensive excellence. Since arriving in Kansas City, he has orchestrated the transformational changes below:
- 95% Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 3.35 GPA for all student-athletes.
- Launched the Roo Athletic Fund—Annual Giving Arm for Athletics, increased donor participation 380% and raised $3.5M since launch of new program.
- Increased department non-gift Revenue 1,833% and all revenue 2,638% since December 2018.
- Completed new brand and identity for Kansas City Athletics in June 2019.
- Created Corporate Partnership Program, increasing revenue 3,850%. Created Founding Partner program and successfully secured multi-year partnerships in health care and energy sector.
- Navigated conference realignment transition from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to The Summit League.
- Accomplished $1.5 million North Lobby Renovation Program at Swinney Center.
- Finalized enhancements in Swinney Center included new competition court, new graphics and installation of four new Daktronics videoboards.
- Completed Phase One Durwood Soccer Stadium, installing a $1M state of the new art turf pitch.
In May 2020, Chancellor C. Mauli Agrawal selected Dr. Martin as committee chair of UMKC Forward, a campus-wide Covid-19 strategic initiative aimed at re-envisioning UMKC regarding efficiency, growth, innovation and revenue-generation. As chair of the Community Outreach/Auxiliary/Events Committee, Martin assisted in identifying university-wide opportunities for innovation and investment that lead to revenue growth through auxiliary and external services to advance the mission of UMKC.
In September 2020, Dr. Martin was promoted to Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics. In this role, Martin paired his athletics department leadership with strategic initiatives on campus including leading a task force on retention and graduation for underrepresented, first generation, transfer students, and students of color at UMKC. Since arriving at UMKC in December 2018, Dr. Martin has been appointed Executive in Residence in three academic departments on campus: The Henry Block School of Management, School of Education, and Race, Ethnic, and Gender Studies. In each academic role, he assists with the strategic vision, course development, advising students, and recruitment. These roles also include teaching various courses related to higher education administration, sport management, and diversity and social issues in college and professional sports.
On a national level, Martin serves on the NCAA Division I Council and was appointed 3rd Vice President for the D-I AAA Association in 2022. Dr. Martin also serves as Co-Chair for the Black AD Alliance—an organization aimed at promoting the growth, development, and elevation of Black athletics administrators at the Division I level. He is also the Chair of the Summit League Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. In 2022, Martin was recognized by the Sports Business Journal as one of the top Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leaders in professional and collegiate sport. In that same year, he was also recognized by Ingram’s Magazine Missouri’s Business Magazine as one of the top 50 Missourians to Know.
In 2021, Martin authored Leading in the Unknown: A New Paradigm for Leaders in Intercollegiate Athletics. In this book, Martin offered leadership perspectives within the unprecedented confluence of Covid-19, severe economic challenges, and societal injustices that which intercollegiate athletics was not immune. The book includes traditional leadership strategies and maxims that address the future of effectively leading within the college athletics enterprise.
Before Kansas City, Dr. Martin served as the Director of Athletics at California State University, Northridge from February 2013 until 2018. CSUN is a member of the Big West Conference and sponsors 19 intercollegiate sports programs. Martin was responsible for CSUN’s Division I athletics program that included a $15.5 million operating budget and 350 student-athletes in eight men’s and 11 women’s teams.
In 2016-17, CSUN Athletics had 99 student-athletes named to their conferences' All-Academic Teams, and the previous year, 95 earned a 3.2 GPA or higher, the most ever at CSUN. CSUN women’s basketball, women’s track & field and softball programs all won Big West Championships in 2015, while men's and women's soccer each captured Big West Championships in 2016 and women's track & field won again in the spring of 2017. CSUN Athletics’ women’s programs were named to the Capital One Cup Top 100 list as one of the 100 best Division I Women’s Athletics programs in the country in 2014-15 as well.
In Martin’s first year as Director of Athletics at CSUN, he honored CSUN’s faculty, retiring jersey #58, symbolizing the year the university was founded (1958). He initiated a new administrative structure within the intercollegiate athletics department, proposed a comprehensive vision and oversaw a series of historic moments in CSUN’s athletics history. Propelled by his mantra of comprehensive excellence, Martin pioneered the addition of Beach Volleyball as CSUN’s 19th intercollegiate sport.
Martin sparked the creation of “Matadors Rising,” a new visual identity and complete re-branding initiative within CSUN Athletics. One unique feature of that campaign included an effort to connect with CSUN's Spanish-speaking students, fans, and alumni. “Matadores Ascendiendo” was developed as the primary messaging for Latino supporters and beginning in the summer of 2014, press releases, game day promotions and social media communications were also communicated in Spanish.
During his tenure at CSUN, Martin increased athletics donations by 453% over a four-year period. This fundraising success resulted in several noteworthy athletics facility upgrades and enhancements including a new athletics administration conference room, a men’s basketball locker room expansion, new spectator seating in The Matadome, graphic displays, lobby renovations for the basketball facility, a redesigned concourse and plaza for the soccer complex, renovations to the Women's Basketball and Women's Volleyball locker rooms and a Fueling Station, the first of its kind in the Big West Conference. Martin also negotiated a corporate sponsorship agreement with Learfield, resulting in a sponsorship revenue increase of 963% since Matador Sports Properties' (MSP) first operating period of the 2013-2014 season.
In 2014, Martin was appointed to the NCAA Committee on Academics. In 2016, he was named Chair of the AASP Athletic Directors Task Force. He was also a member of the NCAA AASP Grant Selection Committee. For his extraordinary leadership, Martin was also named Top 100 Most Influential African Americans in Los Angeles in 2017.
Before his appointment at CSUN, Martin served as a Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to his time in Oklahoma, Martin worked at the University of Southern California (USC) as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics.
At USC, Martin served as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Education in the USC Rossier School of Education. His dissertation entitled “A Phenomenological Study of Academically Driven African American Male Student-Athletes at Highly Selective Division I Universities” won the 2005 USC Rossier School of Education Dissertation of the Year Award. In 2005, he also earned the National Association of Academic Advisors award for Student-Athlete Excellence in Research.
Martin is a distinguished member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. He has also proudly served in other service capacities including Kansas City Sports Commission, American Jazz Museum, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kansas City, and serves as President of Chamber Development for the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce. Martin resides in Kansas City, Missouri, is married to his wife Rosemary, and is the proud father of Germany (21), Riley (13) and Brandon Jr. (10).
