Val Ackerman was named commissioner of the new Big East Athletic Conference. The conference includes seven Catholic universities who were members of the old Big East conference (now called the American Athletic Conference). They are Georgetown University, DePaul University, Marquette University, Providence College, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, and Villanova University. Butler University, Creighton University, and Xavier University will also join the new, 10-member Big East Conference.
Val Ackerman was the first president of the Women’s National Basketball Association and has been serving as a consultant for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In that role, she recently issued a report on how to improve women’s collegiate basketball. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she was a four-year starter on the women’s basketball team. She went on to earn a law degree at the University of California at Los Angeles.