FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CAS-CIAC Executive Director
CHESHIRE, CT (June 11, 2012) — Joel Cookson, Assistant Commissioner of the Landmark Conference for the past five years and a former collegiate Sports Information Director, has been selected from a pool of highly qualified candidates to join the CAS-CIAC staff as the organization’s first-ever Director of Media and Sports Information, effective July 1.
Cookson will be responsible for a wide variety of activities within the CIAC including the creation of written, audio and video content for a completely-redesigned ciacsports.com website to be launched shortly, serving as the organization’s primary media liaison, coordinating the new relationship with PlayOn! Sports which has resulted in the creation of the CIAC Network and building relationships with Connecticut higher education and a host of other stakeholder groups. Cookson will also be charged with working with print, video and online organizations throughout the state and the nation to develop systems for sharing and aggregating content that can be used by everyone for the betterment of high school athletics and its role in the educational process.
“The CIAC is lucky to have a person with Joel’s background and skill set to help in the creation of this important new position,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, executive director of CAS-CIAC. “We see the Director of Media and Sports Information as a key person within the CIAC operation, both publically as a face of the CIAC and internally creating content and programs to further the work we are already doing with our member schools, aligned organizations and current and future strategic partners.”
Cookson has served as the assistant commissioner of the Landmark Conference, an association of eight NCAA Division III universities, since its inception in the Spring of 2007. While there he collaborated with the commissioner on all conference business and decisions, served as primary conference contact for member institution staff, worked with several standing committees including the Chief Executive Officers and Athletics Directors Committees, supervised the Landmark awards selection process, represented the conference at numerous championships and created conferences schedules for team sports.
Joel was also responsible for serving as the Landmark Conference’s primary media contact, crafting press releases and weekly recaps, maintaining the conference website, collecting and verifying statistics and working with the NCAA statistics staff to insure proper reporting of statistical data.
Prior to joining the Landmark Conference, Cookson spent five years (Fall 2002 – Spring 2007) as the Sports Information Director at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania where he promoted and managed the information service for 19 varsity sports at the NCAA Division III school.
A native of Vermont, Cookson served as a student Sports Information Assistant at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia before graduating in May, 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. While at Emory he also served as radio announcer and producer for Teamline Sports Services in Atlanta, broadcasting baseball, basketball and soccer games.
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