The convoluted and meandering search for FAMU’s next athletics director has been narrowed down to three finalist Angela Suggs, President and CEO of the Florida Sports Foundation; Craig Angelo, former Sr. Associate AD at Temple University; and Tiffani Dawn-Sykes, Sr. Associate AD at Dartmouth University.
But not before the search committee headed by SBI Dean/VP for Advancement Shawnta Friday-Stroud decided to take us on a journey with more twist and plots than a Shonda Rhimes mini-series.
Twice Friday-Stroud has appeared to make up her own rules to add folks of her liking to the mix. Early on she changed the rules mid-process to add Marvin Green and interim AD Michael Smith, two local candidates who had been eliminated, to the list of candidates invited in for campus interviews even though they failed to muster the necessary votes to advance.
Last week Friday-Stroud again went back to the “garbage pail” and retrieved two new candidates.
On Friday, she decided to interview former South Carolina State Athletic Director Stacy Danley. Danley who was fired from his position at SCSU on August 9, had not previously been interviewed by the committee.
The search committee, last week, also decided to bring Bentley University AD Vaughn Williams (candidate #8) for an on campus interview yesterday. Williams was one of the original applicants interviewed, however, he did not make the initial cut for on campus interviews.
After Danley’s zoom interview he failed to garner a single vote and was not advanced. Shortly after Williams' on campus interview on Monday the committee decided not to move forward with his candidacy.
Now in a new plot twist: Yulander Wells, Jr., Deputy Director of External Affairs at Harvard University, who just last week had withdrawn from the search process, changed his mind and is again one of the finalist.
