Getting to Know: Cori Pinkett
11/27/2018 4:02:00 PM | General
Pinkett was hired in July to head a three-person team as Baylor’s Assistant Athletics Director for Character Formation.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Family is everything to Cori Pinkett.
"Growing up in Atlanta was wonderful, primarily because of how strong our family was," said Pinkett, who was hired in July to head a three-person team as Baylor's Assistant Athletics Director for Character Formation. "All of my early memories growing up were situations where our family was together. Whether it was holidays or visiting my grandparents for the summer or the whole family being together at a sporting event, we were always together."
In Atlanta, that family includes Monte and Sharon Pinkett, her mom and dad; younger siblings, Jordan and Chelsi; and all the "adopted" kids that came to Club 5200.
"Even when I meet people who aren't blood, they become family," Cori said. "My mom has adopted 20 people, and most of them are my closest friends and my sister's and brother's closest friends. Everybody was going to Cori's house or the Pinkett house or Club 5200, whatever they decided to call it. Our address started with 5200, so that was always the joke."
Almost five months on the job now, her Waco family centers around her Character Formation "Dream Team" of Associate Director Quintin Jordan and Coordinator Fabiana Monte.
"We have a special group and a group that works very well together, and we've been able to create family," Cori said. "When our student-athletes walk into the office, they feel family, they feel love, they feel support.
"That doesn't mean we're just going to be cool. But, what that does mean is we'll love you when you need love, we'll correct you when you need correction and we'll tell you that you need to step your game up when you're slacking. That's what family does, and that's what I want to create. I want our team to feel like family, and I want our student-athletes to feel family."
While track was where she first stepped into the sporting waters, Cori eventually gravitated to basketball. "That's where I spent all of my energy, all my time. I lived in the gym. I definitely was not anybody's all-star, but just really enjoyed playing," she said.
The basketball court was also where she first experienced being a leader. Although she was a freshman that primarily played on the junior varsity, the varsity coach came to Cori before one of the games and said she was going to be a team captain.
A stunned Pinkett told her coach, "I'm a freshman. I don't even touch the court. You only put me in when it's a minute left and we're up by 20. What do you mean I'm a captain?"
The coach responded: "You've been leading the team by example. You work hard, you have a certain dedication, a certain work ethic, and we need more of that. It's not about the playing time, it's about the culture we're trying to create."
A starter by her sophomore season, Cori was a combo shooting guard and point guard for a Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy team that won the Georgia 1A state championship her senior year in 2006.
"We went from being a school that nobody even knew of to winning state," she said. "It was special because we were a tiny Christian school. It was an unforgettable way to end my basketball career. I vaguely remember my coaches saying there were a couple schools interested in me, but I blew it off. I told them, 'I've played with shin splints the last three years. We just won state. I have academic scholarships. I think I'm good. We're going to end this on a high.'''
Staying close to home, Cori went to the University of Georgia to study business. Intrigued by the business side of sports, she worked as a promotions volunteer/intern for Director of Marketing Emily Deitz all four years at Georgia and ended up with a double major in sports management and marketing.
That also led to summer internships with the Atlanta Falcons and working sales during the season, "but sales wasn't for me," she said.
"I had great mentors that helped me learn that sales wasn't for me," she said. "I expressed a desire to do community relations and got to job shadow the woman that oversaw community relations for the Falcons during a few home games. I remember thinking, 'Now, I can do that,' community service and sports. Being able to have that experience put me on what I thought was my career path."
That was Cori's dream job, community relations for a pro team or running a player's non-profit. "Sign me up for that, I'm golden, and I can do that for the rest of my life and be happy."
Her next stop was UCF for the DeVos sport business management program, "because the focus of that program was using sport as a vehicle for social change, and because I wanted to do sports and community engagement. It was a perfect fit."
Meeting with Dr. Bill Sutton, one of the program directors, Cori expressed her desire to be a community relations director at the pro sports level. And he said, "Cori, you're not going to get a job." That was like a cold, wet blanket on her dreams.
Sutton added, "Cori, I'm not doubting that you have the skills to do it. What I'm saying is people that do this, love it, and there are not a lot of jobs open or available. The only opportunities you would have is if somebody retires or takes another position."
"I realized, 'Oh, you don't think I can't do it, you're just trying to help me get perspective."
Two weeks later, Cori got another, completely different vision for her future when UCF's Director of Student Services was a guest speaker in one of her classes. That was her first introduction to Marcus Sedberry, now Baylor's Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success, and the field of life skills and developing student-athletes.
Her curiosity piqued, she wanted to know more. After shadowing Marcus for the next semester, "it was nothing but God," Cori served as a GA for her last year of graduate school "and just fell in love with the industry."
"It was awesome, because since it was just the two of us, he essentially trained me on how to run my own shop," she said. "Marcus told me, 'When you leave here, I want you to be prepared to walk into a situation and lead a life skills program.' I received great hands-on experience, built some wonderful relationships with student-athletes, learned to facilitate, learned to build programming and learned to manage conversations."
With Cori hired back as a full-time staffer, that training came in handy when Sedberry left for a job at the University of Arkansas, leaving a "23-year-old fresh out of grad school and now literally in charge of a department as the interim director for a semester," she said.
"It was a great learning experience, but more than that, it was proof that I had exactly what I needed and was equipped to be able to run my own show."
Cori got that chance in 2013, when she was hired as Director of Student-Athlete Development at Kansas State.
"They had some pieces in place," she said, "and my task was helping to further build the program. John Currie, the athletic director at the time, said, 'We need more. We're not doing enough for our student-athletes."
In her first year in Manhattan, Cori increased the number of career workshops for student-athletes, making sure "we were covering everything they needed, from resumes, to professional dress, to interviewing, networking and building relationships, dining etiquette, and then intentionally creating spaces where the student-athletes could interact with employers."
Year Two, she added a two-year Leadership Academy and started a program "specifically for our student-athletes of color called PALS, which stands for Positioning Athletes for Lifelong Success," she said. A Service Abroad initiative was started the next year, with Cori joining a group on a trip to Costa Rica, where "we partnered with Courts for Kids and built a multi-purpose sports court for a community in need."
Happy at K-State and not looking to leave, Cori received multiple emails about an opening with Women Leaders in College Sports that "I just forwarded to my network." One of them came from Sedberry, who said he thought it looked like a good opportunity and "I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss it."
Receiving another notification about the job on Linkedin, Cori finally said, "OK, Jesus."
Ultimately, she said, "I think I could see myself working here." On Feb. 27, 2017, Cori started her new position as Director of Leadership and Education with Women Leaders in College Sports in Kansas City, Mo.
"It was a phenomenal experience all the way around," she said. "Being able to create and develop programming that helps move the needle in the industry was really powerful. And being able to have an impact on women's lives on such a broad scale was so rewarding."
In her role, she developed programming and curriculum for "entry-level women, all the way up to women looking to be athletic directors in the next two to three years."
"So, the other part of that is the learning piece, because I didn't know anything about senior-level administration," she said. "I know students. I kind of know entry-level people, because I lived through that. But, when you start talking about senior-level administrators and what you need to be an AD or Commissioner, I was clueless. I'm getting coached up on that and then needing to put together programming and curriculum for women that are in those positions. It was a lot of learning a lot of listening, and a lot of conversations. I also got to meet some amazing people as a result of that."
When she heard about the opening at Baylor through Sedberry, Cori was interested in getting back to the campus setting and leading a team.
"This is where God just shows out sometimes, because I had always said I could see myself as an assistant or associate athletics director for student-athlete development," she said. "Nothing against the other areas, my heart is for student-athlete development, and I loved the idea of working with a team of three people, at least, at a place where our athletic director supports us 100 percent."
Since she already had, Cori knew she could work with Sedberry, but she wanted to meet with Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades, "and I need to know what Baylor Athletics is trying to do."
In her meeting with Rhoades, she knew instantly. "Being able to hear his heart for the students and his heart for wanting to truly ensure our students were successful in every area of their lives and they were leaving here prepared, that sold me. I told Marcus, if you left tomorrow, I would still come because Mack is awesome and I could work for him any day of the week. I truly believe that, because he is serious about Preparing Champions for Life. And that fits me to a tee."
Marcus says Cori is "a personable passionate and purpose-driven leader who will pour her heart into the lives of the young people we serve."
"After knowing Cori for eight years, I truly believe God has handcrafted her experiences and equipped Cori with unique skills for this season in her life at Baylor," he said. "Cori is a national leader in the student-athlete development space, and we are fortunate to have someone with her knowledge and experience leading our new dynamic Character Formation team."
While the groundwork for Baylor Built had already been done, Cori said it's been special to "be the group of people that gets to implement and breathe life into it." Baylor Built is a four-year program – from freshman to senior year – that involves career development, leadership development, personal skills, social responsibility and community engagement.
"If we have the right support, lay the right plan, get the buy-in and have a team of people dedicated to executing it, then we can do some special things for our student-athletes," Cori said. "That doesn't mean we have it all figured out. But hopefully, we have your next step and you feel equipped with the tools to be successful, or you can think back to that conversation we had and say, 'OK, I can get through this.'''
Baylor Bear Insider
Family is everything to Cori Pinkett.
"Growing up in Atlanta was wonderful, primarily because of how strong our family was," said Pinkett, who was hired in July to head a three-person team as Baylor's Assistant Athletics Director for Character Formation. "All of my early memories growing up were situations where our family was together. Whether it was holidays or visiting my grandparents for the summer or the whole family being together at a sporting event, we were always together."
In Atlanta, that family includes Monte and Sharon Pinkett, her mom and dad; younger siblings, Jordan and Chelsi; and all the "adopted" kids that came to Club 5200.
"Even when I meet people who aren't blood, they become family," Cori said. "My mom has adopted 20 people, and most of them are my closest friends and my sister's and brother's closest friends. Everybody was going to Cori's house or the Pinkett house or Club 5200, whatever they decided to call it. Our address started with 5200, so that was always the joke."
Almost five months on the job now, her Waco family centers around her Character Formation "Dream Team" of Associate Director Quintin Jordan and Coordinator Fabiana Monte.
"We have a special group and a group that works very well together, and we've been able to create family," Cori said. "When our student-athletes walk into the office, they feel family, they feel love, they feel support.
"That doesn't mean we're just going to be cool. But, what that does mean is we'll love you when you need love, we'll correct you when you need correction and we'll tell you that you need to step your game up when you're slacking. That's what family does, and that's what I want to create. I want our team to feel like family, and I want our student-athletes to feel family."
While track was where she first stepped into the sporting waters, Cori eventually gravitated to basketball. "That's where I spent all of my energy, all my time. I lived in the gym. I definitely was not anybody's all-star, but just really enjoyed playing," she said.
The basketball court was also where she first experienced being a leader. Although she was a freshman that primarily played on the junior varsity, the varsity coach came to Cori before one of the games and said she was going to be a team captain.
A stunned Pinkett told her coach, "I'm a freshman. I don't even touch the court. You only put me in when it's a minute left and we're up by 20. What do you mean I'm a captain?"
The coach responded: "You've been leading the team by example. You work hard, you have a certain dedication, a certain work ethic, and we need more of that. It's not about the playing time, it's about the culture we're trying to create."
A starter by her sophomore season, Cori was a combo shooting guard and point guard for a Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy team that won the Georgia 1A state championship her senior year in 2006.
"We went from being a school that nobody even knew of to winning state," she said. "It was special because we were a tiny Christian school. It was an unforgettable way to end my basketball career. I vaguely remember my coaches saying there were a couple schools interested in me, but I blew it off. I told them, 'I've played with shin splints the last three years. We just won state. I have academic scholarships. I think I'm good. We're going to end this on a high.'''Staying close to home, Cori went to the University of Georgia to study business. Intrigued by the business side of sports, she worked as a promotions volunteer/intern for Director of Marketing Emily Deitz all four years at Georgia and ended up with a double major in sports management and marketing.
That also led to summer internships with the Atlanta Falcons and working sales during the season, "but sales wasn't for me," she said.
"I had great mentors that helped me learn that sales wasn't for me," she said. "I expressed a desire to do community relations and got to job shadow the woman that oversaw community relations for the Falcons during a few home games. I remember thinking, 'Now, I can do that,' community service and sports. Being able to have that experience put me on what I thought was my career path."
That was Cori's dream job, community relations for a pro team or running a player's non-profit. "Sign me up for that, I'm golden, and I can do that for the rest of my life and be happy."
Her next stop was UCF for the DeVos sport business management program, "because the focus of that program was using sport as a vehicle for social change, and because I wanted to do sports and community engagement. It was a perfect fit."
Meeting with Dr. Bill Sutton, one of the program directors, Cori expressed her desire to be a community relations director at the pro sports level. And he said, "Cori, you're not going to get a job." That was like a cold, wet blanket on her dreams.
Sutton added, "Cori, I'm not doubting that you have the skills to do it. What I'm saying is people that do this, love it, and there are not a lot of jobs open or available. The only opportunities you would have is if somebody retires or takes another position."
"I realized, 'Oh, you don't think I can't do it, you're just trying to help me get perspective."
Two weeks later, Cori got another, completely different vision for her future when UCF's Director of Student Services was a guest speaker in one of her classes. That was her first introduction to Marcus Sedberry, now Baylor's Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success, and the field of life skills and developing student-athletes.
Her curiosity piqued, she wanted to know more. After shadowing Marcus for the next semester, "it was nothing but God," Cori served as a GA for her last year of graduate school "and just fell in love with the industry."
"It was awesome, because since it was just the two of us, he essentially trained me on how to run my own shop," she said. "Marcus told me, 'When you leave here, I want you to be prepared to walk into a situation and lead a life skills program.' I received great hands-on experience, built some wonderful relationships with student-athletes, learned to facilitate, learned to build programming and learned to manage conversations."
With Cori hired back as a full-time staffer, that training came in handy when Sedberry left for a job at the University of Arkansas, leaving a "23-year-old fresh out of grad school and now literally in charge of a department as the interim director for a semester," she said.
"It was a great learning experience, but more than that, it was proof that I had exactly what I needed and was equipped to be able to run my own show."
Cori got that chance in 2013, when she was hired as Director of Student-Athlete Development at Kansas State.
"They had some pieces in place," she said, "and my task was helping to further build the program. John Currie, the athletic director at the time, said, 'We need more. We're not doing enough for our student-athletes."In her first year in Manhattan, Cori increased the number of career workshops for student-athletes, making sure "we were covering everything they needed, from resumes, to professional dress, to interviewing, networking and building relationships, dining etiquette, and then intentionally creating spaces where the student-athletes could interact with employers."
Year Two, she added a two-year Leadership Academy and started a program "specifically for our student-athletes of color called PALS, which stands for Positioning Athletes for Lifelong Success," she said. A Service Abroad initiative was started the next year, with Cori joining a group on a trip to Costa Rica, where "we partnered with Courts for Kids and built a multi-purpose sports court for a community in need."
Happy at K-State and not looking to leave, Cori received multiple emails about an opening with Women Leaders in College Sports that "I just forwarded to my network." One of them came from Sedberry, who said he thought it looked like a good opportunity and "I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss it."
Receiving another notification about the job on Linkedin, Cori finally said, "OK, Jesus."
Ultimately, she said, "I think I could see myself working here." On Feb. 27, 2017, Cori started her new position as Director of Leadership and Education with Women Leaders in College Sports in Kansas City, Mo.
"It was a phenomenal experience all the way around," she said. "Being able to create and develop programming that helps move the needle in the industry was really powerful. And being able to have an impact on women's lives on such a broad scale was so rewarding."
In her role, she developed programming and curriculum for "entry-level women, all the way up to women looking to be athletic directors in the next two to three years."
"So, the other part of that is the learning piece, because I didn't know anything about senior-level administration," she said. "I know students. I kind of know entry-level people, because I lived through that. But, when you start talking about senior-level administrators and what you need to be an AD or Commissioner, I was clueless. I'm getting coached up on that and then needing to put together programming and curriculum for women that are in those positions. It was a lot of learning a lot of listening, and a lot of conversations. I also got to meet some amazing people as a result of that."
When she heard about the opening at Baylor through Sedberry, Cori was interested in getting back to the campus setting and leading a team.
"This is where God just shows out sometimes, because I had always said I could see myself as an assistant or associate athletics director for student-athlete development," she said. "Nothing against the other areas, my heart is for student-athlete development, and I loved the idea of working with a team of three people, at least, at a place where our athletic director supports us 100 percent."
Since she already had, Cori knew she could work with Sedberry, but she wanted to meet with Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades, "and I need to know what Baylor Athletics is trying to do."
In her meeting with Rhoades, she knew instantly. "Being able to hear his heart for the students and his heart for wanting to truly ensure our students were successful in every area of their lives and they were leaving here prepared, that sold me. I told Marcus, if you left tomorrow, I would still come because Mack is awesome and I could work for him any day of the week. I truly believe that, because he is serious about Preparing Champions for Life. And that fits me to a tee."
Marcus says Cori is "a personable passionate and purpose-driven leader who will pour her heart into the lives of the young people we serve."
"After knowing Cori for eight years, I truly believe God has handcrafted her experiences and equipped Cori with unique skills for this season in her life at Baylor," he said. "Cori is a national leader in the student-athlete development space, and we are fortunate to have someone with her knowledge and experience leading our new dynamic Character Formation team."
While the groundwork for Baylor Built had already been done, Cori said it's been special to "be the group of people that gets to implement and breathe life into it." Baylor Built is a four-year program – from freshman to senior year – that involves career development, leadership development, personal skills, social responsibility and community engagement.
"If we have the right support, lay the right plan, get the buy-in and have a team of people dedicated to executing it, then we can do some special things for our student-athletes," Cori said. "That doesn't mean we have it all figured out. But hopefully, we have your next step and you feel equipped with the tools to be successful, or you can think back to that conversation we had and say, 'OK, I can get through this.'''
Friday, June 12
Friday, June 12
Friday, June 12
Friday, June 12
