UA President Appoints Engineer as Faculty Athletics Representative to PAC-12 and NCAA

UA President Dr. Robert C. Robbins announced that Ricardo Valerdi, associate professor of systems and industrial engineering, is the new faculty athletics representative to the PAC-12 Conference and the NCAA.

Robbins announced in late October 2017 that Valerdi would succeed School of Dance professor and former dean Jory Hancock.

All PAC-12 and NCAA member institutions are required to appoint faculty athletics representatives. Their major responsibilities are ensuring academic integrity in intercollegiate athletics; compliance with PAC-12, NCAA and university rules; and student-athlete well-being.

Coordinating complex systems is Ricardo Valerdi’s stock in trade. He founded Arizona Science of Baseball, a curriculum that uses baseball statistics to excite middle-school students about science, technology, engineering and math, as well as Science of Sport, Valerdi’s expanded version of the curriculum for other sports. These programs have been used by more than 60,000 students, particularly from low-income communities, across the country.

Photo: Ricardo Valerdi, right, has advised many UA student-athletes, including former UA linebacker Jason Sweet, left. (Photo: Emily Litvack/UA Office for Research, Discovery & Innovation)