Join us for S6:EP14 of the Sports Philanthropy Podcast as Katie Lever from the Drake Group and the University of Texas sits down with our host; Roy Kessel to share details of the incredible work that she is doing to protect the interests of student-athletes and prevent athlete abuse.

Katie Lever is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas, where she researches NCAA rhetoric and policy and was named the 2021 Moody College of Communication Outstanding Doctoral Student. Lever is in the process of writing her dissertation which covers paternalism in college sports and how infantilizing language use harms college athletes and has presented past research on ideology and policy in college sports at national conferences.

She is also a freelance sportswriter, whose work has been featured in FanSided, Extra Points, Global Sports Matters, and Forbes. Her freelance work with 2aDays discusses NCAA policy and sports law and their effect on college athletes.

Lever’s debut novel, Surviving the Second Tier, launched in February 2022 and discusses her research, including college athlete abuse, exploitation, health and safety, mental health, and NCAA policy failures, in a fictional dystopian context.

She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2016 with a B.A. in Communication Studies and in 2018 with an M.A. in Organizational Communication. While at WKU, Lever was a Division 1 athlete running track and cross country and was a two-time Sun Belt Conference champion in track and field (indoor and outdoor).

She serves on the Drake Group Board of Directors and resides in Austin, Texas.