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PALM BEACH ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
TJ Budd Updated Headshot 2024

TJ Budd

TJ Budd was promoted for a third time in September 2024 when he was named the to Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration. Budd served as the Associate Athletic Director for Administration at PBA since July of 2021. Budd transitioned to his role after three years as PBA's Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications and spending a total of 13 years in athletic communications. Budd spent his first three years at PBA as the Sports Information Director.

He’s served on PBA’s senior leadership team since 2018 and handled sport administrator responsibilities while providing leadership to the athletic communications, facilities, and operations departments. He led the department in the fall of 2023 as Interim Athletic Director when PBA’s Courtney Lovely Evans was on maternity leave.

Since serving on the senior leadership team, Budd has worked as sport administrator at various points for 16 of PBA’s 18 varsity sports. He has increased the athletic department’s revenue generation through spearheading external rentals, PBA athletics’ peer-to-peer fundraising efforts, and by assisting with relaunching PBA’s corporate partnership program. Budd was heavily involved with bringing in groups such as the New England Patriots, Nashville SC, and the Coast-to-Coast NCAA DI Women’s Basketball multi-team event.

He has been instrumental in several key initiatives during his time in the Sunshine State, leading the department's new peer-to-peer fundraising effort since its inception, helping to raise over $150,000 in the process. He also has led the charge in social media growth by over 500% since coming to West Palm Beach in 2015. In 2017 he launched a brand new website for the department through SIDEARM Sports which has garnered over one million page views per year and has seen user growth by 20% in three years.

The partnership between athletics and the University's sports broadcasting major has continued to grow exponentially during his involvement. Since arriving on campus he has worked closely with the academic program to provide high-quality video content for home contests that are all produced and staffed by students. The program has grown into a full major during this time with over 25 students and has given each one access to a professional level production in the sports of baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, softball and volleyball. Average viewership has grown to over 400 while the partnership has resulted in roughly 120 contests per year on the Sailfish Sports Network. Budd provides guidance and assistance in the productions including working closely with the play-by-play talent. He also builds and executes the sponsorship advertisements for each broadcast ensuring a deliverable asset to the department's corporate partners.

He has been part of the NCAA Division II women's tennis south region advisory committee since the spring of 2018 and began service on the NCAA Division II men's and women's tennis national committee in the 2019-20 academic year and was chosen as the Chair of the national committee for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. He has also previously served as the D2CCA South Region Coordinator for Volleyball and a voter for the D2SIDA women's basketball national poll. 

In his time in West Palm Beach, the Sailfish have risen to new heights in the NCAA DII landscape and in the South Region. In 2015 the men’s soccer team captured the school’s first NCAA Region Championship, followed weeks later by the women’s volleyball team, who eventually reached the National Championship match. The volleyball team repeated as South Region Champions in 2016 and advanced to the national semifinals. During the 2017-18 year the Sailfish were officially accepted as full members of the Sunshine State Conference, capturing the men's soccer title and softball championships during the year.

Budd has served as the media relations coordinator and statistics coordinator for nine NCAA South Region Tournament hosted by PBA (five men's soccer, three volleyball and one softball) as well as two SSC Men's Soccer Tournaments. He also was the media coordinator for the 2019 NCAA Division II women's golf national championship held in nearby Palm Beach Gardens at PGA National.

Before landing in South Florida, Budd spent two years at Southern Wesleyan in Central, S.C. While with the Warriors, Budd launched a complete redesign of the athletics website as well as establish social media accounts. After taking over in the summer of 2013 the social media followers grew by over 300% in his two years. He was the sole contact for the department’s 15 varsity programs and led game management coverage for all home games.

Prior to his time at SWU, Budd spent five years at his alma mater Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky. While there as the SID, he covered a growing department that went from 12 to 15 sports during his time. He was responsible for maintaining the department’s in-house website and led a rebranding that merited an award for the best in-house website by the NAIA-SIDA in 2012. He led the charge to begin streaming home games online as well as starting Facebook and Twitter pages for the department. He handled all gameday duties for all home events including the supervision of gameday staff and served as the SID for multiple conference tournaments.

Prior to joining the staff at Asbury he worked at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games as a camera assistant at the National Stadium, covering the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as the track and field events.

He earned a bachelor’s of science in media communications from Asbury in 2008 and followed that up with a master’s of science in sports administration from Liberty University in 2013. 

He resides in nearby Lake Worth with his wife, Hannah, and their four boys, Bennett, Sawyer, Finn and Cooper.


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