Amanda Backus - Assoc. Dir. of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrator - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Amanda Backus

Title:
Assoc. Dir. of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrator

Amanda Backus is in her ninth year as Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator at Bucknell.

Backus came to Bucknell from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., where she had served as the senior woman administrator and associate athletic director for compliance and student services since July 1999. In that role, she provided leadership and guidance to 21 Division I sports programs, with an emphasis on 11 women's programs.

Backus also coordinated and implemented all NCAA, NEC, MAAC and institutional rules and procedures governing the conduct of Quinnipiac's intercollegiate athletic program. That process included the education of institutional faculty, staff, athletics interests and student-athletes regarding NCAA compliance.

At Bucknell, Backus serves as an important aide to the director of athletics and supervises 10 Bison sports, including women's basketball. She oversees Bucknell's unique Faculty Sideline Program and oversees all gender equity and minority opportunity issues. She is also a key campus liaison in the areas of financial aid and admissions, multicultural affairs, the Women's Resource Center, psychological services, LGBT and with the faculty and deans. In 2005-06 she was the department of athletics' liaison in Bucknell's successful NCAA re-certification process, and she serves as Bucknell's Title IX coordinator.

Backus recently completed service as chair of the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Committee, and in 2007-08 she chaired the Division I Women's Lacrosse Committee.

Prior to her tenure at Quinnipiac, Backus spent a year and a half at Cornell University where she served as a compliance and event management intern, then as the assistant compliance coordinator and event management supervisor.

Backus received her undergraduate degree from Franklin & Marshall in 1992, and she earned her master of science degree with a concentration in athletic administration from Springfield College. Her husband, Jared, is a former member of the Bison football coaching staff who is now on the staff at Temple. The couple has a six-year-old son, Garrett, and a three-year-old daughter, Grace.