NJCAA announces 2025-26 Committee Chairs and Committee Assignments

Charlotte, NC — The NJCAA has announced the 2025-26 Committee Chairs for the 45 committees that were selected by Board Chair Troy Tucker, Board Vice Chair Kerri Ann McTiernan, Men's Administrator Rob Nielson, Women's Administrator Mary Young, and Sports Governance Chair Darin Monroe. Each chair serves as a direct contact and liaison for the committee and the NJCAA National Office staff, while also heading their committee all year.

With the academic year approaching, chairs are preparing to lead weekly calls, conduct national rankings, and assist with postseason at-large and seeding selections, and All-America selections. In addition to these roles, chairs complete committee-related assignments and annual NJCAA Convention tasks. In some cases, chairs will attend their respective national championship(s). 

On the women's side, Jess Brinkerhoff, athletic director at Utah State Eastern and Region 18 Men's Director will serve as a first-time chair in DI Women's soccer while LSU Eunice's Athletic Director and Region 23 Assistant Men's Director, Jeff Willis will assist as vice chair. The emerging sport of Women's Flag Football will see a first-time chair when Courtney Pruitt of Kilgore (TX) and Region 14 Assistant  Women's Director leads the committee with Age Cataldo, Region 10 Assistant Women's Director and USC Sumter Athletic Director serving as vice chair.

First-time committee chairs on the men's side include Jerrett Mills, Region 11 Assistant Women's Director and Athletic Director at Northeast (NE) who will serve as chair of the NJCAA Division II Men's Soccer Committee. Mills will be assisted by Christina Hundley, Region 1 Men's Director and Paradise Valley (AZ) Athletic Director. Men's Lacrosse will have a new chair in former Board of Regents Chair, Region 3 Men's Director and Tompkins Cortland (NY) Athletic Director, Mick McDaniel while Region 19 Women's Director and board of Regent member, Katie Amundson while assist McDaniel as vice chair.

For the joint committees, Swimming & Diving while have a new chair with Kevin Salisbury from Region 21 while former chair Steve Mullen will asist as vice chair.  Clay Target will have a new chair in Board of Regent At-Large Melissa Grau from Lake Michigan College while Jess Brinkerhoff will serve as vice chair. 

Mike Saddler, KJCCC Commissioner will chair the newly created Championships/Alignment Committee that will oversee current regional structure and all championships host site selections with Marci Henry serving as vice chair.  

The second cohort of NJCAA Aspiring Leaders program will have the opportunity to spend the year observing committee meetings to help expand their knowledge base of governance within the NJCAA. The following 13 aspiring leaders will be apart of the 2025-26 committees: Dane Vos (St. Clair County) and Bryan Noble (Copiah-Lincoln) on Eligibility, Lorayne Chandler (Arizona Western) on Sports Governance, Dee Brown (Iowa Central) on Tiered Sanctions, Jason Jenkins (Vernon) on DI Baseball, Rodney Broughton (Southern University Shreveport) on DI Men's Basketball, Ian Wolf (Passaic County) on DII Women's Basketball and Men's Volleyball, Kelsi Weeks (Indian Hills) on DI Women's Soccer, Nick Weinmeister (Northeast Iowa) on DII Softball, Craig Hunt (Coconino) on Track & Field, Chelsey Lucas (Yavapai) and Kailee May (Weatherford) on DI Volleyball, and Lindi Cahill (Terra State) on DII Volleyball. 

For a full list of all committees, visit NJCAA Governance Structure and see all committee chairs below: