Elizabeth Conlisk’s career in sports did not begin in athletics.

After graduating from The Ohio State University, Conlisk worked three jobs and earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School before entering the sports industry through the Big Ten Network.

Now, she has joined the Sports and Society Initiative (SSI) board.

“I think that SSI is really trying to shine a light on the positive impacts of sports,” Conlisk said.

Although her early career was not in sports, Conlisk worked in issue management, which introduced her to the industry. As a public affairs manager for Miller Brewing Company, she handled communications related to the company’s sponsorships with sports organizations.

Later, she became assistant vice president for media relations at Ohio State, where she managed crises involving athletics.

“If we fired a coach, if a football player got in trouble, if bad things happened, I handled it,” Conlisk said.

After working for her alma mater, Conlisk joined the Big Ten Network as vice president of communications and university relations during the network’s inaugural year in 2007.

“Creating that network was about more than just coalescing sports rights,” Conlisk said. “There was a commitment that 50% of the events would be women’s sports. There were also issues with taking games off free TV, so there were a lot of considerations involved.”

With nearly a decade of experience in sports media and communications, Conlisk said she hopes to bring a valuable perspective to the SSI board and support student development.

“It’ll be about offering ideas for programming and keeping other board members aware of breaking news in the field,” Conlisk said. “And talking to students about my career path and offering candid advice about what it’s really like to work in sports.”