Why Mizzou’s first female AD, Desiree Reed-Francois, is equipped for job’s challenges

On the September day I went to meet the University of Missouri’s new athletic director, Desiree Reed-Francois, a fire alarm went off about when I approached Mizzou Arena.

The false alarm didn’t distract her from a gracious greeting outside and basically carrying forth. On the way back to her office after the all-clear, she stopped to engage a female student-athlete for several minutes.

This was just a snapshot, of course. But it suggested a woman immersed in the moment and undeterred by mere noise.

That scene came to mind after the Mizzou men’s basketball team recently was humbled 80-66 by the Kansas City Roos and sent many a fan into apoplexy over the loss under fifth-year coach Cuonzo Martin — an awe-inspiring man still seeking the first NCAA Tournament win of his MU tenure.

Because between this wobbly start to the men’s season (3-3 after a 61-55 loss to Wichita State on Friday night) and the fits-and-starts of second-year MU coach Eli Drinkwitz’s efforts to establish a foundation in football (6-6 overall, 3-5 Southeastern Conference after a 34-17 loss at Arkansas on Friday), it occurred to me that much of any AD’s job is knowing the difference between true and false alarms.

About how to absorb the sound and fury of her constituents and discern what signifies nothing from compelling testimony. And being able to negotiate the prevailing winds with a vision of the horizon.

To keep her head as others lose theirs while having the strength to change what should be changed … and the wisdom to know what’s fleeting and what’s real.

Countless calculations come with just that sliver of the job, complex considerations from the purely financial and won-loss ledgers and attendance to the integrity of leaders. From the broader experiences of the student-athletes to the pulse of fans and influential donors.

Some of those priorities may even contradict.

For those reasons and many more, it’s enormously challenging work that requires a dynamic and special sort of person to manage. And all indications are that Reed-Francois is just that, bearing the smarts, persona, background and character to steer MU through this flux.

Her journey, including personal tragedy, speaks to understanding the urgency of the immediate in the context of the big scheme of things. That acumen has helped define her life itself on the way to becoming Missouri’s first female AD, the first woman of Hispanic descent to lead a Power Five program and just the second woman to run a SEC program.

Maybe such trailblazing should be no surprise from a woman who was swimming with dolphins before she could walk since her father, Don Reed, was a diver at Marine World/Africa USA in Redwood Shores, California — adventures he wrote about in his book, “Notes From An Underwater Zoo.”

The flip side of that, she said, with a laugh, is that she’s clumsy out of water. But she’s been able to run marathons, she added, “because all that requires is just some grit and determination.”

In or out of the water, she learned young that she could create her own current … and currency.

By second grade, she decided she would become an attorney because of her elegant and strong Aunt Mary, whom she described as one of the first female law partners in San Diego. So, presto, after completing her undergraduate degree (and rowing) at UCLA, she earned her law degree at Arizona and became a practicing lawyer.

Before she began her collegiate administrative career, per her bio at Fresno State earlier in her career, she had spent a year as a legal associate for the NFL’s Management Council and was a legal associate for the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, handling collective bargaining grievances during the club’s previous relocation.

By then, she reckoned she would be the first female general manager in the NFL: “Because I figured as a lawyer that would be a natural path,” she said in her office in September. “And, again, I didn’t really know what I didn’t know.”

Over time, though, something profound was shifting inside her.

Because of what happened to her brother, Roman.

She had long figured she’d represent him when he went to the NFL. But in 1994, when Roman was a sophomore linebacker at Chabot College, he suffered a broken neck at the sixth vertebra and lost the use of his legs, arms, hands and shoulders.

Everything about all their lives changed from there, including the faith inspired by the amazing part of the story in which Roman later regained use of his arms and became the father of three children and makes believers of people he tells that he’ll walk again one day.

He’s also making a difference for many others: With endless support from his sister and father, the state of California in 2000 passed the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act.

Attempts to connect with Roman over the last few months were unsuccessful. But if you want to understand his impact and more of the depth of connection between the siblings, we recommend Gabe DeArmond’s deeply moving story on the family for PowerMizzou.com

His resilience galvanized his sister, then and every day since, but also ultimately redirected her.

Even as she harbored NFL ambitions, she had come to see herself as a teacher first. And because of Roman’s experience, she believed she should dedicate herself to working with student-athletes.

Now, she said, “That’s just part of my DNA; that’s who I am.”

So, too, is Roman’s influence in her perspective, which she described in a manner reminiscent of how former MU football Gary Pinkel speaks of the way he was affected by his sister and brother suffering from a rare neurological disorder, hereditary spastic paraplegia, that skipped him.

Her brother’s experience, Reed-Francois said, “has made me less patient with trivial excuses. … It’s a challenge for him to get out of bed sometimes. And when I hear people make excuses, I have to work very hard to exercise patience.”

So when the woman who has endured numerous marathons gets up at 4:30 a.m. to run and clear her mind, it’s not unusual for her to stop and text someone on her staff in the wee hours. Indeed, a sense of immediacy seems wired into her.

One example: Even before MU’s first football game of her tenure, against Central Michigan on Sept. 4, she had commissioned a fan survey of the game-day experience that led to a followup letter noting changes to be made mere days later.

Based on fan feedback, the letter obtained by The Star said, Mizzou would immediately “enhance the training of the entry staff who scans tickets,” work to improve concession services, adjust the volume of the north end zone speaker system and provide printed rosters for fans available at each gate.

Small steps, perhaps. But it’s part of her first-things-first notion to win from within to establish a tone as she gauges the landscape. Which is part of why she also seeks to spend time with teams and student-athletes, she said, including when she asked every member of the softball team about their walkup songs and their future plans.

When one said she intended to go into business, Reed-Francois recalled responding, “Why not be a CEO?”

Saying that may or may not be directly correlated with her own experience. But certainly she prospered by having her own imagination opened up by the power of suggestion.

As an associate AD at Fresno State from 2003 to 2006, she met with former NCAA executive director Ced Dempsey when he was on campus to work with the school on a strategic planning process. At one point, he asked her about her career path. When she replied that she hoped to become a senior woman administrator. Dempsey said, “Why wouldn’t you want to be an athletic director?”

That proved to be a striking thought. And it became all the more tangible as she studied pioneers such as then-Washington AD Barbara Hedges and then-Maryland AD Debbie Yow, whose friendship has left Reed-Francois eternally grateful.

Yow, she said, “set the stage for me to be able to do this” and helped steer her drive toward a fascinating and remarkable career trajectory: She was recruited from Fresno to San Francisco to Tennessee (where she was on the committee that hired Martin in 2011), then to Cincinnati, Virginia Tech and, finally, to becoming the AD at UNLV in 2017 before being hired by MU to replace Jim Sterk.

As it happens, she was hired just months after being on campus (when there was no job opening) with her son, Jackson — who was on a campus tour and committing to play for Martin as a walk-on.

That also was a statement about her belief in Martin, whom she said in September would “push Jackson not just to be a better basketball player, but to be a better man … (and) redefine his limits.”

As she seeks to remove any limits to where Mizzou athletics are headed in the years to come, that’s another unique vantage point for Reed-Francois — something that should further help her distinguish what rings true in the months and years to come.