Erica Perkins Jasper will serve as the next Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic director, Claremont McKenna College announced Friday morning.
“Erica brings both exemplary experience and the strongest commitments to high academic achievement, athletic competition, superior coaching and leadership development,” CMC President Hiram Chodosh said.
Perkins Jasper, who will be the first female AD in CMS history, has been the chief operating officer of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association since 2015. Prior to that, she coached tennis at a number of colleges and worked for the U.S. Tennis Association as the senior manager of junior and collegiate competition.
She will move to Claremont with her husband and two sons and begin work on June 1, the announcement said.
“CMS student-athletes represent everything right about college athletics,” Perkins Jasper said. “They are high-achieving in the classroom and competitive on their respective fields of play. They have strong relationships with their peers and faculty, they are leaders in campus organizations, and they are passionate about making an impact.”
The hire concludes a 10-month search that began when former AD Terry Tumey departed Claremont for Fresno State University last June. Tumey held his position for two years. In the interim, Mike Sutton CM ’76 – who was CMS’ AD for 16 years prior to Tumey’s arrival – has headed the department.
Last fall, CMS hired Odgers Berndtson, a consulting group specializing in sports leadership in higher education, to lead the search. Berndtson held three open meetings on campus in October to dialogue with students and build a candidate profile for the position.
Sharon Basso, CMC vice president of student affairs and chair of the search committee, also reached out to students at CMC, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College and encouraged them to share their input with the firm through an email survey. Berndtson took the information gathered from students and staff during the fall meetings to create an extensive position brief explaining the AD position, CMS values and the application process.
CMC announced in February that it had narrowed the applicant field down to three candidates. Those included Perkins Jasper; Shana Levine, the current AD at Lewis & Clark; and Dan Faulstick, current AD at Amherst College.
Chodosh made the final hiring decision in consultation with the presidents of HMC and Scripps.
With the CMS position now filled, Sixth Street rival Pomona-Pitzer is on deck to fill its own soon-to-be-vacant AD position. P-P announced early in the spring semester that AD Lesley Irvine would be leaving for Colorado College, and has since named head women’s soccer coach Jennifer Scanlon interim AD as the colleges search for a permanent candidate.
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