College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management

Areas of Study

Our Faculty and Staff

Department of Sport and Entertainment Management

Matthew T. Brown, Ed.D, Chair and Associate Professor

Matthew Brown serves as chair and associate professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management where he teaches and researches in the areas of sport business and finance. Brown currently serves as the faculty advisor for the Sport and Entertainment Management Club and the newly formed club tennis team. He also serves as a liaison between the department and the Lexington County Blowfish, a wood bat baseball team in the Coastal Plain League.

Khalid Ballouli, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Ph.D. Program Director

Khalid Ballouli joined the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management in 2011 after receiving his doctorate in sport management from Texas A&M University. Ballouli's research interests are in the area of sport consumer behavior with a distinct focus on the ubiquitous nature of music in sport, where music inextricably entwines with marketing and management activity.

Kim Boone, B.S., Special Events Coordinator

Kim Boone is the event coordinator for the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. She is responsible for managing the department special events including directing two large annual conferences, the Sport Entertainment and Venues Tomorrow Conference (SEVT) and College Sport Research Institute (CSRI). Boone also manages The Thomas H. Regan Lecture Series and helps in the planning of events for the Graduate Student Association and the Sport and Entertainment Club.

Andy Gillentine, Ph.D., Professor

Andy Gillentine is a professor in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management at the University of South Carolina. Prior to this appointment, Gillentine held positions as chair of the Sport and Entertainment Management program at USC. Before accepting his position at USC, Gillentine was the associate dean, associate professor and director of the Sport Administration Programs at the University of Miami (2002-2010) and as graduate program director at Mississippi State University (1995-2002).

John Grady, J.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Undergraduate Director

John Grady teaches graduate courses in sport law and risk and security management. At the undergraduate level, he teaches courses in business law and risk management. Grady's research interests focus primarily on the legal aspects of the business of sport. This includes concentrations in the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by the sport and entertainment venue industries as well as intellectual property protection by professional and collegiate sport properties.

Jessica Harris, Administrative Coordinator

Jessica Harris works as administrative coordinator in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. In this role, Harris handles class schedules, course overrides, travel for the SPTE faculty, as well as other administrative duties for the department.

Bob Heere, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Bob Heere is associate professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Heere's research focuses on the social impact of sport on society, social identity processes in sport, community development in and through sport, consumer behavior, and branding.

Adonis Sporty Jeralds, C.F.E., Clinical Instructor

Adonis "Sporty" Jeralds serves as a clinical instructor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Jerals is also certified facilities executive—one of only 300 in the world—and works with the Charlotte Hornets in their community relations department.

Todd C. Koesters, J.D., M.S.A., Associate Professor

Todd Koesters joined USC from Churchill Downs Entertainment Group (CDE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Churchill Downs Inc., where he served as vice president of marketing and sales. Koesters' research is in the areas of sport consumer behavior, sales and marketing, sponsorships and ROI / ROO. He teaches Introduction to Events and Venues, Contracts and Negotiations in Sport and Entertainment, Sport and Entertainment Event Management, and Sales in Sport and Entertainment.

Joseph R. Lefft, J.D., Senior Instructor

Joseph Lefft is a graduate of the University of South Carolina where he earned a B.A. in economics in 1981 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1984. Lefft is a member of the South Carolina (1984) and Ohio (1986) Bars as well as a member of the Sports Lawyers Association. Lefft is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management where he teaches sports law. He is also a principal in The Lefft Law Group, LLC, formed in 2003, and specializing in the representation of college coaches and athletics directors as well as educational institutions.

Haylee Uecker Mercado, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Haylee Mercado teaches undergraduate courses in sport event management, sport facility management, managing part-time employees and facility operations. Mercado's research interests and activities lie in the areas of facility sustainability (design, Green practices, and corporate social responsibility) and on the Hispanic or Latino Culture; in particular, marketing of sport to the various Hispanic subcultures based on both generation and acculturation levels. This includes socialization into and through sport, motives for attending sporting events, sport values, and levels of sport and team attachment.

Brian J. Mihalik, Ed.D., Professor

Brian Mihalik is a professor with research areas in the investigation of global and mega-events such as the Olympic Games. He also researches the internationalization of education.

Danny Morrison, Ph.D., Professor of Practice

Danny Morrison earned his B.A. in mathematics from Wofford College, his M.E. in administration and supervision from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of South Carolina (2000). In addition to serving as president of the Carolina Panthers (2009-2017), Morrison served as director of athletics at Texas Christian University (2005-2009), commissioner of the Southern Conference (2001-2005), and as senior vice president (97-2001) and director of athletics (85-97) of Wofford College. He also served as both a high school and college-level mathematics instructor and sports coach earlier in his career.

Mark S. Nagel, Ed.D., Professor

Mark Nagel is a professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Nagel's research focuses on sport finance and revenue development, intercollegiate athletics, facility management, and management of sport organizations. He has coauthored multiple textbooks and has also written a variety of articles for scholarly and practitioner publications. He serves as the associate director of the College Sport Research Institute and teaches a variety of courses including The Business of College Sports, Sport and Entertainment Management, Sport and Entertainment Finance, Sport and Entertainment Marketing, and Strategic Planning and Policy Development.

Susan O'Malley, Senior Instructor

Susan O'Malley serves as a senior instructor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. O'Malley is the former president of Washington Sports Entertainment and the first female president of a professional sports franchise. At age 29, O'Malley became the first female president of an NBA franchise as well as one of the first women in a major front-office position in major league sports. She is the former president of the NBA's Washington Bullets (now the Wizards) and Washington Sports and Entertainment. In her 20-year tenure with Washington Sports, she also ran the Verizon Center (formerly the MCI Center), the WNBA's Washington Mystics, and Ticketmaster Washington-Baltimore.

Thomas H. Regan, Ed.D., Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Thomas Regan is an associate professor and director or graduate studies in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Regan's research emphasis focuses on the economic impact of sport and entertainment events on regional economies and the financing and feasibility of live entertainment events. He teaches Internship in Sport and Entertainment, Sport and Entertainment Venue Management, Sport and Entertainment Business and Finance, Sport and Entertainment Event Development, and Introduction to Sport and Entertainment.

Armen Shaomian, D.M.A., Assistant Professor

Armen Shaomian holds master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in accompanying and chamber music with cognates in Music Business and Entertainment Industries from the University of Miami. Shaomian is an active concert pianist and has performed numerous concerts at venues in Europe and the United States.

Stephen Shapiro, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Stephen Shapiro joined the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management in the fall of 2017. Shapiro previously worked for nine years as a faculty member in the sport management program at Old Dominion University. He served as graduate program coordinator from 2012-2017. He received his Ph.D. in sport administration with a doctoral minor in statistics from the University of Northern Colorado. He received his Master of Science in Management and Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Central Florida.

Richard M. Southall, Ed.D., Associate Professor, Director, College Sport Research Institute

Richard Southall is an associate professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management where he teaches and researches in the areas of sport ethics, college sport and research methods. Southall is also director of the College Sport Research Institute, whose organizational goal is to create awareness of arising questions in the rapidly evolving world of college sport.

Steven Taylor, M.S.E.M., Senior Instructor, Internship Director

A native of Summerville, S.C., Steven Taylor received both his Bachelor of Science in Sport and Entertainment Management and Master of Sport and Entertainment Management from the University of South Carolina. Taylor teaches SPTE 195 - Sport and Entertainment Careers, SPTE 295 - Practicum in Sport and Entertainment Management, SPTE 399 - Independent Study in SPTE, and SPTE 495 - Internship in Sport and Entertainment Management.

Sam Todd, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Diversity and Operations / Professor

Sam Todd received his Bachelor of Science in Sport Administration from Erskine College in Due West, S.C., and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in sport management from Florida State University. He previously spent 14 years in various capacities at Georgia Southern University. Todd serves as the associate dean for faculty affairs, diversity and operations for the College and as a professor in the department of Sport and Entertainment Management.

Nick Watanabe, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Nicholas Masafumi Watanabe is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Watanabe received his Master of Science in Leisure Studies and his Ph.D. in recreation, sport and tourism from the University of Illinois. Prior to coming to South Carolina, Watanabe served as assistant professor from 2016-2017 and assistant teaching professor from 2010-2016 at the University of Missouri.

Grace Yan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Grace Yan received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and is a new member of the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Yan's research approaches sport management by focusing on the inter-related connections of sport and media, aiming to capture the evolving identities of sport practices.