By: Joey Mullins
Assistant AD for Communications
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- People who work in college athletics or at a university in general often choose that field because they want to make a positive impact on students' lives. JeNorri Armstead is making that desire a reality in her new role as Samford's Director of Diversity and Intercultural Initiatives for Athletics.
 
Armstead came to Samford in early 2017 as the Assistant to the Athletics Director. In June of 2020, another opportunity came up that would allow her to work more directly with Samford's student-athletes. She was approached last June by Director of Athletics Martin Newton about the possibility of taking a new position as Director of Diversity and Intercultural Initiatives for Athletics.
 
"Martin came and asked me about it, because after talking with several of our black student-athletes and coaches, he just recognized that there was a need for our department to have a better approach to how we address racial diversity within our department," Armstead said. "He approached me and asked me my thoughts on it and if I would be interested in it and I was happy to step into the role and honored to be asked to step into the role. I've learned a lot since June, just trying to educate myself to be able to do this position better for our department."
 
One of her first acts in her new role was to form the Athletics Council for Equality (ACE). One of the first steps ACE took to make a difference was to partner with the Black Student Union to organize a Unity March in late October. Approximately 250 students, faculty, staff, trustees and friends of Samford participated in the march. The 250 individuals were broken up into four groups to allow for social distancing. The groups walked to four different areas on campus, with speakers set up at each spot.
 
"It just means a lot to see the community come together," Armstead said at the march. "The student-athletes, the students, the faculty, the staff and the trustees coming to support this event is just awesome for us. They have all just come together in unity."
 
The Unity March was a good first step taken by ACE. Armstead said she is proud of the work the group is doing, and that the group is currently considering what its next steps should be.
 
"It's going well," Armstead said of ACE. "I thought the Unity March was pretty successful. So, now we are just regrouping to get started for the spring. It's difficult with all of the sports starting back up, so I'm just trying to get time to meet with them to try to see what we want to focus on this spring. That's the goal right now."
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult to hold in-person meetings, but Armstead said they are trying to set a definite schedule for meetings and trying to continually grow the numbers of the group and the reach they have.
 
"It's hard because we still just meet virtually, so we're just trying to set up something regular where we have our leaders meeting once a month," Armstead said. "And then we'll be trying to establish a monthly open meeting for any other student-athletes that are interested in joining the meeting once a month."
 
In addition to her work with the student-athletes, Armstead has also organized events for the Athletics Department staff. The staff went through diversity training last month in the Pete Hanna Center. Armstead said she was pleased with the way the event was received.
 
"Jenee Spencer from the Office of Diversity and Intercultural Initiatives did a great job coming over and presenting to our full staff, addressing key terms and then opening up the floor as best as we could because we're still trying to stay socially distanced," Armstead said. "Having groups separate and address different questions and just kind of have different reflections was good. I think people had the opportunity to hear from somebody they may not generally get to talk to a lot and get their reflections on the questions that she posed. My goal would be to have at least one training a year for our coaches. We'd like to do some for our student-athletes as well, but we're just trying to figure out what that will look like."
 
Armstead is not only making a difference at Samford, she is also on the Southern Conference's Racial Equity and Justice Task Force. She said the experience of being on the task force has been a great learning experience so far.
 
"That task force is a great opportunity to connect with other leaders across our conference," Armstead said. "They have coaches on it, student-athletes and administration and faculty athletic representatives, so it's a great mix. Getting to learn from them and hear what's working on their campuses is a great opportunity. Also, it's great seeing how we're all coming together and identifying key areas that we need to address and working together to provide tangible action so each of the campuses can incorporate that onto their campuses. It's encouraging conversations and it provides ways to educate coaches and staff so they feel equipped to be able to have those conversations."
 
Armstead grew up in the Birmingham area and attended Hoover High School. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 2001 with a degree in marketing and a minor in public relations.
 
After graduating, Armstead worked at First Commercial Bank for five years. She then went to work at Hoover High School for nine years. She first worked for the school's administration and then moved over to athletics as the Assistant to the Athletics Director. Because of her work in athletics at Hoover, she said when she learned about the opening at Samford, she felt like it would be a natural fit.
 
"I actually just found it online," Armstead said of the Samford opening. "Because we had actually moved over to Homewood and so I was just keeping my eye out for anything that came open over here. When I saw this opportunity come up, I thought it might be kind of cool to take what I was doing at the high school level and transfer it to college, so I thought that was a great opportunity. When I saw it open up, I just jumped on it."
 
Armstead said the support of Newton and others in the athletics department made the transition easy when she came to work at Samford.
 
"It was easy," Armstead said. "I liked it and I had a lot of support from Martin and others, so it was good."
 
Armstead and her husband, Winslow, had three children, Canon (16), Calista (14) and Caeten (12). She said her children enjoy having a mother working in athletics.
 
"They love it," Armstead said. "They've been into it since I worked over at Hoover. At Hoover they used to come up every summer. I think they thought they owned the place. They love it, that's all they've known, pretty much."
 
In her new role, Armstead is making a big difference in the lives of Samford's student-athletes. The student-athletes, and the department in general are lucky to have someone as dedicated as Armstead in such an important role. We all look forward to seeing the progress she makes for Samford and its student-athletes in the coming years.