Longtime Abilene Christian employee, and a favorite of students around campus,
Ryan Bowman has been hired as associate athletic director for student-athlete experience and life skills.
Bowman transitions to ACU Athletics following 15 years in various roles with the university including Title IX investigator and case manager, recruiter for the College of Biblical Studies, associate director of spiritual formation, and, most recently, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA).
His new position involves building relationships with student-athletes, helping them transition to ACU and Abilene, and connecting them with resources to be grow spiritually, academically, and socially.
"Wherever we go we will always need something extra to help us find the blind spots," said Bowman, who described his new role as more of a calling than a job. "We do have great resources, but sometimes you need that extra component to put it all together."
Like his previous jobs at ACU, Bowman will continue doing two things he is passionate about: working directly with students, and strengthening community.
"I love it. It gets in your blood."
"Ryan embodies several of the characteristics we strive for at ACU: encouraging, compassionate, and living out the love of Jesus," said
Zack Lassiter, ACU vice president for athletics. "So many of our student-athletes have already formed connections with Ryan, and we look forward to seeing him impact many more in this new position. We are blessed to now have him working in ACU Athletics!"
Bowman notes a big chunk of the overall student population is already familiar with the university, and many are family legacies. But, a much higher percentage of student-athletes do not have experience with ACU's history or culture which can make their adjustment to college more challenging.
"While working at ACU it clicked for me that there were a lot of students who were first generation college students like myself," said Bowman. "The compassion string kept pulling because I felt they were, in a way, missing key components of their university experience.
"When you've been relegated as an athlete all your life, that identity is easy to zip yourself in. My job is to give you the shovel. Your job is to unearth all the goodness that God has put in you. The world has a way of putting dirt mounds on top of that, but at the bottom there is still a deep, rich source of goodness in you. My job is to show you where to dig, but it's your job to want to get there."
Bowman earned a bachelor's degree in communication and media studies (2006), and a master's in organizational leadership (2015) from ACU.
