NIAA finalizes timeline to select new executive director

By Alex Wright Las Vegas Review-Journal

10 months ago

Donnie Nelson, assistant director for the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, during ... — Donnie Nelson, assistant director for the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, during a NIAA realignment committee meeting at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. Erik Verduzco Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has finalized a timeline and procedures for its search for a new executive director.

Executive director Donnie Nelson announced Dec. 1 that he step down at the end of his term June 1.

On the first day of the NIAA Board of Control winter meeting in Reno on Wednesday, the board approved changes to a proposed timeline to announce finalists for the position March 20 and conduct interviews for the finalists April 29.

The NIAA will announce the opening for the position Monday.

According to the timeline, Feb. 20 will be the deadline to apply for the opening. The NIAA Executive Director Search Committee will review applications and announce finalists at the spring Board of Control meeting March 20 in Las Vegas, which was moved up from March 21.

The site for the final interviews at the special Board of Control meeting April 29, which was moved up from April 4, will be announced in March.

According to minutes from a special Board of Control meeting Jan. 8, Pamela Sloan, Paul Anderson, Rollins Stallworth, Kevin McPartlin, Bob LeVitt, Domingo Rivera, Dave Henneman and Russell Fecht will serve on the search committee.

Nelson became the NIAA’s fifth executive director on April 7, 2022, after serving as interim director since August 2021.

“I’ve poured my heart and soul into making high school sports not just relevant in our communities but prominent within the Silver State’s landscape,” Nelson said in a statement in December announcing his resignation. “I have always wanted the North and the South, the East and the West — from the 1A through the 5A — to work collectively and collaboratively to make us the best Association possible.”

Nelson has spent 26 years with the NIAA in various roles.

“I hope the next leader of our fantastic organization will be able to continue to move everything forward positively and productively,” Nelson added in the statement. “It is my sincere wish that the next NIAA (executive director) will see avenues through which to accomplish what may (or may not) be continued goals, objectives and visions.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.