Staff Spotlight: Jennifer Locey

This is the 17th in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.

Jennifer Locey joined the staff of the Nancy and Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes as an Assistant Director / Football Support Services in September 2021. Locey oversees football academic support services.

Locey earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Miami (Fla.) in Sports Administration. After graduation from Miami, Locey went on to serve as an assistant academic advisor at the UCF until 2016.

After her time at UCF, the Syracuse, N.Y. native went on to Mississippi as a learning specialist and served in that role until 2017. In April 2017, Locey joined the staff at Syracuse working primarily with the women's soccer and football programs until her arrival at Temple in 2021.

As an undergraduate you started working in marketing and then switched over to academics. Take us through that process?
"While I was at the University of Miami as an undergraduate, I transitioned from life as a student-athlete. I stopped playing soccer as a student-athlete and played on a club team and while I was doing that, I was looking for a job I could do while taking classes. One of my roommates at the time worked as a tutor and mentor in Miami's athletic department and she suggested it to me. At the time I was working in the marketing department as an intern, and I had previously interned at Colgate University as a marketing intern.

I have always been drawn to education, so I worked as a tutor and mentor and loved it. Then I started picking up volunteer hours with the learning specialist at Miami. It was then that I realized I could do this as a profession. I just loved the idea of staying in athletics and working in education. So I as pursued my master's degree at Miami my interest intensified, and I started to pursue this career path."

You were a learning specialist at Mississippi, but now have settled into your career path as an academic advisor. Was that a natural progression?
"Once I was in the learning specialist role I liked it, but I wanted to do more holistic development of the students. The learning specialist role can be really detailed oriented. You are working with the students one-on-one for skill development. I liked the advising side of things and at the same time I was looking to make that transition, a position opened at Syracuse University. I was looking to get closer to home as well as it was the best of both worlds."

You left Syracuse during the pandemic to take over the academic support services for Temple Football. What went into that decision?
"It was probably the hardest decision I have had to make because it was very comfortable in Syracuse. My family still lives there. I owned a home. I loved the coworkers I had at Syracuse. I loved everything about Syracuse. I had been there for almost five years at that point, and I was looking to expand my role, to take on more of a leadership position which was not available at Syracuse at that time. Then my friend, who was leaving Temple Athletics texted me about the position and connected me with Justin Miller. Once I talked to Justin and heard about Temple, and how they were doing things in academics, it made me excited.

This position gave me an opportunity to take a leadership role. Once I had an opportunity to come on campus and saw Temple and the Resnick Center and the city of Philadelphia, I loved it. It is still close enough to drive home so that is what drew me here."

How have your first two years been at Temple?
"They have been great. I love the city of Philadelphia. I live in the Northern Liberties section, Fishtown neighborhood. I love that area. The Resnick Center has been great. Everyone there is so dedicated to what they do and to the mission of helping develop and grow student-athletes. It is nice to come to work every day with a group of like-minded people who are willing to work hard for student-athletes. That is why we all get into the business. That makes it easy, and I really have enjoyed my time so far."

What are your biggest challenges working with football, and your greatest accomplishment to date?
"The biggest challenge working with football and with student-athletes in general is the time commitment they have. So, if you, as an academic professional want them to dedicate as much time as you think is necessary for them to be successful academically that can get hard in the midst of a season or spring ball or fall training because they want to give their all to football, or soccer, or whatever their sport is. With academics we are pushing them to grow professionally. They are also young people too. So, trying to keep pushing them to excel in all these areas and keep growing while also maintaining an understanding for how much they do have on their plate is the challenge.

My biggest accomplishment to date? I have a couple in my career. The first was when I was able to build a summer bridge program at Syracuse University. It is something that football and I have been talking about building here. Getting it off the ground (at Syracuse) was a big accomplishment. Here at Temple, I would say so far it has been the dramatic increase in attendance at professional development and leadership as well as the huge increase in GPA over the course of almost two years now. So now, with Coach Drayton's support, we are shooting for a 3.00 each semester. Also, our participation with career development and leadership has also skyrocketed."

Temple University Athletics

Staff Spotlight: Jennifer Locey

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