Ajah Hawley-Alexander

Prof. Hawley-Alexander teaches courses in Digital Literacy and Practice, Digital Communication & Social Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Converged Technology Applications for Public Relations.

She leverages over a decade of communications, operations, and marketing expertise, honed for franchises like the New York Knicks and entities like Madison Square Garden. Before this, she championed student-athletes in higher education athletics across various institutions, ensuring their sports journey empowered their academic and career aspirations through advocacy, publicity, and development.

Prof. Hawley-Alexander supports student success through coaching, events, and early college credit programs, and fosters student career development through industry connections.

Ajah Hawley-Alexander is a clinical lecturer in Iona University’s Media & Communication Department. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines sport, media, technology, and higher education, with particular attention to governance, labor, racialized political economy, athlete development, and institutional power. Her current research addresses Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy, professional pathways, algorithmic valuation, digital surveillance, and inequities affecting Black student-athletes and women athletes. Her work has been featured at national academic conferences, professional organizations, and media outlets.

Before entering academia, Hawley-Alexander spent more than a decade working in communications, marketing, public relations, and operations across professional and collegiate sports. Her experience includes Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., the New York Knicks, the New York Liberty, collegiate athletics, and the Ivy League, as well as projects involving the NBA, NBA G League, the Big East Conference, and NCAA.

Hawley-Alexander teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in media, communication, digital culture, ethics, and sport. She also advises graduate research, develops curricula and assessment plans, and creates experiential learning opportunities connecting students with professionals across media, sports, law, and communication.

She holds a Master of Sports Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is pursuing a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration at the University of Southern Mississippi, where her doctoral research examines athlete development, institutional governance, and professional pathways in the NIL era.

• Governance, labor, and institutional change in college and professional sport
• NIL policy, athlete compensation, development, and professional pathways
• Race, gender, representation, and identity across sport and media
• Algorithmic valuation, digital surveillance, platform power, and artificial intelligence

• “Federal College Sports Policy Expands Without Athlete Safeguards,” The EDU Ledger, 2026.
• “Why International Student-Athletes Remain Locked Out of NIL,” The EDU Ledger, 2025.
• “NIL Risks Entrenching Gender Inequities,” Inside Higher Ed, 2025.
• “From Classrooms to Career: How AI Is Influencing Teen Education,” Westfair Business Journal, 2024.
• “Back-to-School Marketing: Targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” Westfair Business Journal, 2024.
• “Scoring Big: Use Student-Athletes in Your Marketing Mix,” Westfair Business Journal, 2024.

• “From IQ to AI: Educational Measurement, Artificial Intelligence, and Institutional Governance,” Organization of Educational Historians Annual Conference, 2026.
• “The New Data Deal: NIL, Algorithmic Bias, and the Racial Capital of Black Student-Athletes,” COSMA NYC Sport Management Symposium, St. John’s University, 2026.
• “When APR Meets NIL: How ‘Neutral’ Metrics Deepen Structural Inequities for HBCU Athletics,” Pell Institute Student Financial Aid Research Network Conference, 2026.
• “The Crisis of Collegiate Black Male Athlete Identity: Education, Work, and Democracy,” National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, 2026.
• “The New Data Deal: NIL, Algorithmic Bias, and the Racial Capital of Black Student-Athletes,” Inclusive Sports Summit, University of Colorado Boulder, 2026.
• “The New Data Deal: NIL, Algorithmic Bias, and the Racial Capital of Black Student-Athletes,” Organization of Educational Historians Annual Conference, 2025.

• “From Broadcast to Feed: How the Next Generation Discovers and Defines Sports,” NBA Team Marketing & Business Operations, 2026.
• “The New Data Deal: NIL, Algorithmic Bias, and the Racial Capital of Black Student-Athletes,” Black Sports Business Symposium, Howard University, 2026.
• “Race, Gender, and the Economics of College Athletics,” Third Annual James Lawson Institute Sports and Activism Symposium, Vanderbilt University Sports and Society Initiative, 2026.
• “Market Like a Boss: Business Branding Essentials,” NCAA Legacy Lab, 2026.
• “E-Sports Panel,” Entertainment & Sports Law Symposium, Cleveland State University College of Law, 2025.

• W. L. Pierce Leadership Award, University of Southern Mississippi School of Education, 2026.
• Faculty Recognition, Iona University Multicultural Recognition Ceremony, 2026.
• Profiled for research on NIL and student-athlete policy, New York Amsterdam News, 2026.