Selected as a Champion Beyond the Game in 2011 Jean Cerra, a
native of Tampa, FL, graduated from FSU in 1967 with a Bachelor's degree in
Physical Education. While a student at FSU she was a member of F Club and
played volleyball and basketball. She continued at the University of Iowa
where she received her Master's in Physical Education and a PhD in
Educational Administration. She is a lifetime member of the Alumni
Association and a Varsity Club member. In the seventies and eighties she
worked to implement Title IX on campuses and create opportunities foe women
within the NCAA. She was one of ten women who founded the Council of
Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators in 1979, which became the current
National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators. Dr. Cerra
was one of the first women to be offered the position of Director of
Athletics at a Division I school with a football program. She was the first
female Athletic Director at Barry University, in the Sunshine State
Conference, and the first female A.D. inducted to the SSC Hall of Fame.
Under her leadership, Barry University had three teams win NCAA
Championships within a four year period. Dr. Cerra was also the President
of a corporation that opened eight successful TCBY yogurt stores in Broward
County. He recently retired completing her career at Barry University as
the Dean of the School of Human Performance and Leisure Sciences.
Dr. G. Jean Cerra is one of the most illustrious women in college
athletics. A member of the group of 11 women who helped introduce women's
athletics to the NCAA in the early '80s, she has received numerous awards
for her leadership in athletics. A founding member of Council of Collegiate
Women Athletic Administrators (now known as NACWAA), she received a
Citation of Merit in 1992 from the Alumni Association of the University of
Missouri-Columbia for outstanding achievement and meritorious service in
education. In 1998 she was similarly recognized through induction into the
Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame. In June 2000 she joined a select
group of former athletic directors to become enshrined into NACDA Hall of
Fame. In February 2002 she joined six other notable women when she was
presented the "Women in Sport Achievement Award" by Saint Leo
University. She was recognized by Florida State University in 2011 as a
"Champion Beyond the Game" and was inducted in 2008 to the University of
Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame, one of just two in the administrator
category since 1990.
Dr. Cerra pioneered a model for athletics that
integrated athletics into an academic division. Under her leadership, the
Buccaneer athletic program attained overwhelming success at the conference,
regional, and national levels. Barry also gained acclaim for its emphasis
on academics.
Barry won six national championships under her watch as
dean - two in women's soccer in 1992 and 1993; three in women's volleyball
in 1995, 2001 and 2004; and one in men's golf in 2007. Barry became the
first school in any division to have two winners of the prestigious NCAA
Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship.
