Mikaela Sullivan entered her first year at SMU in May 2024 as the Associate A.D. for Marketing & Fan Experience.
During the 2024 football year, Sullivan played a key role in setting a new single-season attendance record in Ford Stadium; she then did it again during the 2025 season. Sullivan set records helping sell the most season tickets in football history back-to-back years, the largest average and single-game student attendance records, and highest grossing SMU football game in history vs. Miami. She led the SMU Marketing and Fan Experience team to sellout its first ever SMU volleyball game and set a new Wasburne Stadium (Soccer) attendance record. The Mustangs posted the first-ever set of back-to-back-to-back sellouts and most season tickets sold in their inaugural year in the ACC. Sullivan was part of the team that won PacNet Star of Year for 2025.
She helped with the doubling of return of ads spend (ROAS) in her first season on the Hilltop during the fiscal year of 2025. During the summer of 2025, Sullivan managed the licensing and trademarks for SMU, helping the SMU Spirit Shop triple its revenue at Athletics sporting events, and regulated campus and internal brand approvals under one umbrella with CLC. In partnership with Aramark, Sullivan helped lead a record-setting effort with concession sales for a single game and introduced liquor sales to SMU basketball games.
Sullivan arrived on the Hilltop after spending two years at Baylor as the Director of Strategic Marketing. While in Waco, she was responsible for the department's strategic marketing efforts and had oversight of the fan engagement for the Baylor men's and women's basketball programs.
During her time, she achieved several records, including most men's basketball season tickets sold, most consecutive student section sellouts, and the largest student attendance at a women’s basketball game in school history. She was also a member of the Baylor marketing team that won bronze for NACMA's Digital Engagement campaign in 2023. She was recognized with the staff award for Committed to Principled Innovation in 2023.
Prior to Baylor, Sullivan served three years with UConn Athletics, first as a Marketing Assistant, then as the Assistant Director of Marketing & Digital Media. In her time at UConn, she quickly became responsible for the marketing and fan experience of the highly-touted men’s basketball program along with football. She also oversaw men’s soccer, women’s ice hockey, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, and the Junior Husky Club.
During the 2020-21 season, she became solely responsible for social media, graphic design, and marketing for all 22 teams in Storrs. While at UConn, her team won NACMA “Best Of” Awards for best Digital Promotion, In-Venue Student Promotion, Sponsorship Activation, Revenue-Producing Video, Season Ticket Campaign, Promotional Poster, Community Engagement & PR Promotion, and Digital Engagement Campaign.
Sullivan spent 2018-19 as a Marketing Intern for her alma mater – The University of Vermont. There she set an attendance record for women’s ice hockey and aided in multiple roles, including ticketing, creative, and production. She earned the role after becoming the school mascot and then an undergraduate intern for the marketing team while attending the university.
Along with the 2025 PACNet Star of the Year award, she was a recipient of the NACMA Mike Clearly Stipend in 2020 and 2022. She's also a 2024 graduate of the Women Leaders in Sports Institute for Advancement. She served on the NACMA Revenue Generation Committee during the 2023-24 season.
Sullivan graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science in Food Science and a focus in Biochemistry. A native of Amherst, New Hampshire, she now resides in Dallas.
