Danielle Dillon grew up running cross country and participating in track and field. Dillon, a Michigan native, attended the University of Michigan, where she earned her degree in Movement Science, and was a member of the rowing team for a year, until a medical diagnosis sidelined her. For the next three years Dillon was a student manager for the women’s track and field team and the women’s basketball program. It was then Dillon realized that she wanted a career in athletic/sport administration.
Dillon was an intern for The Academy for Sport Leadership in the summer of 2012 and found out about the opportunity through her former high school athletic director, Marc Throop. Through her internship with TASL, Dillon helped with documents and rules the MHSAA was going to be adapting in the future, and learned how to lead by example. It was from her internship experience with TASL that she learned she wanted to further her career in athletics.
After her internship experience, Dillon went on to be the assistant director of marketing and ticket sales at Ohio University, and briefly worked at Texas State University as the assistant director of event operations and ticket sales. She recently finished a graduate assistantship in the marketing and ticket sales office at Michigan State University while earning her masters of sports management degree from MSU in 2017.
Dillon believes that TASL is important because if demonstrates to women and girls that they are strong and have a place in the athletic community at any and all levels. Dillon thinks TASL is a very empowering program and she hopes that girls will learn the importance of hard work, and the power of believing their own self worth.