Phil Hess was named the Director of Athletics at Embry-Riddle Arizona on July 1, 2022. Prior to that, Hess was the Assistant Athletics Director at Embry-Riddle from 2017-2020, then the interim Athletics Director for the 2020-2021 school year. Hess came to ERAU from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi where he was the Sports Information Director for the Majors and brings over 25 years of experience in collegiate athletics to the Eagles program.
Before moving to Mississippi, Hess was the Director of Communications, Promotions, and Marketing for the largest NCAA Division III program in the country at MIT for five years. During his tenure, he developed video streaming partnerships oversaw the redesign of the intercollegiate athletics website, mitathletics.com, the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation homepage, the physical education website, and the intramural sports website. Hess launched a new and expanded online shopping presence for MIT athletics merchandise, expanded the Engineers' social media presence, and brought in several corporate sponsorships. Hess also led the development of "Engineer Spotlight," a video series highlighting student-athletes and their accomplishments inside the classroom.Â
Prior to MIT, Hess was the Director of Athletic Communications at Stony Brook where he was the media contact for football, men's and women's tennis and men's lacrosse. He furthered the development of the Seawolf radio network and supervised the department's weekly 30-minute television show. He implemented several social media initiatives and moved printed media guides to interactive web versions.Â
Hess spent five years prior to moving to New York as the Sports Information Director at Oakland University in his native Michigan. In his time there he ran the Sports Information Office in addition to serving as the media contact for men's basketball, volleyball, men's and women's tennis, golf and softball. He also was the media coordinator for the first round of the 2007 NCAA men's basketball tournament and was a media liaison for the 2004 Ryder Cup.Â
Before his time at Oakland he served as the Director of Athletic Media Relations at East Tennessee State University and also served on the media relations staffs at William & Mary, West Virginia, Utah State, and VMI. During his career he also had the opportunity to serve as a media assistant at the 2000 NCAA Volleyball Final Four, 2001 NCAA Women's Basketball East Regional and the 2001 PGA Michelob Open.
Prior to his position at William & Mary he served as the men's basketball contact at West Virginia where he was also the media director for the NCAA Region VI gymnastics meet. Before his time at WVU, Hess was the Assistant SID at Utah State for two years after starting his sports information career at VMI where he was an Assistant SID as well as a press assistant at the 1995 NCAA Men's Soccer Final Four.
Hess graduated from the University of Michigan in 1982 after which he was an aerospace engineer at NASA for nine years where he was a member of the team that returned Shuttle Fleet to flight status after the Challenger disaster in 1986. He received his Master's degree in Sports Management from the University of Richmond in 1993.
