Jessica Lantz serves as the Chief Communications Officer, asfter joining The Big West as the Director of Strategic Communications
in August 2021 and serving as Assistant Commissioner - Strategic Communications from
July 2022-25.
In her role, Lantz leads The Big West’s communications team by creating and executing an overall strategic communications plan for all 21 Big West sports that places the league at the forefront of thought leadership by adding innovative best practices and technologies to traditional means of engagement.
She works to ensure The Big West provides a baseline of service in the traditional sports information roles, as needed and required by the NCAA and external constituents, as well as serving as webmaster for BigWest.org. As Chief Communications Officer, Lantz continues to place the storytelling focus of The Big West's on communicating the many compelling stories of Big West student-athletes to local, regional and national media.
Lantz came to The Big West after serving in Director of Communications at the California Collegiate Athletic Association, the nation’s most successful conference in NCAA Division II athletics. In her four years at the CCAA, Lantz directed and executed all external and digital media strategies to highlight all 13 conference-sponsored sports and 12 member-institutions.
Along with all traditional communications efforts, Lantz helped launch the CCAA Network to provide uniform digital streaming across the conference landscape. She also played an instrumental role in delivering successful annual conference championships events while also executing the conference awards programs.
Prior to joining the CCAA, Lantz spent five years at the University of San Francisco athletics department, starting as an Assistant Director of Communications and quickly moving up the ranks to Director of Content and Digital Strategy. While with the Dons, she assisted in organizing the efforts of the 15-sport NCAA Division I program, and helped the Dons facilitate a shift to become more social and digital media minded in the ever-changing landscape of athletics communications, producing exponential growth across the USF digital portfolio.
Previous to USF, Lantz enjoyed stops at the Northern California Golf Association, Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma City University. She began her career in collegiate athletics in 2009 after exploring opportunities in the fields of aerospace, travel, retail and vocational education administration before returning to her first love of sports. Lantz earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Oklahoma State in 2000 and completed a master’s in collegiate athletics from USF in 2015.