Windy Dees

Dr. Windy Dees serves as Professor, Graduate Program Director for Sport Administration, and Associate Chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami, positions she has held since August 2010. Prior to her current role, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University from August 2007 to 2010. Dees completed her Ph.D. in Sport Management with a minor in Marketing at Texas A&M University in December 2007, where her dissertation examined Personality Fit in NASCAR and its impact on sponsorship effectiveness. She earned her M.S. in Sport Management with a minor in Marketing from the University of Florida in December 2004, focusing her thesis on measuring sponsorship effectiveness in intercollegiate football. Additionally, she holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Communications from Rollins College, awarded in May 1999. Her professional experience includes serving as an Account Executive at Synergy Sports Marketing USA, Inc. in Orlando from 1998 to 2000, as well as graduate research and teaching assistantships at Texas A&M University and the University of Florida, and volunteer roles with the University of Florida Athletic Association and Super Bowl XXXVII corporate hospitality.

Dees's academic interests center on sports marketing and sponsorship. She co-authored the textbook Sport Marketing, Fifth Edition (Human Kinetics, 2022) with Patrick Walsh, Carter McEvoy, and Shannon McKelvey, and contributed a chapter to Contemporary Sport Management, Sixth Edition (Human Kinetics, 2018). Notable peer-reviewed publications include "Show Me the Money! A Review of Current Issues in the New NIL Era" (Journal of Applied Sport Management, 2021, with Beth A. Cianfrone and Damon Andrew), "Assessing the impact of sponsor asset selection, intangible rights, and activation on sponsorship effectiveness" (Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2019, with Nicholas Popp, Jonathan Jensen, and Calvin Gay), "Down, set, spread: The association between college football and COVID-19" (Journal of American College Health, 2022, with William E. Leal, Alex R. Piquero, and Nicole L. Piquero), and "New media and technology use in corporate sport sponsorship" (International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2011). Her work has garnered 887 citations with an h-index of 12. Dees received the Sutton Award from the Sport Marketing Association in 2020, was a nominee in 2018 and Best Paper Nominee in 2015, won the SMA Graduate Research Competition in 2005 and 2006, and was highlighted as one of the Top 10 Professors at the University of Miami in 2012. She has served as Graduate Program Director since 2017, Associate Department Chair since 2022, School Council Member from 2021 to 2024, and participated in numerous university commencement ceremonies and committees. Dees has delivered invited panel presentations and appeared on podcasts such as the Tao of Sports.

Professional Email: wdees@miami.edu