The UCF College of Business announces Brandon Brown ’09 MBA as the director of TIDES, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. TIDES, which is part of the DeVos sport business management graduate program at UCF, serves as a comprehensive resource for issues related to gender and race in amateur, collegiate and professional sports and the media.

“We are excited to have Brandon join the program,” says Adrien Bouchet, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation endowed chair and eminent scholar, and the director of the DeVos sport business management program. “His teaching and research skills will benefit TIDES as well as our MBA and MS degree. We strive to make the DeVos program best-of-class and the addition of Brandon helps us accomplish that mission.”

In his new role, Brown will oversee the day-to-day operations of the TIDES program and serve as the liaison between the DeVos program and league and media contacts. He will also manage a team of graduate assistants that helps produce the annual Racial and Gender Report Cards that grade the hiring practices for college and professional organizations, including the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.

Brown currently serves as president of the Sport Marketing Association and is a marketing consultant for sport entities such as Fox Sports and the NFL.

“I am beyond eager to get started with UCF and the DeVos program,” says Brown. “Joining this esteemed team is not just a homecoming for me, but a fresh opportunity to help grow the program on so many levels. [Richard] Lapchick has been a mentor and friend to me throughout my career and I couldn’t be more honored to continue his legacy by bringing TIDES to new heights. Too be afforded the opportunity to grow the program, and help our students develp professionally and personally is something I’m so excited to take on.”

With UCF, Dr. Brown will also be a lecturer in the integrated business program. Prior to returning to UCF, he served as an associate professor at the Tisch Institute for Global Sport at NYU and worked with the New York Mets. He earned his MBA and master’s in sport management from UCF in 2009. He has a bachelor’s in Sport Management from Florida State University and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, where he studied minority sport consumption patterns.