Stephanie Hightower was born July 19, 1958, and lives in Columbus, Ohio. This email interview was conducted by Ken Stone in October 2008:

Masterstrack.com: What qualifications, attributes or perspectives would you bring to the USATF presidency that your opponents would not?

Stephanie Hightower: I have a wealth of experiences in amateur and professional athletics and public service. I have had extensive experience in sports development, community involvement and governance. Currently, I am the vice president for institutional advancement for Columbus College of Art & Design. I am responsible for leading marketing and communications, media relations, philanthropy, community relations, alumni engagement and legislative affairs. In my tenure, I have raised over $11 million as part of my achievements.

Additionally, I have held cabinet-level positions with the Mayor’s Office, where I was responsible for handling sports development, and working with the business community to build an international presence that would attract sports teams, events and spectators.

Finally, I have been elected twice to the Columbus (Ohio) Board of Education (the second four-year term as president). Under my leadership, the board accomplished improved fiscal management and oversight for the $700 million budget, successfully passed a $392 million bond initiative for new facilities, and passed a 6.96 mill permanent operating levy, providing $62.3 million annually in revenue.

Among USATF’s stated missions is "fielding the most competent United States individuals and teams for international competition in Athletics and providing support and conditions for athletes at all levels of the sport which ensure optimal performance." Does this include fielding teams for world masters competitions? If so, how can USATF help?

The Masters community is a revered part of our track and field family. I am committed to doing everything within my purview to continue to support the aims of masters track. USA Track & Field’s mission insures that USATF fields a team for Masters, Youth and Open competitions. I will continue to support those aims. I will always be available to work with the masters chair and Masters Executive Committee to provide National Office support to any masters athlete competing within our borders or internationally.

Despite masters being a large share of USATF, the budget of USATF Masters Track & Field is a relative pittance — $85,000 this year, with USATF’s contribution being just $39,500. Would you commit to at least doubling USATF’s contribution to the budget of USATF Masters track & field?

I cannot commit to a promise that I will double the masters budget. For me, or my opponents, to make a promise like that would be disingenuous and misleading. What I CAN commit to is to be an advocate for masters programs as a viable part of our track and field community. As such, I will extend my help in whatever way possible to garner support for you.

Under the proposed reorganization of the Board of Directors, USATF Masters T&F is losing a seat on the board. How would you guarantee that Masters T&F is assured fair treatment within the federation?

While it is true that masters, along with other committees, will no longer be on the board under the proposed restructuring package, you have not lost your representation. Your interests have been, and will continue to be, protected through our bylaws.

On the USATF Web site, Board of Director minutes are listed as "coming soon." In fact, board minutes have not been publicly disclosed for years. Will you commit to posting the missing board minutes as well as all future board minutes on usatf.org within two months of the annual meetings?

Yes. All approved board minutes will be readily accessible. I have always been an advocate for more transparency and firmly believe that the minutes should be put on the Web in a more timely manner.

Did you support the awarding of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials to Eugene, Oregon? If so, why did USATF not ask for monetary compensation for these awards? In the case of the 2012 Trials, why weren’t other cities invited to bid?

Yes, I did support the Eugene bid. In our deliberations, their package was deemed so strong and provided such financial support for our athletes and events, that the decision was made to move forward. It is not really unusual, and in fact, provides many advantages to us to know where our Olympic Trials will be held.

For your information, we did get additional rights fees. For 2000 and 2004, Sacramento only paid $25,000 each year. We negotiated $250,000 for Eugene ’08, and in 2012, the rights fee is $300,000.

Additionally, we increased the rights fee for the outdoor national championships from $25,000 for 2006-2007, to $75,000 for 2009-2010 and $100,000 for Eugene in 2011.

The 2008 Trials featured several events where members of the field were allowed entry under controversial conditions, or denied entry despite having "B" standard marks that in past years would have allowed their entry. As well, a nonfinalist in the javelin was allowed to compete in Beijing. Were these decisions fair? If not, what went wrong, and what changes would you support to prevent them from happening again?

I think that this is simply a reflection that the qualifying process to compete in the Olympic Trials is not fully understood by the general public. We have, and have had, a longstanding process of qualifying and declaring athletes. Moreover, those athletes who have mitigating circumstances, such as injury, may file an appeal.

Please note that the appeal committee includes athletes and member of women’s and men’s track and field. The process is fair and open.

That being said, as part of our normal post-meet review, steps were outlined to provide even further clarity to the athletes and public in the future. Those changes include A) defining the process on the entry page of our Web site, B) having the athlete sign an online agreement that they have read and understand the process as it pertains to qualifying to compete in the Trials and C) implementing an online appeals process that will assist us in providing a uniform assessment of each request.

In late August, board member Lynn Cannon circulated a scathing indictment of the USATF Board of Directors, alleging that certain members of the board mismanaged money, especially travel and hotel expenses. Do you agree with her assessments? If so, what should be done? If not, why do you think Cannon made them?

I can’t speak for Lynn. However, I can say that we have had an Ethics Committee in place whose sole responsibility is to investigate and address those types of issues, to the board’s satisfaction (and ultimately, to the membership’s satisfaction as well). It is my goal to insure that our board embraces the “continuous improvement process” as we work together to sustain the mission and initiatives of USATF.

It’s important to point out that I have had no citations or been cited by the Ethics Committee for any violations with my budget, not any violations from the Treasurer Ed Koch or the Budget Committee.

The USATF Web site is a vast resource, but it has no search function. Many visitors to the site become frustrated, unable to find what they are looking for. Would you commit to having the USATF webmaster install a search engine on usatf.org?

The USATF Web site is an invaluable resource for information about all facets of information. The national office recognizes that the organization is growing and our needs have grown as well. To that end, they are currently in the process of hiring another developer to help with IT projects.

How would you strengthen the grass roots of USATF? How would you fix problems in certain USATF associations, especially those with governance problems and a lack of meets?

Our grassroots program is as good as any program found around the world. Our young athletes today have more opportunities to become focused earlier in their careers due to our thriving youth program as well as more international competitions and better coaching.

Our program is the envy of other parts of the world because USATF has a youth feeder program and collegiate feeder system that strengthens our elite programs on the track, in long distance running, on the field, etc. We also have a heck of a masters program, as you know. Our challenge in the future is to better manage, market globally and support ALL of our disciplines.

As for problems within our associations – Alan Roth, our associations chair, has worked tirelessly to assist associations with governance problems and grievance. In the end, we are bound by our bylaws to allow the associations to govern themselves. It is the board and national office’s responsibility to provide organizational guidance to the associations. We will continue to do that and have worked with them through association workshops and office outreach where necessary.