Sarah Adams named senior associate athletics director at Air Force
9/21/2026 7:27:00 AM | General
Sarah Adams has been named senior associate athletics director at the Air Force Academy where she will be the sports administrator for multiple sports. She was a higher education strategic planning consultant before coming to Air Force.
Prior to serving in a consultant role, Adams severed in multiple roles at Wichita State beginning in June 2021. She served as sport administrator for the men's and women's basketball programs and had oversight of the compliance, academic support services and sports medicine departments, while leading the vision and goals of the departments and overseeing implementation strategies. She was also responsible for correspondence and institutional athletic education and compliance of Title IX, coordinating the yearly Athletics Gender Equity Plan and Minority Opportunities Plan and overseeing NCAA APR and GSR data collection. Adams served as interim director of athletics while at WSU, during the summer of 2022 while the department was in leadership transition.
Prior to her time at WSU, Adams was at Eastern Washington University where she served as Senior Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator from October 2018 until November of 2019. She was promoted to Deputy Athletic Director in December of 2019 and served in that role until June of 2021.
Her responsibilities at EWU included oversight of facilities, compliance, academics, human resources, sports medicine, sports performance, Title IX, policy development, budget management, and management of the sport administrators' group. Adams served as the sport administrator for men's basketball, women's basketball and volleyball. In addition to her work in the department, she was involved with the Big Sky Conference governance structure, serving on several committees. Adams had two different stints on the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee, attended the Women Leaders Executive Institute and was a participant in the NCAA Pathways Program.
Adams came to EWU from the University of Northern Colorado, where she served from 2014-18 as Associate AD/SWA. She also served as Associate AD for Compliance and Student-Athlete Support Services and Assistant AD for Compliance during her tenure at Northern Colorado, starting at the school in 2008.
While at UNC, Adams had oversight of the department's internal operations, including compliance, facility and event management, sports medicine, sports performance and was the department liaison for academics. She was sport administrator for six sports - women's soccer, softball, women's swimming and diving, volleyball, women's basketball and wrestling, and had previously had oversight of cross country and track and field. Serving on the Athletic Director's executive staff, Adams played a key role on the search committee and hiring of numerous head coaches, assistant coaches and other staff. As SWA at UNC, Adams monitored Title IX Compliance, completed the EADA report annually and served as the institution's Title IX Deputy Coordinator for Athletics and sat on the Equity and Diversity Council.
During Adams' time at UNC, she developed and maintained a comprehensive NCAA compliance program and had oversight of athletic financial aid for all 19 sport programs. Additionally, she served on several Big Sky Conference Committees, was a member of the Women Leaders Foundation Fund, a NCAA Regional Rules presenter and board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Weld County.
Prior to her arrival at Northern Colorado, Adams was the assistant AD for compliance at the University of New Mexico, where she had oversight of NCAA compliance for all 21 varsity sports.
Adams has been active throughout her career in conference governance and committee work, including serving as American Athletic Conference SWA Championship Subcomittee and SWA liaison for multiple sports, Big Sky Sport and Championship Management Committee, Eligibility and Legislative Review Committees, Quality and Structure and Budget Committees and the Championship and President's Cup Working Groups.
Her university committee work has included serving as Women's Leadership Steering Committee, Equity and Diversity Council, Title IX Culture of Respect Collaborative, President's Advisory Council on Intercollegiate Athletics and Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Task Force.
Adams received her undergraduate degree in sports management from Nebraska Wesleyan University, where she also competed as a student-athlete on the women's golf team. She earned her master's degree in sport administration from Xavier University and has a certificate in Project Management from the University of Nebraska.
