Our Team
Core to our mission – and what drives success with vendors – is understanding athletic director needs and channeling their voices in everything we do.
Abby Emerson
Founder & CEO, A.D. Advocate
Abby Emerson is no stranger to school sports, personally and professionally. A three sport varsity athlete and D1 Lacrosse All American at the University of Notre Dame, she developed a passion for team sports early, as well as an appreciation of those that made it all happen.
That passion stuck with her into her professional career as she worked for the New York City Olympic bid, Ketchum PR’s Sports networking group, and as a teacher and varsity girls lacrosse coach (and basketball coach for her daughter’s team). She found her way to serving athletic directors at 8to18 Digital (now Snap Mobile) and collaborated with other industry leaders to creative innovative solutions for hundreds of athletic programs and administrators.
Abby learned very early in her career in athletics management tech that no two schools, departments, or ADs were the same or had the same challenges and opportunities. This fact, coupled with the recent sports tech boom, has made it more and more difficult and time consuming for athletic departments to research, procure, onboard, and manage new technology – no matter how great or “easy” the solution claims to be. She wondered how school administrators – with 1,0001 other things on their plate – were expected to know enough about each provider that they could see through sales pitches and promises, to get solutions that truly work for their athletics program.
On the other side, vendors with promising and potentially impactful solutions often seemed to struggle to reach, “fit,” and serve the athletic programs effectively – especially while trying to keep costs “school budget friendly” and still grow their business.
So in 2022, after 11+ years in the school athletics tech space, Abby founded K12 Sports Tech to connect athletic directors with the right technology solutions and providers to manage and grow their departments.
Abby currently lives with her husband and three daughters (10, 8, and 6 years old) in the western suburbs of Chicago.
ALEC BROWN
managing partner, COO
Alec Brown has dedicated his career to helping sports, philanthropy and education organizations fulfill their missions. His previous work experiences have helped cultivate his skills within critical activities including Go-to-Market strategies, business and brand development, fundraising, strategic alliances, and athletic program administration.
His love for working in sports developed early in his career as an English teacher at Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy (IHSCA), a public charter high school in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. There he had the opportunity to develop an athletic program from its inception and saw quickly how sports has the power to transform lives. While working as assistant principal and athletic director he led the growth of the program to serving around 50% of the student population without the benefit of having a gym or any athletic facilities and very little resources. Also, during his time at IHSCA he built an internship and early college program for high school students which saw around 90% of graduating classes leaving high school having already earned some college credit.
In 2018, Alec transitioned from IHSCA to become the Executive Director of Beyond Sports Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Chicago dedicated to empowering the lives of Chicagoland student-athletes. Alec served 4 years as executive director. During his time there he was able to lead the development of many prominent partnerships with companies and foundations including Jordan Brand, Gatorade, CDW, Life Time Inc., National Football League, and Wintrust Financial Corp. These partnerships helped the organization develop new technology systems to develop a more data driven culture and the refinement of high school, college, and parent programs, increasing program options and resources for clients. He left the role in 2022, to begin work as a consultant for other like-minded organizations..
He has earned a Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a Master’s in sports administration from Northwestern University.
Alec knows firsthand the challenges sports organizations face in today’s competitive landscape. By joining the K12 team in 2023, he is excited about the opportunity to help facilitate positive relationships between sports tech vendors and the customers they serve.
Alec currently lives in London, England with his wife and daughter. He spends his weekends pretending he’s still in his twenties by playing baseball in a wooden bat league with the British Baseball Federation and taking his daughter to gymnastics and tennis training.
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