Feb. 28, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - For Penn State senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator Charmelle Green, Black History Month means sharing unique stories that inspire others.
When it comes to inspiration though, there's perhaps no better story to share than Green's.
A student-athlete, coach and administrator, it's these experiences that have shaped both a successful career and a drive to give back to those who gave so much to her along the way.
"I get inspired by those who really worked hard to beat the odds," Green said. "I get inspired by those who said I can do it, I can be the one. I get inspired when Black History Month comes around because I know that we're going to be filled with all of these stories that remind me of the challenges people have faced and overcome to create the opportunities for me as a senior associate athletics director at Penn State."
An All-American student-athlete, Green spent four years on the softball team at the University of Utah.
"Utah was a place where diversity wasn't very prevalent," Green said. "I didn't see a lot of diversity, so often times I felt alone."
As the only black student-athlete at Utah, often times Green felt a majority of the challenges she faced were different from those her teammates were confronted with. That hardly slowed her stride, as Green proud looks back on her experiences at Utah, even drawing from the challenges she overcame with the help of her head coach and teammates.
"Jo Evans was a huge part of my life," Green said. "She was a coach who got me, who understood that my experience at the University of Utah might be very different than my teammates' experience. I was the only black student-athlete on the team and she embraced that. She allowed me to be who I was."
With the guidance of a head coach who instilled both confidence and perseverance, Evans helped create an environment where everyone could thrive, including Green.
It's that sense of empowerment that led Green to a career in coaching, serving as an assistant softball coach at Notre Dame from 2001-05.
"Having a tremendous experience and being coached by Jo Evans and others who inspired me every single day, who brought out the best in me - I wanted to do the same for others," Green said. "Coaching was a natural gravitation for me because I knew that I could make an impact and I wanted to do for others what Jo did for me. I wanted to inspire, I wanted to bring out the best in others."
Surrounded by the leadership of familiar faces like Sandy Barbour and Kevin White at Notre Dame, Green decided it was time for something bigger.
"I got to see them interact with others, I got to be around them when they were making critical decisions for the athletics department at the university," Green said. "So I went to Sandy Barbour and I said you know what, I want to get into athletics administration."
Passionate about the opportunity to impact a greater group of individuals outside of the student-athletes on her team, Green spent six years as part of Notre Dame's athletic administration overseeing the student development program.
In 2011, Green decided to accept an opportunity at a place she had always considered a legacy program.
"Penn State always valued athletics and academics, all the things that I believe are so important to a student-athlete's experience," Green said. "It had everything that I was looking for and Penn State has everything that I always thought Penn State would be."
As Penn State navigated tumultuous times shortly after Green's arrival, she never wavered in her decision to continue to make a greater impact.
"I had the opportunity to go other places and say this could be really tough," Green said. "When I saw all the people come together to say, hey let's make Penn State better, let's be the ones who change the story, I wanted to be a part of it. I didn't want to run, I wanted to be right in it. Knee deep, right in it. I wanted to roll up the sleeves."
That's just what she did.
By August 2014, Penn State appointed Sandy Barbour as director of athletics, presenting an opportunity for Green to join a leadership team that she always looked forward to.
"Sandy Barbour as the director of athletics at Penn State and having the opportunity to be a part of her leadership team is a dream come true," Green said.
Under the mentorship of Barbour, Green has only expended her responsibilities, nowing including oversight of the Intercollegiate Athletics Student Welfare and Development unit among sport administrator responsibilities and oversight of the Intercollegiate Sport Performance unit.
"Everything within my job description is everything that I love to do," Green said. "It has provided me with the opportunity to impact a student-athletes life every single day. The health and well-being of our student-athletes is most important to us and is something that's incredibly important to Sandy as she was thinking about the restructure of the organization. It's something I value tremendously. I take a great deal of pride in making sure that we are getting better every single day."
For Green, the greatest area of improvement has come in the development of life skills programing for student-athletes as well expanding Penn State's staffing and resources in sport science.
Most inspiring though, has been watching her team come together to work toward one common goal, enhancing the student-athlete experience.
"My team is inspired, they work hard and they want to be great," Green said. "To see them communicate and work together through challenges and problems, seeing those areas get better within the sport performance team, seeing those areas of expertise and those disciplines change for the better is something I am really proud of. Most importantly, it is that they're working together to impact the lives of our student-athletes."
Beyond her staff though, it's making a difference among student-athletes that Green finds the most pride in.
"I'd say most gratifying to me is when I get the opportunity to sit down with our student-athletes who are departing," Green said. "When student-athletes tell me that this has been the greatest experience of their life. When they say that they couldn't imagine spending their undergraduate career's someplace else, that Penn State provided them everything they needed to be incredibly successful while they were here. To leave this place with the confidence that they need, that's what makes me most proud."