A Sports & Society conversation with influential sport business leaders and athletes in America.

Dr. Deborah Stroman is an enthusiastic educator and entrepreneur. She coordinates Sport Business curriculum for the prestigious Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Sport venture track for the College of Arts & Science’s Entrepreneurship Minor. She values “creating and connecting sport business people and ventures.” (http://www.kisport.unc.edu/) She works closely with the university’s entire entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem of administrators, faculty, and students developing and promoting analytics and economic impact initiatives. She is the founder of the nationally recognized SPEIA Basketball Analytics Summit (www.bas.unc.edu) held each year at Kenan-Flagler. Dr. Stroman’s teaching and research interests include entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing, and social issues in sport.

Prior to her position at UNC, Stroman successfully owned a sport marketing and event planning company and enjoyed a 17-year career in financial services. After achieving multiple sales awards, she joined the management of Prudential Financial, Inc. and GE Capital. She is the 2006 recipient of the state of Maryland’s Top Minority Business Enterprise Award from the Governor’s Office, which recognizes entrepreneurial success in business development, professional affiliation, client satisfaction, and community involvement. In addition to her current academic responsibilities, she continues to take pleasure in entrepreneurship. She provides consulting services to numerous sports teams and sport-related organizations including the NCAA, Atlantic Coast Conference, College Football Playoff, and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. As a former basketball player and coach, she is uniquely qualified to assist former professional athletes through the necessary transition from their sporting career to a valued career, business ownership, and/or the completion of an academic degree. (LASER™ – Life After Sports with Effective Results – www.dstroman.com) She enjoys working closely with high-performing athletes to help identify and connect players with the necessary resources and skills to succeed.

Additional university service responsibilities include steering committee member and past chairperson of the Carolina Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, faculty advisor to the MBA Sports & Entertainment Club, Carolina Sport Business Club, and Sigma Alpha Lambda (a national leadership and honors organization). Dr. Stroman has counseled many graduate and undergraduate students through honors curriculum, thesis and dissertation processes. In 2013, she co-authored “A Perspective from Leadership: Critical Considerations in Retaining Postdoctoral Women of Color in Academia.” She is a recipient of The Class of 1996 Award for Advising Excellence (2012-13), the UNC General Alumni Association Harvey Beech 2013 Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award, and the 2015 Pauli Murray Human Relations Award from Orange County, NC.

Professional Affiliations include: Great Black Speakers, Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, North American Society for Sport Management, Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Walter N. Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., She is a national speaker for business and non-profit organizations and is the radio color analyst on WCHL 97.9 FM for the UNC women’s basketball team. Dr. Stroman received her Ph.D. in Business from Capella University, her M.A. (Sport Administration) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and B.S. (History and Social Studies Education) from the University of Virginia.