As an undergraduate at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, Sheridan Blanford first became interested in diversity and inclusion in relation to athletics after being the only woman of color on the college’s woman’s basketball team all four years.
“We did not have any recruits, no coaches, no administration” of color, said Blanford. “I went there and that’s kind of what opened my eyes up to this whole world of diversity and inclusion.”
She ended up doing research on the minority female student athlete experience at the Division III level, which carried her on to graduate studies at the University of Washington at Seattle where she used the research as her thesis, which she is currently looking to get published.
Now, Blanford is the director of inclusion for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she leads programming, initiatives, policies and procedures regarding diversity issues for student-athletes, coaches, administration and the larger campus community.
“We are ecstatic to have someone of Sheridan’s skill and experience take on this director role within UW Athletics,” Doug Tiedt, senior associate director at UW-Madison said in the announcement. “Her strong ability to develop programming and lead others will serve to enhance the growth and impact of our inclusion efforts.”
Prior to becoming director, Blanford was hired last year as UW-Madison’s Inclusion and Engagement Coordinator for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. She replaced Jennifer Hunter, who was recently named the first associate director of athletics for diversity and inclusion initiatives at Brown University.
Just a month into her new role, Blanford is pushing forward with an ambitious agenda to making sure that diversity is a centerpiece of intercollegiate athletics at the university.
