Executive in Residence

Dee Kennedy is currently an Associate Director of Enforcement at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In this role, she leads major investigations into potential bylaw violations across all three athletic divisions and assists with processing cases where violations have been substantiated. At the NCAA, she is a member of the NCAA’s Academic Integrity Unit, a group formed to serve as a resource for everyone who plays a role in ensuring integrity in the classroom, including athletics administrators, coaches, faculty athletics representatives, academic advisors, and student-athletes. She also serves in several other leadership positions within the NCAA and is a liaison to membership groups including the WBB Student-Athlete Engagement Group and the Minority Opportunity and Inclusion Committee (MOIC).

Prior to joining the NCAA staff in 2019, Kennedy was the Associate Athletics Director for Academic Support and Student Services at the University of North Florida for eight years. In her role as Associate AD, she assisted in recruiting, evaluated incoming students for admissibility and monitored the academic progression of current students. She also supervised staff which contributed to 16 consecutive semesters of an Athletic Department GPA >3.0. Her area also developed and implemented programming in various areas, including academic, personal and career development. Additionally, she worked closely with Title IX, Counseling Services, Disability Resources, the Registrar, International Affairs, Dean of Students, and LGBT Offices and was committed to supporting and educating coaches in areas affecting student athlete well-being. She is also a founding member of UNF’s PERCH initiative.

Kennedy also worked at the University of Texas San Antonio where she was charged with helping develop an academic support program that could meet the needs of a growing athletic department as it added football as a DI sport. In addition, she assisted in Compliance and helped with evaluating the initial eligibility of incoming student-athletes.

Prior to pursuing a full-time career in college athletics, Kennedy was an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, the faculty advisor for the joint JD/MEd (Sport Management) program and led UGA’s Athletics Department’s mentoring program. She also worked in the legal and marketing department at the Collegiate Licensing Company and practiced law as an associate at the Fulcher Firm in Augusta, Georgia. She also has experience working in the criminal justice field.

Along with being an adjunct professor in Sports Management for UNF since 2011, she also taught classes in the criminal justice department at UNF. She has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University.

In 2003, Kennedy became the first graduate of UGA’s joint JD/MEd program. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia with bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and sociology and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 2000.

Elaine Chiasson is the Global Golf Principal at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Elaine has over 20 years of experience in technology sales. She is a proven sales leader and an award-winning top performer recognized for a consistent track record of exceeding sales revenue targets. Elaine’s passion is helping her clients leverage technology to drive new revenue opportunities. Under her leadership, AWS launched a 10-year partnership with PGA TOUR to use machine learning and analytics to transform how fans experience the world’s greatest golf tournaments. Prior to her sucess at AWS, Elaine was an account manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Sun Microsystems and IKON Office Solutions. Elaine holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of South Florida. Elaine also has two children, Alexandria and Seth, her greatest accomplishments.

Michael Vitti rejoined the PGA TOUR in April 2017 as the VP, Data Science & Technology Solutions to establish a new PGA TOUR Analytics Center of Excellence. Michael has over 25 years of experience in data programming, machine learning, statistical modeling, and analytics which he applies to help companies turn data into information to drive strategic initiatives. 

He has honed his skills in areas including sports performance analytics, sports sponsorship, marketing, and fan engagement, brand marketing and advertising, automotive manufacturing, pharmaceutical analytics, Medicare Safeguarding and fraud analysis, and speech recognition software development. 

As an executive, Michael has built and led data and technology practices for organizations including the PGA TOUR, Repucom, Carat Media, Copernicus Marketing, WWE, TriCenturion, and Repucom International. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a masters in Industrial Statistics from the University of South Carolina.

Ken Lovell is the Senior Vice President of ShotLink Business Operations for the PGA TOUR where he has P&L responsibility for the PGA TOUR’s scoring system, is responsible for licensing, client relationships and service for scoring products and manages upstream scoring product development.

Lovell has worked at the TOUR since 2000 when he was hired to create the TOUR’s research department in order to bring the measurement of consumer needs, preferences and ideas to internal decision-making processes. He was responsible for developing research methods and resources for all business units within the TOUR, providing competitive intelligence, exploring strategic development opportunities and providing support where necessary to the TOUR’s partners. Some examples included developing methods for sponsorship measurement, retail sales research, audience measurement and interactions between viewing habits, fan attitudes and golf participation. During his time at the TOUR Lovell has also had responsibility for exploratory research such as modeling professional player performance statistics to build more compelling and entertaining competitions for fans including an instrumental role in creating the season long FedExCup points race. He also worked to develop communications message strategy, digital media development and creating new ways for the TOUR to become a key part of the entertainment landscape on a day-to-day basis.

During his tenure with the TOUR, Lovell has also held positions in the communications and marketing areas, most recently as SVP, Marketing where he had responsibility for International Marketing, US Multicultural Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Marketing for the TOUR’s New Ventures area.

Prior to his work with the PGA TOUR, Ken was with Procter and Gamble where he was responsible for consumer research on powder laundry detergent globally as well as new laundry forms in the United States. He holds a B.A. in History from Brigham Young University and an M.S.M. from the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University. He is originally from Elko, Nevada but has spent time working throughout the Midwestern United States as well as a two-year volunteer stint in the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Ken Lovell of the PGA TOUR is COEHS' first Executive in Residence and began his role during the Summer B 2020 term with Dr. Wanyong Choi. In the Fall, he taught PET3473: Communication in Sport.