Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D., is a full professor in sports media in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. She has been recognized as a fellow of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), the AAHPERD Research Consortium, and the National Academy of Kinesiology.

Dr. Staurowsky is internationally recognized as an expert on social justice issues in sport which include college athletes’ rights and the exploitation of college athletes, gender equity and Title IX, pay equity and equal employment opportunity, representation of women in sport media, and the misappropriation of American Indian imagery in sport. She is co-author of the book, The NCAA and the Exploitation of College Profit-Athletes (University of South Carolina Press), College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA Amateur Myth (Praeger Press) and editor and author of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Sport and Women and Sport: A Continuing Journey from Liberation to Celebration (Human Kinetics Publishers). She is producer of the podcast, Title IX and College Sports.

In addition to publications in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Sociology of Sport Journal, Quest, Journal of Sport Management, the International Journal of Sport Communication, the International Journal of Sport Sociology, the Marquette Sports Law Review, the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, the International Journal of Sport History, and Sport Management Review her critiques and analyses on a variety of issues have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, The NCAA News, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Athletic Management Magazine, Sportico, and News From Indian Country. She was a columnist with the College Sport Business News, Women in Coaching Blog, and co-founder and editor of the LBGT Issues in Sport: Theory to Practice Blog. She currently serves as a contributing/senior writer with Sports Litigation Alert and Legal Issues in College Athletics and Editor in Chief of Title IX Alert.

She has served as a research consultant to the National College Players Association, co-authoring several reports addressing issues regarding college football and basketball player value, including How the NCAA Empire Robs Predominantly Black Athletes of Billions in Generational Wealth, The $6 Billion Heist: Robbing College Athletes Under the Guise of Amateurism, TV Money Windfall in Big Time College Sports: $784 Million Reasons for Reform, The Price of Poverty: A Comparison of Big-Time College Athletes Fair Market Value, Their Current Compensation, and the U.S. Federal Poverty Line, and An Examination of the Financial Shortfall for Athletes on Full Scholarship at NCAA Division I Institutions – 2009-2010.

As a researcher and advocate on behalf of women in sport, she is the lead author on the Women’s Sports Foundation’s 50 Years of Title IX: We’re Not Done Yet as well as Chasing Equity:  The Triumphs, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sports for Girls and Women, Her Life Depends on It: Sport and Physical Activity in the Lives of American Girls and Women (second and third editions). She also co-authored WSF’s report on women in the college sport workplace entitled Beyond X’s and O’s: Gender Bias and Coaches of Women’s Teams.

Dr. Staurowsky teaches courses in college sport (Introduction to the College Sport Industry, NCAA Compliance, Personal Branding and College Athletes, Title IX and College Sports) and sports media (Intro to Sports Media, Sport Media Relations, Social Issues in Sports Media, Women’s Sports Media Incubator).

In 2011, Dr. Staurowsky was invited to present at a roundtable convened by U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL), ranking member of the Energy & Power Subcommittee and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Educating, Engaging & Employing American’s Youth on the topic of “Hypocrisy or hype: The impacts of backroom deals, payoffs, and scandals in American collegiate student athletics”. And in summer of 2019, she was asked to participate in a panel on the topic of “Exploitation in College Sports” hosted by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D- CT) in Washington, D.C. She has also submitted expert reports on behalf of plaintiffs in O’Bannon v. NCAA (2014); Ploetz v. NCAA (2018); Onyshko v. NCAA (2019), Davis v. NCAA (2021); Geathers v. NCAA (2022); Whittier v. NCAA (2022); and Gee v. NCAA (2022).

As a teacher and researcher, she has received numerous honors including the Sonny Vaccaro Impact Award from the College Sport Research Institute at the University of South Carolina; Women’s Sports Foundation Researcher of the Year award, the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport’s President’s Award, the University of South Carolina College Sport Research Institute’s Lifetime Research Achievement Award, and the Laughlin Education Award from Ursinus College for her contributions to education nationally. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi.