Desiree Reed-Francois

In the 1997–98 school year, Reed-Francois was an NCAA compliance assistant at the University of California, Berkeley.[5] Reed-Francois worked as a litigation attorney in 1998 and 1999.[5] Returning to athletics administration, Reed-Francois was director of compliance at San Jose State from 1999 to 2002.[5]

From 2002 to 2003, Reed-Francois was associate athletics director for compliance, student services, and legal affairs at Santa Clara.[5] During that time, Reed-Francois also taught sports law courses at Lincoln Law School of San Jose.[5]

In September 2003, Reed-Francois became associate athletics director for compliance and student services at Fresno State, at a time when Fresno State was under NCAA investigation.[5][6] Reed-Francois later taught a sports law course at the Santa Clara University School of Law in the spring of 2004.[5] In 2006, Reed-Francois left Fresno State to enter private legal practice.[7] On October 1, 2007, the University of San Francisco hired Reed-Francois as associate athletics director for internal operations and senior women's administrator.[7]

On August 27, 2008, Reed-Francois joined the University of Tennessee as associate athletics director for strategic projects and initiatives.[8] In 2009, Tennessee promoted Reed-Francois to senior associate athletics director and senior administrator for the men's basketball program.[4][9] Reed-Francois left Tennessee in 2012.[9]

In March 2013, she was named Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator for the University of Cincinnati,[9] later serving as interim athletic director.[10] Reed-Francois joined Virginia Tech in May 2014, eventually overseeing the football program.[10] At the time, she was one of four women with day-to-day oversight of a Power Five program.[11]

Reed-Francois was announced as the UNLV athletic director in April 2017.[12][13][3] She received a contract through 2022 with an annual salary of $350,000, which also included oversight of both Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium.[14][15] Reed-Francois became the first Hispanic woman to lead a Football Bowl Subdivision program as a full-time athletic director.[11][1]

Reed-Francois organized a joint use agreement for UNLV Rebels football to share Allegiant Stadium with the future Las Vegas Raiders. The agreement was passed by the UNLV Board of Regents in an 11–1 vote on January 19, 2018.[16]

UNLV made more facilities progress in football in 2019. Funded by Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, the $34.8 million Fertitta Football Complex officially opened on the UNLV campus in October 2019.[17] Later that year, Reed-Francois hired Marcus Arroyo as head coach of UNLV football after firing previous coach Tony Sanchez.[18] In 2019, Reed-Francois fired Marvin Menzies and hired T. J. Otzelberger as UNLV Runnin' Rebels men's basketball coach.[19] Under Otzelberger, UNLV men's basketball finished the 2019–20 season tied for second in the Mountain West Conference standings, the most successful conference finish since 2007.[20]

By December 2020, UNLV raised $1 million for the Momentum Fund, a project meant to offset financial losses due to COVID-19 restricting ticket sales.[21]

On April 30, 2021, UNLV signed Reed-Francois to a four-year contract extension through 2026 and a salary raise to $420,000.[22] By this year, UNLV had raised over $60 million in donations and increased its donor base by 70 percent since Reed-Francois became athletics director.[23]

On August 8, 2021, the University of Missouri hired Reed-Francois as athletics director.[23] Reed-Francois became the first woman to be an athletics director at Missouri and any public school in the Southeastern Conference.[23]