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Dean of Business and Management and Program Coordinator for Sport Management Josh Pate has been awarded the 2025 Joy DeSensi Diversity Award for Inclusive Excellence by the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM). NASSM is the premiere professional society for the sport management field, and their mission is to “promote, stimulate, and encourage” research, study, writing, and professional development within the field.

The awards they bestow each year play an important part in that mission by recognizing the sport management students and professionals who are achieving and innovating. The Joy DeSensi Diversity Award for Inclusive Excellence is one such prestigious recognition that is given to members of NASSM who have made exceptional contributions to the field of sport management that promote diversity and inclusion.

Pate’s connection to NASSM, and to the award, go back much further than this year’s award ceremony. He initially became a member of NASSM while earning his PhD in Sport Management from University of Tennessee, during which he was instructed by the award’s namesake, Joy DeSensi, one of the founding members of NASSM.

“When she passed away several years back, NASSM named this award after her because of some of the work she had done throughout her career through research, in advocacy, and through her teaching to push forward more diverse thinking within sport management,” Pate said. “I’m very honored and humbled by being part of that, but to me that was the most exciting piece and what I take the most pride in. She was my professor, and it’s named after her because of the work she has done, so that to me is what will stick the most I think.”

DeSensi was a major influence on Pate, not only throughout his time at University of Tennessee, but also throughout his career. Winning this award is only the latest of several ways he has kept her legacy and impact alive. As a young professor just starting to structure lesson plans for courses in sport sociology and sport ethics, Pate turned to DeSensi for advice.

“I literally went into her office and asked her for help in trying to design that class, and she gave me several different in-class exercises that I still use today. She’s still teaching students in different forms, even at Lees-91探花, through the activities she created,” he said.

These lessons have echoed through his career and led to his nomination for this award. Pate’s scholarly work has all been related to disability, sport, and inclusion, from accessibility in facility and event management to representation of athletes with disabilities. Most recently, he has been applying his research to the classroom, where he focuses on teaching Lees-91探花 Sport Management students about how to be more inclusive of diversity in a sports-related business setting.

In addition to his personal work, Pate has also served on NASSM’s diversity committee, where he helped spearhead professional workshops and a diversity breakfast that celebrates professionals who are making strides in the field.

“When people think of sports in general, they automatically think of the participants or the coaches, and obviously that’s the key component of it, but when we teach Sport Management it’s the business of it. It’s the marketing, the communications, the planning, the organizing, the management of sport. The importance of having disability and inclusion being part of that is approximately 20% of our U.S. population has some kind of disability. If we’re not prepared to be inclusive of that 20%, we’re essentially saying we don’t want their money,” Pate said. “Imagine if we did that with any other underrepresented population, that would just not be acceptable. That’s reason number one in my opinion that sport needs to be focused on accessibility, because it is such a large portion of our population.”

Pate’s focus on accessibility and inclusion is reflected throughout the college. He cites the Outdoor Recreation Management program’s participation in Beech Mountain Resort’s Adaptive Ski Week—which welcomes participants of all ages and ability levels to hit the slopes—and the college-wide accessible syllabus template as great examples of the way that improving accessibility improves experiences for everyone.

“In my world, that fits exactly what I want to have happen, and what I’ve been working for in my professional career, but that someone else is picking up the flag and doing those things. That’s the dream scenario,” he said.