Charity Anderson | Assistant Athletics Director | UC San Diego – One Question Leadership Podcast

How do you become indispensable to your athletics department and athletics director?

Charity Anderson, Assistant AD for Scholar-Athlete Success at UC San Diego, joins 1Q’s Steph Garcia Cichosz to offer insight into this question after serving for five years as an Executive Assistant to then-Tritons AD Earl Edwards. Anderson discusses the impact of collaboration and how she remains compassionately curious while staying rooted in her core values.

00:00 – Introduction

01:24 – You’ve been with the Titans for six years, including five years as executive assistant to the great Earl Edwards. You have a background in sports psychology and you have experience working directly with athletes, including as a SAAC advisor. Walk us through your journey to San Diego.

03:52 – You said you had aspirations to be a sports psychologist – where did that come from?

06:57 – So in the ecosystem of athletics, you wanted to support the holistic, whole person side of an athlete – rather than serve as a coach or agent.

09:00 – Where does the executive assistant side come into this story? How do these puzzle pieces fit together?

12:05 – There are three pieces to your puzzle: your sports psych background, your high level of emotional intelligence, and your organizational capacity. What advice do you give aspiring senior leaders who hope to recreate their own version of this?

15:29 – What was the moment for you when you realized you were living your truth?

18:07 – Respect and trust… when did you trust the senior administrators around you, in that they were taking your perspective and your feedback seriously and truly incorporating your perspective?

21:57 – Do you feel pressure to be an AD or do you feel you can be the most effective from behind the scenes?

– One Question Leadership Podcast – Tai M. Brown – Steph Garcia Cichosz