When UW Athletics Director of Inclusion Sheridan Blanford joined the university in August 2017, she was at the forefront of Diversity and Inclusion efforts in collegiate sports.
“Wisconsin was one of the four departments in the nation to implement Diversity and Inclusion in athletics in the NCAA,” she said.
Blanford served as the Badgers’ Inclusion and Engagement Coordinator during her first year on campus. She worked to enhance the student-athlete experience through a lens of diversity and equity. In her role, she facilitated student-athlete programs, participated in several committees, assisted with the development and sponsoring of specific student-athlete support groups like Student-Athletes Equally Supporting Others and the Badger Affinity Groups.
“It was kind of a deer in the headlights experience,” Blanford said.
As the first Inclusion and Engagement Coordinator ever, she was starting from square one. She said there was a lot of room to build new programs. Blanford also said she had the opportunity to get to know student-athletes, learn their interests, and encourage them to participate in campus life, community and athletic programming.
“I am excited to see them grow and have self-agency,” she said.
Blanford, who will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Girls Inc. Celebration of International Women’s Day on March 10, can easily relate to young people and to student-athletes because she’s played sports all of her life. Originally from Aurora, Colorado, she grew up raised by two college-educated parents. Blanford, who is also biracial, said the area she grew up in was pretty diverse.
“I grew up playing sports. I grew up in a sports family and I was recruited to play basketball,” she said.
She did not have the same experience with diversity playing college basketball at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, however, and then an injury caused Blanford to rethink her interests.
“I ended up blowing up my knee and had to reevaluate who I was because I had never thought about it outside of basketball,” she said.
She found herself involved in the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. The McNair Scholars Program provides an academic support system for students from historically underrepresented groups to conduct research and apply to graduate programs. Blanford discovered a love for diversity and equity work, especially listening to other student-athletes.
“This kind of started to put butterflies in my stomach and get me excited about what I was doing,” she said.
Blanford said this was the first time she really enjoyed her education, especially the research. She was able to dive into some of the things she had learned about in her courses. She was eager to apply what she learned whether through advocacy or pushing policy.
“I also saw that there was this gap in connecting sociology, diversity and inclusion in sports, and I had these skills,” Blanford said.
After graduating from St. Olaf College in 2015, she participated in the University of Washington’s Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership program, earning her Master’s degree in 2016. Then, she started her career as the Assistant Director for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Now, as Director of Inclusion at the UW-Madison Athletic Department, Blanford is excited to continue working with student-athletes and her colleagues in the field to create a framework for diversity and inclusion across campuses. She wants to show recruits and their families that when they send their son, daughter, or family member to UW, that they are going to have the best support system.
“We have 800 student-athletes and only 12 percent of student-athletes that identify as students of color, or students that are not white,” she said.
But this work is not easy, she said, and when racially charged incidents or issues surrounding diversity and inclusion take place in the department or on campus, it can often feel like taking two steps back. But Blandford wants people to know that her office exists for this purpose.
Blanford added that there are more people in diversity and inclusion work in other athletic departments now and that she’s looking forward to the year ahead.
“As it relates to my specific role and in sports, stories get written about anticipation for the season but what’s special about my role is that it doesn’t relate to a specific transition with students,” Blanford said.
She doesn’t control their playing time or tell them what classes to take, so she really has the opportunity to focus on the quality of their experience. Blanford said she feels fortunate and blessed to get to know them.
