EDISON, NJ (Sept. 28, 2021) – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and Commissioner Rich Ensor, today announced the hiring of Hamilton Cook as Associate Commissioner/Senior Minority Administrator. Cook is slated to begin his role on October 4.
As Associate Commissioner/Senior Minority Administrator (SMA), Cook will oversee the conference’s media relations efforts, in the marketing, content development, championship operations, promotion and development of the MAAC brand through the league’s broadcasting platforms and the various forms of new and social media. He will serve as the primary media contact for men’s basketball and other selected MAAC sports each academic year and will develop innovative and engaging content for presenting new media information on social media platforms. Additionally, he will assist in maintaining MAACSports.com and produce daily/weekly content for various social media outlets.
"It’s tremendous that Hamilton Cook is returning to the MAAC to lead the conference's new media and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” notes MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor. “Hamilton's knowledge is deep and it will assist in refocusing the MAAC efforts to engage its publics on traditional and social media platforms. His acceptance of the Associate Commissioner position is also timely as the MAAC seeks to improve its DE&I efforts and elevate the position to its Senior Minority Administrator."
Cook’s SMA designation gives him oversight of internal and external initiatives throughout the conference to promote the MAAC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategies and goals. He will lead all conference efforts to implement DEI education and programming for member institution staff and student-athletes, working with the NCAA Office of Inclusion, Athlete Ally, and its member institution’s Athletics Diversity & Inclusion Designee (ADID) on DEI initiatives.
“I am honored and excited to rejoin the MAAC staff,” said Cook. “I would like to thank Father Maher, Commissioner Rich Ensor, and Deputy Commissioner Jessica Grasso for granting me the opportunity to return to the conference office where my career as an athletic administrator began. I look forward to working with the MAAC’s new media staffs and assisting with the growth of our membership’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.”
Cook comes to the MAAC from charter member Saint Peter’s University, where he was Associate Director of Athletics for Communications for the past five years. In this role he was the athletic department’s primary contact for all media relations. Cook’s responsibilities consisted of developing strong relationships with local, regional, and national media outlets, maintaining the athletics website, writing and editing news releases and newsletters, and fund-raising correspondence. While at Saint Peter’s, Cook spearheaded the platform move of the athletic website, saintpeterspeacocks.com, to SIDEARM and made improvements to the Peacocks Digital Network. He was also instrumental in the vendor selection, contract creation and purchase of the department’s custom mobile production van, which broadcasts all Saint Peter’s home events through ESPN’s family of networks.
“Hamilton has served an integral role in our diversity, equity & inclusion efforts at Saint Peter’s,” said Saint Peter's Director of Athletics, Rachelle Paul. “He has effectively implemented our inclusion policies and practices and his leadership amongst our coaches and staff has put our athletics department on the right track in this critical area.”
No stranger to the league office, Cook’s career commenced at the MAAC in March 2010 as an intern before he was appointed the Assistant Director of Marketing & Ticket Sales in June of that year, and then promoted to Director of New Media in the summer of 2011. As Director of New Media, he served as the primary media contact for men’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, and softball, holding his post as Director of New Media until 2015, when he was elevated to Assistant Commissioner for New Media. As Assistant Commissioner, Cook had oversight of the MAAC’s ESPN broadcast package, ESPN3 school productions, and MAAC.TV network, as well as the marketing support services including sponsor fulfillment, ESPN commercial inventory, promotions, and event specific items.
A native of Edison, New Jersey, Cook earned his bachelor’s degree in sports/entertainment/event management with a concentration in sports management from Johnson & Wales University in 2010. In May of 2020, Cook earned a Master of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed): school counseling from Saint Peter's and works as an Adjunct Professor, Sports Management at the university.
Cook holds professional credentials from the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA), National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA), the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and in August 2020 began his tenure as the Athletics Diversity & Inclusion Designee (ADID) at Saint Peter’s.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 41st year of competition during the 2021-22 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.