Q&A: Shawn Heilbron

Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron — now in his eleventh year at Stony Brook University — highlights how his team strives to transform student-athletes’ lives, ensuring competitive success, academic excellence and community impact.

What is your role at SBU?

As director of athletics, my primary role is to be a servant leader to the nearly 500 student-athletes and 130 staff members who are part of our Stony Brook Athletics family. It is my responsibility to set the tone for our department and make sure that every individual is aligned in support of our common vision to positively transform the life of each student-athlete. Another huge part of my job is managing our financial resources, which includes everything from fundraising, working on our long-range budget planning, and hiring coaches and staff.

What do you enjoy most about it?
Each day is entirely different, but I come to work with the same motivation to make an impact on the lives of our student-athletes and work with our staff to elevate our department to new heights. Our greatest strides are made because of the smallest interactions with student-athletes, coaches and staff. There is a multiplier effect with everything that we do, including saying hello to someone in the hallway. To be provided with an opportunity to interact with these amazing people and be a small part of their individual journeys fills me with tremendous gratitude.  

What are some of the challenges you have overcome during your tenure?
For a program like ours, which is still relatively young at the Division I level, the pains associated with rapid growth can often present the greatest challenge — but also the greatest opportunities. Although we have achieved so much in a relatively short period of time, in many ways we are in a constant state of urgency to make up for our youth as a program.  For example, it can take generations to build a donor and fan base, so we must invest incredible energy into building meaningful connections on campus and in the community. 

In 2024, you celebrated your 10th anniversary at SBU. What are some accomplishments you are most proud of? 
I am grateful to have been a part of many incredible moments over my 10 years at Stony Brook, and I cherish all the wins and achievements along the way. It’s hard to pick a few but I am particularly proud of leading our transition from the America East to the CAA in 2022. I am also proud of the fact that we left the America East winning back-to-back Commissioner’s Cups. Outside of competition, I would point to the construction of the Dubin Family Indoor Training Center and huge strides in student-athlete services, namely mental health services and life skills.

How do you measure the success of your athletic programs beyond wins and losses?
It can be so hard to see past the wins and losses because we’re in a results-oriented business; however, there are so many other factors that we use to gauge success. We’re competitors in every aspect of what we do so we try to apply that to all aspects of our department. We expect our student-athletes to compete in the classroom, so academic success is certainly a benchmark that we use.  From a campus standpoint, we are evaluated on how well we manage our financial resources, so that’s a big measuring stick.

What are the biggest challenges facing D1 athletics departments today?
The entire landscape of Division I athletics is changing, and we must learn how to evolve with it. We’re entering an era unlike any that we’ve ever experienced where schools will be able to directly provide additional financial benefits to student-athletes. What does this look like for Stony Brook and how do we remain competitive in this new environment? We have a plan as to how we will address providing benefits to athletes in addition to other challenges such as the rising rate of transfers.

You implemented the “Together We Transform” vision in 2015. How has that plan evolved and how has it helped you transform SBU Athletics?
The best part of our original five-year plan was arriving at our guiding vision to positively impact the life of each student-athlete. That vision became our North Star, and it still drives us today. Looking back, we were able to achieve many of the objectives that were established. Some of the most notable were the construction of the Dubin Family Indoor Training Center and expansion of LaValle Stadium; hiring our first full-time mental health counselor; and setting new records for cumulative GPA. 

What strategies have you implemented to ensure student-athletes excel academically and personally?
I’m incredibly proud of the work that our department has done to strengthen our support for student-athlete success at a high level. Our difference is the people who are in place to lift up our student-athletes, and we have invested in areas that help to set Stony Brook apart from our peers. Our partnership with Student Affairs, for example, has allowed us to bring in two full-time mental health counselors dedicated solely to student-athletes. We’re also fortunate to have an elite academic support team while our medical services are second to none.  

Tell us about your student-athletes and the impact they have on our campus community.
Our student-athletes are truly among some of the most exceptional individuals I’ve ever had the privilege to be around. They inspire me every day. To be a Division I athlete requires a unique level of dedication and discipline. At Stony Brook, we are fortunate to have student-athletes who are interested in exploring their identities beyond their sport and pushing outside of their comfort zones. For so many of our student-athletes that can mean stepping into leadership roles on campus or tapping into the vast array of rich experiences that Stony Brook has to offer.

What are your goals for SBU athletics?
First and foremost, we want to win championships and continue to elevate the national prominence of our program. We need to stay nimble because there is not a road map for where the future of college athletics is heading. Our plan is to carry the banner as New York’s flagship institution and take it as far as we can. Hopefully that means breaking new barriers and setting records for our program. Ultimately, I want people to look at Stony Brook as a standard for how to grow and win the right way.

 To learn more about Heilbron’s vision for Stony Brook Athletics, follow his blog. Visit the “Together We Transform” website to read past entries or to sign up to be on the mailing list.