Colleen Colles

Colleen Colles, Ed.D., is a professor of sports management and assistant chair in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She also serves as the program coordinator for the Sports Management major. Her areas of expertise include gender-equity issues in sport, legal issues in sport, sport internships, study abroad and sport-management pedagogy. She currently teaches classes in Sports Management and Career and Professional Development in Sports Management and oversees internships.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Colles worked at Nichols College for 12 years, teaching in the MBA program and serving as the department chair for the Sports Management Program. She taught at the University of Northern Colorado and worked as the head volleyball coach and an instructor at Eastern Oregon University. Her involvement at MSU Denver includes co-chairing the College of Professional Studies’ Retention, Tenure and Promotion Committee, serving on the Enrollment, Retention and Graduation Committee, the Experiential Learning Task Force and multiple search committees. She has been involved with the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) since its inception, serving on the Board of Commissioners for multiple terms. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Sportswomen of Colorado and is an active member of the North American Society for Sport Management and the Sport and Recreation Law Association.

In 2014, Colles led the transformation of the Sport Management curriculum, which resulted in the successful accreditation of the program by the COSMA in 2017. She has also been instrumental in reestablishing a distinguished Sport Management Advisory Board, hosting an annual Women in Sport Leadership panel and creating two academic minors, one in Sport Media and the other in Sport Management. Her most recent work, Networks and Academic Partnerships in International Sport Management, has been published as a book chapter in “Managing Sport Across Borders.”

She received her doctorate in Sports Administration from the University of Northern Colorado in 1997. She received her master’s degree in Physical Education in 1990 from Eastern Kentucky University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Health and Fitness Management from Northern Michigan University in 1988.