CLEVELAND - The National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) has announced its 2022 award winners:

• Frank Kara Leadership Award – Bill Shults, retired;
• Mike Cleary Organizational Leadership Award – R. Gerald Turner, SMU;
• Rising Star Award – Brooke Williams, University of Southern California; and Jenna Restivo, Tusculum;  
• Division II Excellence Award – Mea Felps-Darley, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU); and
• Creative Education Award - UNLV

For the first time in three years, the award winners will be recognized in person during the 2022 NAAC Convention taking place at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.

"On behalf of the NAAC Board and Awards Committee, we want to congratulate all of our winners and want to thank everyone who nominated these deserving individuals," stated Membership and Awards Committee Chair and Associate Athletics Director for Compliance at Northwestern University, Kristina Minor. "We are excited to be back in person and honor these professionals in front of their peers during the 2022 Convention."

The Frank Kara Award is NAAC's premier award. It is the highest honor that may be bestowed upon compliance professionals. This award, given annually, is named in honor of former University of Minnesota Director of Compliance Frank Kara who was a leader in the compliance field and best known for hosting the inaugural NAAC Workshop in 2006. Sadly, Kara lost his battle with cancer at the age of 40.

Bill Shults began his full-time intercollegiate career in the coaching ranks for 14 years, prior to moving over to full-time athletics administration duties in July 1992. He began his coaching career at Trinity College before moving to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and then Florida State University (FSU) where he served as the head swim coach for almost 13 years. As an administrator, he held various roles across Division I for the next 18-plus years before moving over to the corporate world, working at four different companies that serve the compliance field, most recently as the sales director at RealResponse. Shults received his bachelor's degree from New Hampshire and his master's degree from La Salle University.

The Mike Cleary Organizational Leadership Award is named after former NACDA Executive Director, Mike Cleary, and is given to an organizational leader (i.e., athletics director, general counsel, provost, president, commissioner, NCAA executive) who has demonstrated NCAA compliance leadership and a strong commitment to fostering a culture of compliance to NCAA rules within their organization.

As president of SMU since 1995, R. Gerald Turner is leading an era of unprecedented progress. Under his leadership, the University continues to advance as an institution of national excellence and international renown. President Turner is a steadfast supporter of athletics compliance, which includes sponsoring and hosting the Lone Star State Compliance Summit at SMU. The Summit has been held annually since 2016 to review best practices and foster collaboration with athletics compliance administrators in Texas. Beyond campus, President Turner co-chaired the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for nearly 10 years. A native of New Boston, Texas, he earned an A.A. degree from Lubbock Christian University where he was a men's basketball student-athlete, a B.S. in psychology from Abilene Christian University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Gail, have two married daughters and five grandchildren.

The Rising Star Award recognizes young compliance professionals who are emerging leaders within the compliance profession.

Brooke Williams, who serves as the director of athletics compliance at USC, has been at the university since May 2018 when she joined the office as an assistant director. She was promoted to her current role in 2019 and oversees athletics compliance for the football program. Williams currently serves as the vice chair of the NAAC Education Committee, joining NAAC in 2018 and being selected to the ACE Mentoring Program the following year. Williams is an active member of Women Leaders in College Sports and has participated in both the Sports Symposium and Institute for Administrative Advancement from the organization. Williams earned both her bachelor's and executive master's degrees from Temple University and in 2020, was a recipient of the University's 30 under 30 Award.

Jenna Restivo was named assistant athletics director for compliance and student-athlete development at Tusculum University in July 2019, after serving as the department graduate assistant from 2017-19. She earned her undergraduate degree from Tusculum in 2017 while majoring in sports management and earned her master's degree in business administration at Tusculum in 2018. Restivo is responsible for assisting with the university's 24 intercollegiate sports to ensure all compliance regulations are met and followed as well as the creation of career development initiatives, programs and services for Tusculum's student-athletes. She has also served as the head softball coach at Greeneville High School since 2018 where she has guided the Lady Devils to a 103-47 record and winning the district championship in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

The Division II Excellence Award is a prestigious annual award given to a compliance professional who is a leader in the compliance field at the Division II level.

Mea Felps-Darley returned to her alma mater, Embry-Riddle, as the athletics department's first director of compliance in 2014. In 2017, Felps-Darley was named assistant AD for compliance and most recently in May 2021, SWA. Felps-Darley helped the university transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II, coordinating all of the university efforts to comply with the NCAA, Sunshine State Conference and the Peach Belt Conference. In addition to her compliance duties on campus, she is also an adjunct professor for the ERAU O'Maley College of Business and is the head cheerleading coach. Prior to Embry-Riddle, Felps-Darley served as the associate director of admissions for athletics/varsity sports at Jacksonville University, while also serving as the director of athletics development. Felps-Darley earned her master's degree from Jacksonville in 2007.

The Creative Education Award was first awarded in 2021 and is given to an athletics compliance department for their commitment to creativity and ingenuity in rules education throughout the academic year. The department must be able to demonstrate how its educational document is creative and helpful in explaining pertinent rules education to the selected group.

The recipient of the 2022 award is UNLV for the second consecutive year. This year, the UNLV compliance staff took the coaches and staff along the journey of a player, starting from prospective student-athlete through being a current team member, via a first-person virtual role-play presentation. After being able to ask questions along the way, the reviews from coaches and staff were extremely positive, with one staffer noting that "This was by far the most engaging and inventive rules education session." To review the winning video, click here.

About NAAC: NAAC serves as the professional and educational association of compliance administrators. For more information on NAAC, please visit www.naaccompliance.com. NAAC is administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), which is in its 57^th year. For more information on NACDA, the 18 professional associations and/or four foundations it manages, please visit www.nacda.com.