Growing up on a farm in Ithaca, N.Y., Dawn Rogers was a "shy, introverted kid" who considered becoming a veterinarian.

But through sports, as a Division III athlete at SUNY Binghamton and back home at Ithaca College, she found "my inner voice and I found my strength."

"My freshman year in volleyball, I met a young lady from New York City . . . her name was Andrea Piccininni. We called her pitch," Rogers said. "She was this strong Italian from New York City, and I was this shy kid from a farm. Our paths wouldn't have crossed outside of volleyball, and she became my best friend.

"So, I think it kind of crystalized to me what sports was. And I really liked the dynamic of a team. I had different jobs in the athletic department, and it was a place where I felt very comfortable and at home."

Athletics has been Rogers' home for the last 35 years, starting with her own playing days and going through stops at Cincinnati, Temple University, Akron, Xavier and Arizona State. And now, after a two-year stint as Executive Director and CEO of the Phoenix Final Four Local Organizing Committee, her new home is in Waco as Baylor's Deputy Athletics Director.

"I had always known about Baylor, had great respect. The athletic program was always very strong," said Rogers, who was hired in June and officially started on July 6. "And when I sat down to really research Baylor, I was even more impressed, when you go through the coaches we have and how we've done academically. And then, going back to that faith-based-centered, it really aligned with one of my positive experiences, at Xavier. To see what our student-athletes are involved in, even more than during my time at Xavier, it was really fun to see."

After graduating from Ithaca College in 1986 and earning her master's in sports management from the University of Massachusetts the next year, Rogers had internships with the Olympic Training Center and NACDA and then a 10-month personal services contract to work at the University of Cincinnati in marketing.

From there, she took a job as director of marketing for all women's sports at Temple University. Her one stipulation was, "I really only want the job if you'll let me work on both men's and women's sports."

Out of the blue, just 10 months later, Rogers got a call from Akron University about an assistant athletic director's position.

"I was 24 years old, and I said, `I don't think I'm qualified for that job,''' she said. "The person that called me said, `Well, the AD has asked me for some recommendations. Can I give him your name?' I went back to Temple and asked if they minded if I applied for the job, since I had only been there for 10 months and they made a commitment to me. I don't think they thought I would get it and said, `Sure.' And I got it. It was an amazing experience."

What she learned very quickly, though, was "I needed to learn a lot."

"There were coaches that I was overseeing that had years of experience, and I was close in age to the student-athletes," Rogers said. "So, it was a wonderful experience for me to be humbled very quickly, to realize that I had a lot of areas that I needed to grow in."

Spending nine years there, Rogers got involved with a "group of crazy runners . . . I ran 11 marathons while I was there."

"I had always run," she said. "My parents lived four miles from Ithaca College, and some days I'd run home. Running, for me, was always a way that I worked through stress. I had a lot of stressful times. You go run 10 miles after work, and all the stress would be gone."

Rogers also met her husband, Rob, at Akron.

"He worked at the Jesuit high school where he graduated from, and he saw me on the sidelines at a football game," Dawn said. "He was there cheering for the other team, and he said I gave him a dirty look. And I said, `Of course I did. You were cheering for the other team. You're just lucky I didn't have you thrown out.' He had the courage to come to my office and meet me, we went on a date a couple months later, and the rest is history."

Akron is also where their son, Owen, was born. Dawn was pregnant with their daughter, Hazel, when she left in 1998 to take a job at Xavier as Senior Associate Athletics Director.

"Looking back on it, I feel like I could still be working at Akron. I loved the job there, loved working with those student-athletes," she said. "But, it was a high-profile basketball program (at Xavier), they were building a new facility. Having come to Akron so young, it was a great opportunity for me to use everything I learned at a different institution."

It was also her first opportunity to work at a faith-based school, "and I loved that you could come to work and you could talk about God and you could talk about spiritual growth in your students."

Replacing Mike Bobinski, the man she had followed from Akron, Rogers took over as Athletic Director at Xavier in June 2004. She hired Sean Miller as the men's basketball coach when Thad Matta left, brought in a new baseball coach and added men's and women's indoor and outdoor track, all in the span of a few months.

"You think you're so prepared to sit in that seat," she said. "And it's so challenging, because you're ultimately the decision-maker. I remember going home with just the ramifications of that, if it was a wrong decision . . . But, I was surrounded by terrific coaches and student-athletes."

With her children "at the right age," Rogers decided to move west and took the job as Senior Associate Athletics Director at Arizona State in 2006.

"The job, for me, was overseeing men's basketball, getting to do some development work around basketball, and then just the whole student-athlete side of the house with student-athlete development," she said. "It was all of the things I loved in my role as athletic director. And we loved the west. We went to the Rose Bowl eight different times, went to all the conference schools, we traveled, we hiked, we made sure we got to the ocean several times a year. It was a really great experience for our family." It's a family that's now all grown up. Owen is a junior safety for the Arizona State football team, and Hazel is a freshman at Arkansas, working as a volleyball manager.

Trying to balance the job with being a mom, Dawn says, "Some days I do it well, and some days I fail miserably."

"First and foremost, I have the most amazing husband that has moved multiple times for me," she said. "We've been right there parenting together. I coached my daughter in volleyball when she was in grade school. . . . I've found different ways to be involved, and I missed a lot of stuff, just like a lot of people do with their kids. And they've also gotten to go to some extraordinary places through our job."

One of those "extraordinary places" was last year's Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium. Rogers was involved in the bidding process in a failed attempt in 2006. And then when Phoenix got the bid for the 2017 Final Four, Rogers stepped away from the ASU athletic department to be Executive Director and CEO for the Phoenix Final Four committee.

"That was an amazing opportunity to be able to see that vision through," she said. "I knew the vast majority of the athletic directors on the men's basketball committee. So, to get to work with them and to have those high expectations for what I think is one of the most iconic sporting events in the world, it was just a privilege and an honor to work on that."

At Baylor, she breaks down her job assignments to four "buckets":

- sport administrator for men's basketball, women's golf and women's tennis;

- oversight of the Student Athlete Success areas that include academic services and student-athlete development, as well as Student Athlete Health and Wellness. "Those departments need to work really closely together," she said. "If you're struggling in class, sometimes it can affect how you play. If you're injured, it can affect how you're doing in class.";

- leading the department's strategic planning. "I like the process of identifying how we move the needle and looking forward and always having those strategic initiatives. (Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades) has done such a tremendous job at Akron and Houston and Missouri. So, to be a part of that here, that's exciting.";

- Title IX, inclusivity, gender equity and diversity. "Again, I have a son and a daughter in college now, and I think it's really important that we provide education and we provide a safe environment, and then we have a fair process."

"All those four things together . . . this was just a great fit for what I thought my strengths were, to be able to be here," she said. "It's really a privilege to be at an institution like this and get to work in those areas and really have that responsibility for our 535 student-athletes and making sure that such a successful program already continues to grow and evolve. It's exciting to be a part of that, this leadership team that Mack has put in place, this group of individuals. It pushes you every day."