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Mike Edmonds, Harvey Edwards, Angela Lin, Steve Sullivan Added to USA Ultimate Board

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 18, 2019)–USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States and member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, confirmed today the appointment and election of four individuals who will serve on the organization’s board of directors for the 2020-22 term: Mike Edmonds, Harvey Edwards, Angela Lin and Steve Sullivan. 

The USA Ultimate Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment of Edmonds to an independent seat while also reappointing Edwards, who joined the board in June 2018.

USA Ultimate members elected Lin to the elite-athlete seat while Sullivan won the at-large election.

All four will serve a three-year term that begins on Jan. 1, 2020, and runs through Dec. 31, 2022.

Mike Edmonds is currently the Dean of Students/Vice President of Student Life at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he has served for nearly 30 years. He is also an Executive in Residence in the Economics and Business Department. Edmonds holds a Bachelor of Arts, master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, has completed a post-graduate institute at Harvard University and is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership. 

At Colorado College, Dean Edmonds has been recognized with the Colorado College Center for Service and Learning Award, the Victor Nelson Cisneros Diversity Award and the Gresham Riley Award, which recognizes faculty and staff who have made a significant impact on the community through outstanding service, commitment and accomplishment.

Dean Edmonds brings to USA Ultimate a deep understanding of various national and regional institutions and nonprofits. He is currently a member of the Lott Institute Trustees at the University of Mississippi and the School of Liberal Arts Board of Trustees. Edmonds is a past chair of the Board of Trustees for Memorial Health System, is a past chair of United Way of the Pikes Peak Region and is on the Board of Trustees for the Colorado Springs School. He is also past chair and current member of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Board of Directors, president-elect of the Great West American Cancer Society Board of Directors and past member of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Board. He was appointed by Governor Bill Owens to serve on the Fourth District Judicial Commission of Colorado and served as chair of the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport Commission. He is also a silver lifetime member of the NAACP. 

Other accolades and awards include being honored with the Educator of the Year Award from the Urban League of the Pikes Peak Region, the National St. George Award from the American Cancer Society, the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forensic League and the Citizen of the Year Award from Omega Psi Phi. He was also the recipient and awardee of the Uplift Community Foundation’s support in 2015, recognized with the National Speech and Debate Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Gold Key Society at Emory University.

Harvey Edwards returns to the USA Ultimate Board of Directors for a second term.

A 2007 Ultimate Hall of Fame inductee and Selinsgrove, Pa., resident, Edwards resumes his service to USA Ultimate as an appointed member of the board.  He is a recently retired high school English and Humanities teacher of nearly 35 years who now serves as English Adjunct and Teacher-in-Residence at Susquehanna University. Edwards holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bucknell University, where he co-founded the Bucknell Mudsharks ultimate team in 1976, and a master’s from Penn State. 

He is also a three-time world champion in the masters division with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Angela Lin joins the board as an elite-athlete representative elected by elite-athlete members of USA Ultimate. Professionally, she serves as a senior research engineer at the University of Oregon – a position she previously held at Georgia Tech University where she also earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Lin also sits on the Premier Ultimate League (PUL) Board of Directors and serves as its treasurer and sits on two of its subcommittees (rules/operations and expansion). She is also co-owner of the Atlanta Soul.  

As an athlete, Lin is one of ultimate’s most decorated elite players and a 2018 Ultimate Hall of Fame inductee. After beginning her ultimate career at Georgia Tech in the mid-90s, Lin made her mark on the sport via a 20-year career with Atlanta Ozone (1996-2015), which included 19 national championship appearances and a national title in 1998.  

Lin is also a three-time world champion with the U.S. National Team, winning a pair of gold medals as an athlete at the WFDF World Championships of Beach Ultimate (2015, ’17), as well as a gold medal with the U.S. Women’s Masters National Team at the 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships. She is currently serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team that will compete at the 2020 World Ultimate and Guts Championships.

She also played in five WFDF World Ultimate Club Championships, winning a silver medal with Atlanta Ozone in 2002, and won a college national title at the University of Georgia in 2001.

Steve Sullivan won the at-large election, having been voted in by the broader USA Ultimate membership. 

A journalist by training, Sullivan brings a breadth of experience to the board as a professional, an athlete and an active volunteer across many facets of the ultimate community. 

He has enjoyed a diverse career spanning work in politics and philanthropy, nonprofit communications and development, news editing and freelance speechwriting. Since 2015, Steve has served as Executive Editor of Ultiworld, ultimate’s premier news and media website. He has also dedicated much of the past two years to the Bay Area Disc Association, leading the local disc organization’s communications and fundraising efforts. 

Sullivan began playing ultimate in 2001 at Boston University before co-founding and playing 14 seasons with Boston Slow White, one of the nation’s top mixed division teams. More recently, he competed with San Francisco Blackbird. 

Off the field, Steve has volunteered as a USA Ultimate sectional coordinator and was recognized as Coordinator of the Year as a club division regional coordinator in the Northeast.  He has also served three terms as a player-elected athlete representative for the mixed division on USA Ultimate’s Club Working Group. He has written for the USA Ultimate magazine and was the editor of Ultimate: The First Five Decades, Vol II.     

"I feel so energized by the world-class additions selected to serve on the USA Ultimate Board of Directors," commented board president Robyn Fennig.

"Steve and Angela have been engaged at nearly every level of the sport in key volunteer, organizer and playing roles, and I think their overall experiences in the sport will help USA Ultimate engage more deeply with many key parts of our membership. They have so much practical experience in tackling significant and important issues in our sport, like equity and outreach to youth, which are important as we continue to implement our 2019-21 Strategic Plan."

"Adding in an independent member like Mike is equally important," continued Fennig. "Having someone with the amount of tangible experience in increasing access, inclusion and diversity in the outdoor and education fields – in addition to his record in academia and governance – will help strengthen our board and the organization’s commitment to implementing EDI initiatives." 

"And we look forward to continuing to serve with Harvey. His enthusiasm and passion for the game spans decades. As a Hall of Famer who is actively engaged in work that complements our efforts to grow in a way that supports our community’s commitment to EDI, he is often the voice in the room who highlights both how far the sport has come, and how far we have to go."

Sullivan replaces DeAnna Ball in the at-large seat, who served on the board for six years (four as president). Edmonds will assume the independent seat from Val Belmonte, who also served for six years. Both Ball’s and Belmonte’s terms expire on December 31 and are ineligible to serve again until 2021. Lin fills the elite-athlete seat vacated by Heather Ann Brauer. 

"I am thankful for the service and leadership that DeAnna, Heather Ann and Val have contributed to our sport," added Fennig. "During their tenures on the board, they directly contributed to the development of a strategic plan that was influenced by our members. I cannot express my gratitude for their tireless commitment to our sport and feel lucky to have worked with them for two years." 

For the first time, a nominating committee comprised of members not seated on the USA Ultimate Board of Directors was tasked with assembling, evaluating and approving a slate of candidates to be considered for each of the four available seats – appointed, at-large, elite athlete and independent.  

"We’d also like to thank the nominating committee, who did some fast and super high-quality work to assemble an excellent slate of candidates," added USA Ultimate Chief Executive Officer Dr. Tom Crawford. "We’d like to thank Mandy Eckhoff, Sangwha Hong, Dan Raabe, Tim Rockwood and Amber Sinicrope for their contributions to the election and appointment process."