Dr. Jay Swartz Faculty Athletic Representative

Making sure Cal Poly Pomona athletes are academically eligible and progressing toward a degree is the responsibility of Dr. Jay Swartz, professor of international business and marketing and the university's faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and CCAA. Dr. Swartz has been a professor on the Pomona campus since 1987 after prior academic appointments at Missouri, Iowa, Penn State, SMU and Cal State Fullerton. His areas of academic interest are in advertising, leadership and ethics, international trade policy, global security, and sports marketing.

Born and raised near the University of Chicago, Dr. Swartz attended Bremen High School in suburban Midlothian where he competed as a basketball guard and a middle distance runner in track and field. He later played intercollegiate volleyball at the University of Iowa, where he captained the Hawkeyes for two years to a 43-25 record before being invited to try out for the 1976 National Team as an outside hitter and serving specialist. He later served as a newspaper sports reporter for the Washington Star and Cincinnati Enquirer before assuming a post as managing editor of Sports Digest magazine for two years.

Dr. Swartz also doubles as a military colonel serving as director of reserve military personnel for the State of California. He has more than 30 years of military experience in Germany, Italy, South Korea, Egypt and five tours in the Pentagon, to include one assignment working as special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has been awarded the United States Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit, the nation's third and fourth highest awards for service, in addition to dozens of other domestic and foreign awards and badges. He holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and advertising from the University of Missouri, two master's degrees, from Missouri and the United States Army Command and General Staff College, a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Iowa, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to the University of Texas at Austin's Center for Professional Development and Leadership in 1996-97.

Married, Dr. Swartz lives with his wife Priscilla, a Ph.D. student at the Claremont Graduate University and Cal Poly Pomona finance adjunct professor, and daughter Angela, in nearby Walnut.