Deborah Stroman

Deborah Stroman is director of the Center of Sport Business at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. With a focus on sport business and entrepreneurship, her teaching and research interests include leadership, marketing and social issues in sport.

Dr. Stroman researches sport''s social and economic impact in North Carolina and promotes campus and Triangle region collaborative opportunities for students, faculty, staff and professionals working in the sport industry.

Working with UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA students and high-performing undergraduate students, she directs the Basketball Analytics Summit, Carolina Sport Court, a research sports symposium, and the Black Business Roundtable held during Black History Month. She also collaborates closely with UNC’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem of administrators, alumni, faculty and students, through the coordination of the College of Arts & Science’s Entrepreneurship Minor (sport) and the offering of entrepreneurship consulting for sport-related ventures. 

Dr. Stroman has more than three decades of business, entrepreneurship and athletic industry experience. She owned a sport marketing and event planning company and had a 17-year career in financial services. After achieving multiple sales awards, she joined the management of Prudential Financial, Inc. and GE Capital.

She provides consulting to sports teams and sport-related organizations including the NCAA, Atlantic Coast Conference and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Her LASER™ company assists former professional athletes through the transition from their sporting careers to valued careers, business ownership and/or completion of academic degrees.

Additional UNC service responsibilities include chairperson emeritus of the Carolina Black Faculty and Staff Caucus and faculty advisor to the Carolina Sport Business Club, MBA Sports and Entertainment Club and Sigma Alpha Lambda.

She received the 2015 Pauli Murray Human Relations Award (Orange County), Class of 1996 Award for Advising Excellence (2012-13), UNC General Alumni Association Harvey Beech 2013 Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award and the 2006 state of Maryland’s Top Minority Business Enterprise Award from the Governor’s Office.

Professional affiliations include the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, North American Society for Sport Management, U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, Walter N. Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Areas of Expertise

• sports business
• entrepreneurship
• small business
• sales and marketing
• leadership