The University of Mississippi Athletics
Horne Selected for NCAA Leadership Training Program
12/18/2008 | Athletics
OXFORD, Miss. Ole Miss' Derek Horne has been selected to participate in the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program, which is designed to foster leadership within intercollegiate athletics.
The program provides specific professional experiences that will enable participants with the opportunity to further develop their talents and abilities and to mesh these skills with their professional aspirations.
Each NCAA fellow will be assigned an NCAA executive mentor, a conference commissioner and/or athletics director at their sponsoring institution. The benefits are far-reaching in that the NCAA fellow will be introduced to every facet of athletics administration and will receive an overview of athletics from the perspective of an athletics director or conference commissioner.
"This is a great opportunity," said Horne. "This program is well respected in our industry. It gives you an opportunity to broaden your experience and assist with personal and professional growth."
In 1997, the NCAA implemented the Fellows Leadership Development Program, as proposed by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics and the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee. The NCAA Fellows Program was developed with the specific goal of enhancing the employment and leadership opportunities for racial/ethnic minorities and women at the senior management level of intercollegiate athletics administration.
Horne serves as Ole Miss' associate athletics director for external affairs and is in his 14th year with the administration. Among his duties, he spearheads the athletics department's correspondence and development with former letterwinners and oversees the CHAMPS Life Skills program.
A 1987 Ole Miss graduate, Horne was a four-year letterman on the Rebel basketball team from 1983 to 1986. He earned Academic All-SEC accolades as a senior and was team captain his final two seasons.