UTSA AD Lisa Campos capitalizes on parents’ sacrifices, tamale sales
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José de Jesus Ortiz, Founder & Editor in Chief
- August 5, 2026
UTSA AD Lisa Campos earns national award
When UT -San Antonio athletic director Lisa Campos needed new Nikes to play basketball while growing up in Las Animas, Colo., her mother Rose often found a way to supplement the income she earned at a pickle plant or as a janitor at a nursing home by selling burritos or tamales.
The extra cash from the tamale sales helped Joe and Rose Campos buy basketball equipment and to send their daughter Lisa to basketball camps.
“She was always helping in any way to make sure that I could participate in those things,” Lisa Campos says of her mother. “Then we’d have to hide them from my dad because he’d eat all the product, man. He could eat 12 tamales in one sitting.”
Lisa Campos laughs at the memory of her late father’s ability to eat her mother’s delicious tamales. She appreciates the sacrifices her parents made while helping her create the path that has made her one of the best athletic directors in Division I sports. Campos, one of two Latina ADs in Division I, has capitalized on her parents’ sacrifices.
Sandy Barbour Nike D1 FBS Athletic Director of the Year
On Tuesday, the Women Leaders in Sports named Campos the Sandy Barbour Nike DI FBS Athletic Director of the Year. This latest honor was announced two months after Campos received the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’ Athletics Director of the Year at the 61st annual NACDA & Affiliates Convention in Las Vegas.
“Each year, our awards shine a light on extraordinary women who are moving our industry forward through bold leadership, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to excellence,” Women Leaders CEO Patti Phillips said. “This year, more than 200 remarkable women were nominated by their peers – a testament to the incredible talent and impact women are making across sports.
“Narrowing this year’s field was no easy task, and we are honored to celebrate this exceptional group of leaders whose influence will be felt for years to come.”
Campos and Arizona’s Desireé Reed-Francois are the only Latina athletic directors in Division I. She was born in Colorado to a Mexican immigrant mother and a second-generation Mexican American father.
First-generation college student
Neither of her parents attended college, but they encouraged education. She credits her father Joe, who died in May 2025, with encouraging her to pursue her doctorate at the University of Texas El Paso after she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Colorado State University.
“They just wanted something better for me,” Campos said. “They knew that the key to that was education and how that would change the trajectory of my life.”
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Campos is quick to mention that many mentors helped her along the way, none more than former UTEP AD Bob Stuhl. After serving as an assistant dean of students at UTEP from 2001-2003, Campos became an associate athletics director under Stuhl in 2003.
Stuhl promoted her to senior associate athletics director in 2006. Then after guiding her for more than a decade, Stuhl encouraged Campos to take the AD job at Northern Arizona University in 2012.
Five years later, she took over at UTSA in November 2017. She guided the Roadrunners into the American Conference on July 1, 2023. UTSA’s baseball team has won the last two American Conference regular season titles. The 2025 baseball team stunned mighty Texas on the way to an NCAA Super Regional.
‘Really proud’
The 2024-2025 women’s basketball team won the American Conference regular season and tournament titles. UTSA has earned 11 team conference championships during Campos’ tenure. The Roadrunners have had 40 All-Americans and almost 300 all-conference selections under her leadership.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to build over the last few years,” Campos said.
Campos and her husband Darren D’Attilio, have a 12-year-old son, Christopher. She’s passing down the work ethic and lessons she learned from her parents.
“They encouraged me from Day 1. But I also remember that his co-workers or even my mom’s family members from Mexico could not understand why they would let me leave four hours from my hometown to attend college,” she said. “How were we going to afford it?
“And my parents never let those barriers be a reason why I couldn’t go to college. No. 1, they were the biggest advocates for me. And I was really fortunate to have that.”
Lisa Campos, ‘guiding light’
There aren’t many Latinos – men or women – working in college athletics. Not long after Joe Campos died in May 2025, Lisa found a folder he kept with news clips about her. That folder was a reminder that he was proud of her achievements.
Joe Campos surely would have been proud to learn that his daughter has earned two national AD awards this year. Because of Joe and Rose’s sacrifices, Lisa Campos can serve as a guiding light for other Latinos.
She was taught “growing up to have pride (in being Latina) to learn from my family, to learn from my mom, the strength that she has, the ‘Si se puede,’” Lisa Campos says. “Then there’s also to be a Latina in this position, it’s that positive pressure … to make sure that I’m representing our community, representing our culture and not letting people down. And doing everything I can to continue to raise other women and other Latinas is really important to me.”
José de Jesus Ortiz
Founder & Editor in Chief
Award-winning writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz, a former lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has covered Major League Baseball since 1997 in Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, New York and Houston. He was the first Latino to serve as president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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