Jamie Williams

Dr. Jamie Williams joined the Nebraska Athletic Department staff in June of 2012 and is the Huskers' Associate Athletic Director of Leadership, Student-Athlete Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives. He serves on the senior management team. Dr. Williams is a former Nebraska and NFL football standout who brings a highly diverse background of professional success to Nebraska.

In his role at Nebraska, Dr. Williams is responsible for facilitating all leadership programming, strategic planning and diversity and inclusion initiatives within the Athletic Department. He also leads its student-athlete recruitment and experience effort, which focuses recruiting plans to identify, connect and retain student-athletes to the Huskers’ highest standard. Among other duties, Dr. Williams is the sport supervisor for women's swimming and diving.

In February of 2013, Dr. Williams was selected to serve as a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance. He is scheduled to represent Nebraska and the Big Ten Conference on the committee until September of 2015. He also serves on the Big Ten ad-hoc football scheduling group and liaison to the Big Ten Advisory Commission.

Dr. Williams joined Nebraska after spending six years as the Director of Athletics at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Before Dr. Williams' hiring, Academy of Art did not have an intercollegiate athletic program. Dr. Williams and his small staff created a fully functional NCAA Division II athletic department, serving more than 200 student-athletes in 16 sports, while also spearheading the creation of institutional control for the athletic department.

In May of 2013, he was honored by Academy of Art University with the presentation of an honorary doctorate degree.

"Jamie Williams brings an unusual breadth of experience to our department," former Nebraska Athletic Director and College Football Hall of Fame Coach Tom Osborne said. "He was a fine student-athlete here, played more than a decade in the National Football League, and then continued his education and received a doctorate degree in organization and leadership. He built the athletic program at Academy of Art University from the ground up, and was successful there. We greatly value everything Jamie brings to our department."

Dr. Williams' association with Nebraska began as a tight end on Osborne's football team from 1979 to 1982. Williams was a four-year letterwinner for the Cornhuskers and earned All-Big Eight honors in both 1981 and 1982. Dr. Williams caught 44 passes for 516 yards and seven touchdowns in his career, and was part of Big Eight championship teams in 1981 and 1982. Dr. Williams was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

Following his Nebraska career, Dr. Williams was a third-round draft pick of the New York Giants, and went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL. Dr. Williams played with the St. Louis Cardinals (1983), Houston Oilers (1984-88), San Francisco 49ers (1989-93) and Los Angeles Raiders (1994). He was a co-captain for San Francisco for four seasons and was a part of the 49ers Super Bowl XXIV championship team. Dr. Williams was twice named his team's Man of the Year during his career.

Following his playing career, Dr. Williams embarked on a successful professional career that includes work in the film industry as a writer, director, screenwriter and actor. Dr. Williams gained his most notoriety in the film world for his role as a writer, technical director and actor in Any Given Sunday.  Dr. Williams also has extensive work as a management consultant/executive coach working with numerous organizations in the Northern California area, including VISA USA and Yahoo.

A 1990 UNL graduate with a bachelor's in journalism, Dr. Williams continued his education following his football career. He received his Masters of Science in Mass Communication from San Jose State University in 1993, and a Doctorate of Education in Organization and Leadership, including an emphasis in sports administration, from the University of San Francisco in 2000.

Dr. Williams and his wife, Charlotte, have a son, Evan, and a daughter, Raven.