Macalester's Donnie Brooks Named Division III Athletic Director of the Year by NACDA
Donnie Brooks of Macalester College has been named Division III Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, recognized for competitive improvement, student leadership development and his impact on the Division III landscape.
On March 17, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) named Macalester College’s Donnie Brooks Division III Athletic Director of the Year. The award honors administrative excellence, with four directors selected in each division.
“There are 400 Division III institutions, so even to be considered is an honor,” Brooks said. “It means your peers thought enough of you, and somebody who you’ve had an impact on has recognized you as a leader.”
In his seven years at Macalester, Brooks has overseen competitive improvement across all sports. Last fall, the Macalester men’s soccer team advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, winning the division championship for the first time since 2009. Twelve student-athletes have qualified for NCAA national championships during Brooks’ tenure, with seven earning All-American honors and one earning national recognition.
He also created Scots LEAD, a personal and professional development program designed to build leadership skills. “We want students to engage and think about the leader they will be, not just over the next four years, but way down the line when they’re leading their communities and families,” Brooks said.
Leadership comes in many forms, and Brooks wants students to find the leader they are, even if they don’t yet see themselves as one.
In addition to serving as Macalester’s associate vice president of student affairs, Brooks sits on the board of directors for the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators, represents the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on the NCAA Management Council and is joining the NACDA Board.
In those roles, he hopes to influence the collegiate athletic landscape to prioritize student development and ensure the Division III perspective remains part of the conversation. The growth of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals has changed the NCAA dramatically, allowing student-athletes to be paid. At many Division I schools, athletes are often more athletes than students.
Brooks describes Division III schools as “one of the last spots where the sport and the love of the sport still drive the student, and academics still drive student outcomes.”
Many Division III administrators come from higher divisions but choose to work in a division that prioritizes student development and is less financially driven.
“When you ask people, ‘Why do you want to be an athletic director?’ 99 percent of them say, ‘Because I love the student athlete experience, and I want my students to have the best,’” Brooks said. “Well, I’m like, ‘If you truly want that, Division I isn’t the only place where we’re doing that, and I’d argue that we’re doing that at a higher level at Division III.’”
Brooks has also noticed increased diversity in hiring at the Division III level, particularly at institutions such as the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “When you see the big-name institutions now recognizing that there’s excellence that comes in all shapes, sizes, forms and ethnicities, I think it’s opened a lot of eyes,” Brooks said.
The NCAA reported that in 2024–25 there were 148 Black athletics directors, about 14 percent of all athletic directors. Division III has seen a 100% increase, from 20 to 40, over the past decade.
“I sit amongst my peers regularly at conventions and other places,” Brooks said. “And we often talk about how proud we are when you look at the number of Black ADs, because many of us who’ve been in this position for the last 20 years were here when there were very few.”
Four other Black athletic directors were named in this year’s NACDA awards: Reginald Ruffin of Tuskegee University, G. Anthony Grant of MIT, Monique Carroll of Chicago State University and John Ashaolu of Lewis University.
For Brooks, the honor reflects the success of the school and its teams rather than a personal achievement: “To me, what this award says is that we’ve created conditions that allow people to be themselves, to lead, to recruit the best talent, to develop the best students and to now put our students in a position where they can go out nationally and be successful.”
Anya Armentrout is a freelance journalist, a student at Macalester College and a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.